Awareness Of Breath Practice

This relaxing practice will help to reduce stress, calm the chatter in your mind, reduce emotional reactivity, and bring stillness into your life. Following the breath helps focus the mind and brings you back into the present moment. We can drop out of the thinking, planning, fantasizing, worrying, problem-solving mind, down into the stillness of our breath and body.

Transcript

So we're going to start today by finding a comfortable position.

So sitting in an alert and a relaxed posture and knowing that it's okay to move at any time during this meditation.

We're going to invite you now to close your eyes or you can leave your eyes open if you like with a soft gaze in front of you on the floor.

And if you are closing your eyes today,

Then have that same soft gaze.

So even though we're not looking at anything,

Try and make sure that the eyes are relaxed and not focusing on anything.

And we're going to have a quick check in with the mind and with the body.

And in particular,

I want you to notice whether or not you're here,

Whether or not you're present.

So are you focused on today's practice or have you maybe got other things running through your mind?

You might have stresses of the day or worries about the week ahead.

Not that it matters,

But we want to be aware of where our mind is.

So if we're feeling calm and present,

We can bring awareness to that calmness.

But if our mind is somewhere else,

Then we're bringing awareness to the fact that our mind is elsewhere.

It can often help to set an intention to just drop everything for the next 10 minutes and simply be present.

There's nothing that you need to figure out.

There's nothing that you need to do here.

You've got the rest of the day to plan and think and make all the effort that you want to make.

So we're going to start off today by taking a few deliberate deep breaths.

So in through the nose and out through the mouth.

In through the nose and out through the mouth.

With each in-breath we're feeling the lungs and the chest and the stomach expanding.

With each out-breath we're allowing the body to become heavy,

Sinking deeper into the cushion or into the chair.

So we expand on the in-breath and we relax more deeply on the out-breath.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Allowing our bodies to become still,

Becoming aware of the breath as it enters the body and becoming aware of the breath as it leaves the body.

Paying very close attention to the cool air coming in through the nostrils on the in-breath,

Feeling the body and then the warm air leaving the nostrils on the out-breath as the body relaxes and softens.

Taking one more full breath in and a full breath out.

Now allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm.

Notice that we don't have to do anything or make any effort to breathe.

The body knows exactly what it needs to do.

So we allow the breath to soften and we stick to a natural breath.

We want the breath to feel effortless.

So just pause for a moment and notice,

Notice that fact.

Notice that the body can breathe by itself without any effort or control from you.

Noticing what the breath feels like as it enters the body and what the breath feels like when it leaves the body.

What does the air taste like in the nostrils?

So we're really becoming curious about our breathing.

For some of us we may have never even paid any attention to what it actually feels like to breathe.

So let's pay close attention to that now.

And the mind will get distracted.

It's what the mind does.

And when the mind gets carried away on a train of thoughts,

So we could be thinking about the day or planning the week ahead or going over an argument that we had in the past,

Gently and we quietly come back to the breath without giving ourselves a hard time.

We patiently come back to the breath.

We simply pick up where we left off.

With each in-breath we're feeling the lungs and the chest and the stomach expanding.

With each out-breath we're allowing the body to become heavy,

Sinking deeper into the cushion or into the chair.

We expand on the in-breath and we relax more deeply on the out-breath.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Notice how you're paying attention.

Are you really trying hard to focus or are you relaxed?

If you are trying,

Are you able to let go of that effort?

Can you be relaxed and still be focused?

We're aiming for a relaxed curiosity,

So being curious about the breath but maintaining that relaxed body and that relaxed mind.

It's very likely that when you hear my voice I'll be interrupting a train of thought that you've got caught up in.

That's perfectly normal.

So whenever this happens I just want you to notice what it was that you were thinking.

Notice whether the thoughts were words or pictures and then gently bring your attention back to the feelings of the breath.

You don't need to dwell on these thoughts.

We just gently bring our attention back to the breath whenever we notice we're distracted in thought.

Now in this last minute I just want you to begin again.

It doesn't matter if you've been sleepy or anxious or irritated or distracted.

Just begin again right now like this is the first moment of the session.

Now after a couple of breaths we're choosing now to bring our attention back to the body.

So we're going to feel our body once again connected to the chair,

Connected to the ground and we're just noticing how the body's feeling.

Right now does it feel differently in any way to the start of the meditation 10 minutes ago?

We're just noticing.

Keeping our eyes closed we're bringing our attention now to sounds inside the room,

Sounds outside the room.

Gently wiggling our fingers and toes and when you're ready slowly opening the eyes in your own time,

Having a stretch if you need to and congratulating yourself for having taken out this last 10 minutes to look after yourself.

I hope that you're feeling a little bit more centered and maybe a bit more relaxed and even if there are lots of thoughts running around your mind don't worry about that.

It's perfectly normal.

Mindfulness takes practice and the more we do it the better the results are going to be.

If you can try and do this short meditation each day and I look forward to seeing you at class this Friday.

Reviews

Great short breathing practice. I feel like this really centered me & I like this instructor's approach. Thank you.

Great session narrated by a man with a wonderful voice. As a long time neditator this is a perfect quick session for people new to practice, orfolks like me that have been sitting for more than half a century!

Very helpful to notice when thoughts come, are they in picture or thought form and then to just let them go, and come back to the body breathing.
Thank you.

I enjoyed that this was focused on relaxation without making me feel badly when my mind wanders.

Back again! Thank you for a brilliant meditation! Lovely pace and nice and simple 😊

Really liked this, particularly the repeated reassurance that 'it's what the brain does', popping up thoughts, following trails and coming away from noticing the process of the breath. You woke me up a few times, too :) -- sleep deprivation has been a constant for me for years now, and the reminder to give myself time to relax means I'm likely to manage to get in bed earlier, too. My dysregulated nervous system causes such inner 'hectic' that I continually do things late at night (even just starting a game on my phone, or checking in on Insta) and that, sets me off on a 30min - 3hr distraction, and I don't get the sleep I need, it also means not getting up early for the exercise that I know will help with all of the executive dysfunction challenges I face from the sleep deprivation. And the cycle continues. 😕
A circuit breaker of plugging my phone in away from where I do my teeth, and perhaps starting a mindful teethbrushing practice could be the beginning of a change back to generally functioning better... wonder if there's a mindful dental hygiene recording?! 🤔

I probably would put my volume down a bit in advance next time -- you obviously need to say stuff, and at a certain speed, but it felt like a bit of a jolt -- for me a quieter, or perhaps slower interjection would help.
(I probably wouldn't repeat this one (I've been doing mindfulness for some years -- more off than on! -- but would definitely do another of yours without so much instruction).

Thank you. 🙏🏻

This was such a soothing, calming practice. The tone and cadence blends into a gently mesmerizing experience while reliably drawing attention to the breath in the present moment. What a pleasure! I will be bookmarking this recording, for sure. Many thanks! 💕🙏🏼

A great guided meditation. So calming, and great reminders to be gentle and patient with yourself. Thank you. ☮️☀️💛

Fantastic meditation! I love all of his bit this one is short and sweet and so lovely. Will be listening again and sharing with family!

Understanding and easy to follow. Thank you very much 😊

Just the little work day pick me up I needed! Thank you 🙏🏾

An effective grounding and calming practice. I felt very relaxed by the end. Thank you!

A wonderful meditation. Personally I like longer moments of actual silence even in guided meditations but it was still very good. :)

Excellent breath practice to focus before starting my day. Short and uncomplicated. Easy to do on one's own. 🙏🏻💞

Great pace and very clear instructions. Thank you 🙏

Very kind voice, safe, clear instruction. Gentle reminder to keep it simple 🙃

I'm grateful humble thankful Christian actor singer with courage apuroose to help inspire others amen and so I is

Fantastic to move from attentive and backward to freely distracted. Permission to be in the moment and wander away from it is a privilege. Thank you for the guidance.

Thank you. 🙏

That was terrific. I really like the sound of your voice. Thank you!