Find yourself a comfortable place where you are not interrupted.
You might sit on the floor in a chair.
Whenever you are ready,
I invite you to gently close your eyes or gaze down.
Let's take three exhales through the mouth.
As you exhale,
Release on the thoughts that are still in your mind.
The next exhale,
Release on the worries that are still in your heart.
And the last exhale,
Release on the tensions in your body.
For this moment,
All you have to do is to hold on to your breath.
I'll show you how we can do it with ease and joy.
Now in the next exhale,
Finally letting go and allow yourself to turn inward.
It is as if you are looking at yourself from within.
Let your beautiful breath be your guide throughout this practice to help you connect to this present moment.
In the next inhale,
Follow your breath.
Follow the breath that occurs into your body.
It goes through your nose,
On the way down to your chest,
And maybe it goes on the way down to your belly.
Keep following the breath as you breathe in and breathe out.
If you notice that you are forcing the breath,
You are trying to breathe deep or slow,
Release the force.
We always try so hard.
What about learning the lesson of letting go and trusting that your body knows how to breathe and it will breathe correctly and easily just as your body needs it.
Follow your in-breath and follow your out-breath as if you are a friend who lies to accompany your breath.
As you follow your breath,
Start to notice how you are breathing right now.
Maybe you find out that your in-breath is slow or your out-breath is short.
Maybe they are uneven.
If you are still having some thoughts or some emotions,
You might find your breath just giving up and down and not really landing.
You don't feel the gravity of your breath just as you don't feel the gravity of your own presence.
However you are breathing right now,
Just accept it.
Understanding is the first step for understanding.
Now let's do one thing to support our breathing.
As you follow your breath,
I want you to silently count from 1 to 4.
So in from 1 to 4 and out 4 back to 1.
Keep doing.
Allow some gentle movement to happen for you to support this rhythmic breathing.
In from 1 to 4,
Out 4 back to 1.
See if you can prolong your breathing.
Make it slower and slower as you get used to the rhythm.
You are doing great.
Now let's extend our breathing.
As you are breathing,
Imagine the breath come as a cycle.
Halfway you breathe in and halfway you breathe out.
I want you to feel this circle of breathing keep expanding from the top of your head.
Gently rolling out.
Lower and lower until it can reach the bottom of your feet.
Feel as if in this circle of breathing your breath is covering your whole body.
So halfway breathing in,
Feel the breath touching the crowd.
Then halfway you breathe out,
Feel the breath returns from the crowd back to the head.
You are doing very well.
Now I want you to feel this circle of breath on your two sides.
So as you are breathing,
Feel the breath through your body from the right side and touch your feet.
And as you breathe out,
Feel your breath return from the left side of your body on the way out from your head.
Allow your breath to help you touch every corner of your body.
Start feeling the gravity.
Start feeling how calm and crowded you become.
As you become aware of your own breathing,
You be able to very gently moderate your breathing to let it come back to its natural,
Smooth and easy,
Deep and relaxed base of breathing.
This moderate weight of breathing allows us to become freed of our survival fight or flight mode.
And because of that,
You become more calm.
You don't have to chase or run after anything or anyone,
Even your own thoughts.
Simply return to your breath,
Allowing this to fight its natural rhythm,
Become attuned with it.
And then you will soon find yourself more and more settled,
More and more grounded.
This breath is always with you whenever you need it.
So you may want to continue this breathing for as long as your body might need it.
And whenever you are ready,
Just very gently open your eyes and take this breath with you,
Take this awareness of breathing with you and return to it whenever you need to feel calm and crowded and become more present and ready to what of varieties that life offers you.
May you be well,
May you be healthy and strong,
May you be loved and may you always take care of yourself.
