Take a moment to find a comfortable position for yourself.
So this is often a seated position,
But you can also lie down.
You always have that option.
You can sit down in a chair or sit down on a cushion,
Maybe a pillow.
Let your spine be nice and long,
But soft,
Relaxed.
You can let your hands rest on your thighs or rest in your lap.
And for a moment,
You can keep your eyes open and let them rest on a point out in front of you and let your gaze soften.
Take a moment to take three deep breaths,
Inhaling through your nose and filling your lungs and chest,
And then a slow exhale out your nose,
Letting go,
Releasing,
And again a deep,
Full inhale through your nose and a slow exhale.
One more time,
A deep inhale,
Gathering your attention,
And a slow exhale to release and relax.
And if it feels right,
You can let your eyes close or you can keep them open and soft.
Just notice your body breathing,
Letting your breath return to its natural rhythm,
Knowing that it knows how much air you need and that you will breathe on your own without any effort.
And see if you can let your body relax into this,
Noticing each inhale and each exhale.
You might notice your inhale through the rise of your belly or your chest,
And noticing how your chest and belly fall with each exhale.
And you may notice that the mind is very quick to wander,
Moves into thoughts,
Thoughts about the past or thoughts about the future.
We tend to get pulled into worries or trying to figure something out or just remembering,
Reminiscing,
Thinking about what comes next.
This is all normal.
It's what the mind does.
But when you notice that your mind has wandered,
Just bring your attention gently back to the breath,
Noticing where you feel the breath most clearly,
In the rise and fall of your chest or in the sensation of air moving through your nose.
When thoughts come,
Just notice them come back to the breath,
Being with yourself in this moment.
We can only notice the breath in this moment.
We can't notice the breath in the future,
Notice the breath in the past.
And so when we're with the sensations of the breath,
It brings us directly into this moment.
And thoughts that come are just like clouds passing through the sky or cars passing on the road in front of you.
There's a difference between being in the car,
Being in the traffic,
Being engaged versus being on the side and just observing.
And this is the difference that we notice in meditation.
When we get caught up in our thoughts,
It's like being in the traffic.
But when we notice that we're having thoughts,
Then we can become the observers on the side.
And with each inhale,
You might say to yourself,
Inhale,
One,
And with an exhale,
You might say,
Exhale,
One,
And the next inhale,
You count up,
Inhale,
Two,
Exhale,
Two,
And just continue for a moment,
Counting each breath and now let the counting go and come back to this room noticing sounds and letting your body stretch or just move and then come to let your gaze rest upon a point once more and take three deep breaths,
Inhaling through your nose,
Filling your chest,
Your lungs,
A slow exhale and take two more,
Noticing as you do so the areas of your body that feel relaxed,
More at ease and a little more present.
