Press Pause - Breath Sensing Practice (Trauma Sensitive)

This 12-minute breath-sensing practice offers a reset of your nervous system anytime. Following the breath in and out as an anchor for attention. Options are offered to ensure that the practice is trauma-sensitive.

Transcript

Welcome to this breath sensing mindfulness practice. To orient you to what to expect, It will include a brief body scan just to tone the nervous system and then we'll be letting our attention rest on the breath using a count to act as that anchor for the attention and the breath can be also triggering for people so if you find that that's happening for you feel free to take your attention anywhere else that gives you a sense of harmony remembering that as the overall objective to dial into a sense of inner harmony and that you can move your attention around what I'm offering you is just an invitation and you can just let my voice go if you feel like it there's no sense of forcing or strain with this it may not be the practice for you or you might find it works really well so just staying with it as a bit of an experiment and following that inner stream of harmony so you can have your eyes opened or closed in the practice and you may like to have an and you may like to have an external object available to take your attention to at any time to ground and just give you a place to really anchor your attention away from anything that's in any way distressing okay so start by just making yourself comfortable just making any little adjustments that just bring your body into an optimum position of comfort and run through the senses feel the touch of the supports beneath you notice the sounds that you can hear in your environment tune in with your mouth tasting and your nose smelling and whether the eyes are opened or closed just noticing what's coming to you through your senses so that all of your senses are open and you're just receiving the information that comes through them not refusing anything but also not having to get caught up not having to label anything or identify it just receiving this information that comes through your sense perceptions comes through your sense perceptions scan around the body following my voice as you feel the sensation that comes from the body parts that i name the mouth the jaw the ears the eyes the nose the cheeks your whole face your scalp the top of your head feeling inside the head as sensation the whole head neck and throat shoulders upper arms elbows forearms wrists backs of the hands palms of the hands left arm right arm both arms upper chest shoulder blades shoulder blades your neck and upper back mid chest mid back abdomen low back the pelvis internal organs hips legs knees calves ankles feet left leg right leg both legs torso arms neck and head your whole body as sensation it's feeling your whole body as a field of sensation and observing within that field of sensation the subtle sensations that come with the movement of breath just observing your body as a field of sensation breathing itself it's noticing the characteristics of the breath as it enters and leaves perhaps in your nostrils back of the throat the gentle rise and fall of your chest or abdomen and as you observe as you observe this breath happening all by itself let it be a resting place for your attention and if you find it helpful introduce a count in whatever way makes sense for you but perhaps something like this i'm breathing in one i'm breathing out one i'm breathing in two i'm breathing out two and keep going find your own rhythm and your own pace so that the count of the breath just becomes a resting place for your attention counting from one to seven and if you found that you've lost your way just come back and start again at one and if you get all the way to seven start again at one not worrying too much about the numbers just letting them act as that anchor for your attention just breathing and counting and knowing that at any time you can take your attention in any direction that gives you a sense of comfort and ease if you like using the count of your breath as an anchor for your attention just breathing and counting and then let the count go let the practice of counting the breath go but stay as the observer of your breath and as you notice the movement of breath in and out of the body let's feel what it feels like to be the one who's observing what does that feel like to be this quiet observing presence as the breath comes and goes perhaps moving your attention back into the breath feeling the sensation of the breath the sensations that come with the breath but then allowing yourself to fall back and know yourself as the observer of the breath if it feels helpful to you just move between the two sensations of the breath coming and going and feeling into being the observer of your breath first one and then the other as moving back and forth sensations of breath feeling yourself as the observer of the breath and then allow them both to be here knowing yourself as that quiet background observer and the sensations that are coming and going with your breath and just welcome your experience exactly as it is and start to find your way back into the rest of your day back into that wide awake state of consciousness take a little wander through the senses bringing them back online feeling a sense of touch would be the air on your skin hair on your face clothing on your face any taste in your mouth any scent that you might be noticing and hear the sounds outside and inside take a moment to notice whether there's anything you'd like to leave behind in the practice and whether you'd like to leave a little bit of a space in the practice and whether there's anything that you'd like to take from the practice back into your life and if there is bring that with you as you open your eyes perhaps a couple of times it's finding your way fully back wide awake ready for the rest of your day thank you for practicing