Go ahead and take your seat.
You can be seated on a cushion with your legs crossed loosely in front of you or seated on a chair and your feet planted firmly on the ground.
Go ahead and sit in an upright posture,
One that is comfortable.
Tuck your chin slightly and just feel the stretch in the back of the neck.
Resting your hands on your thighs.
They can be palms down or palms up,
Whichever feels better for you.
And begin to settle into this space,
Noticing the sounds around you.
Begin to soften the place between the eyebrows,
Noticing any tension that you might be feeling in the face,
In the jaw,
And softening.
Relaxing the cheeks,
Feeling the weight of your arms,
Just letting them be heavy.
Letting any holding or grasping in the belly go.
And feel yourself really rooted into the support of the cushion.
Almost seeing roots forming from underneath you down into the earth.
And just call to mind what your intention is as you came to sit today.
What is your intention for this practice?
Go ahead now and bring your attention to the breath body.
So wherever you're feeling the breath most clearly,
Whether it be at the nostrils or the chest or the belly,
We'll let that be the anchor of our attention.
And knowing that if we drift off or are caught in stories or thoughts,
We're really floating away.
The moment that we notice it,
Just simply and gently,
Without judgment,
Bring our attention back to the breath.
Noticing if the breath speeds up or gets shallower,
Gets deeper,
Gets slower.
Letting your breath breathe however it needs to without judging it.
Using the breath as the anchor.
It doesn't matter how many times you have to refocus and come back.
This is the practice.
And we'll go ahead and sit in this practice,
This breath awareness practice,
For the next 15 minutes.
Where is your awareness now?
Where is your awareness now?
Wherever your awareness may have drifted off to,
See if for these last few minutes,
You can bring it back to the breath.
Go ahead now and begin to let go of the breath.
You can sit in the stillness.
You can start to see how this breath work today will ripple out into your interactions with others and their interactions with others,
And so on and so forth.
Changing the community that you're in,
Affecting the world.
Begin to circle the wrists,
Circle the head.
Rolling the shoulders back and down.
And when you're ready,
Bringing your eyes open,
Noticing the shapes and colors around you,
And coming back and moving into activity slowly,
Intentionally,
And mindfully.
