Sitting Practice (Breath & Body)

This is a 30-minute guided meditation focusing on the breath and the body. It has been designed for people who are participating in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course. Though tailored for MBSR students it’s also accessible to anyone interested in developing a mindfulness practice. I hope you enjoy it.

Dan

Transcript

Welcome to the sitting practice.

Sitting in your seat.

Perhaps sitting in a way that feels upright and balanced.

That has a sense of dignity and wakefulness.

However those qualities present themselves to you right now.

Sitting in a way that feels supported.

Like you can sustain it for the next 30 minutes or so.

And perhaps acknowledging to yourself,

Thanking yourself for choosing to spend some time in this way.

For carving out some time to do the sitting practice.

So bringing your awareness to what your experience.

Turning your awareness to any states that may be present.

Any mood states,

Emotional states.

So just seeing what kind of a mind you have right now.

Might be a busy mind or a calm mind or a stressed mind or a happy mind.

Just noting how it is for you right now.

Without having to change it.

Just listening.

And now turning your attention to the sensations that you can feel sitting here right now.

Perhaps the sensations of contact you can feel.

Maybe the contact you can feel from your sitting bones to the chair,

The stool or the contact of your feet on the ground.

Perhaps the contact of clothes on skin or the contact of air on skin.

And just being curious about what those sensations are like.

Maybe noting the pressure.

Whether it's hard or soft.

If it's warm or cool.

If it's light or heavy.

Just letting your awareness drop into your body.

Just the direct sensations that you can feel right now.

And now shifting your awareness to the specific areas in your body where you can feel breathing the most readily.

And that might be the movement you can feel in your stomach as it expands and contracts in your belly.

Or maybe it's higher up in your chest as you can feel your chest rising and falling.

Or perhaps around the nostrils and the mouth as you can feel air entering and leaving the body.

It's just wherever you can feel breathing most simply,

Most accessibly.

It might be a combination or all of these parts at the same time.

Just wherever you feel it.

And we're going to spend time in this area and if we find ourselves distracted off thinking or distracted by sound or another body sensation or emotion.

We're going to come back to this place in the body where we feel breathing most readily.

It's going to be our anchor point.

Our home base.

And it can be helpful to try to get specific about what the sensations are like.

The moment-to-moment experience of breathing in this area.

Noticing the inflow of the air,

Whether it's cool or warm as we breathe in or out.

Maybe noticing the movement of our body.

The expansion and how that pushes out perhaps onto our arms as we breathe out.

And then contracts back in.

Now that changes.

We might want to notice if we're breathing deeply or if our breath is shallow.

If we're breathing long or breathing short.

And maybe the the mood of the breath.

Whether it feels easy or if it feels labored.

Just however it is for you right now.

Remembering that we're not trying to breathe in any particular way.

We're also not trying to achieve any particular thing.

We're not trying to get relaxed.

Although relaxation may be a byproduct.

The exercise is just noticing what's here.

What we can feel directly in our bodies moment-to-moment as best we can.

Just staying with it.

Riding the wave.

And when we find ourselves drifting off,

Which is inevitable,

It's what minds do,

We're off in the realm of thinking.

Perhaps planning something for the future or going over something from the past.

Well when we notice that we can bow to it,

Acknowledge it and then we just come back to that place in the body where we feel breathing.

It's a process of letting go and coming back.

Coming back to the direct sensations of breathing.

And it's not a mistake to get carried away.

This is what minds do.

They think thoughts.

And we can know that it's not a mistake.

We can know that it's not an error in our meditation.

Because it's happening in our meditation.

Whatever's happening is the curriculum.

And so we can acknowledge it,

Note it and then just come back to the breath.

And if it happens a thousand times then we just come back to the breath a thousand times.

Over and over.

The mindfulness of breathing.

There's nothing to be done,

Nothing to be undone.

Simply the sensations of breathing.

The movement of the breath as we sit here.

Some people who are starting out with meditation find it quite incredible how the mind has a mind of its own and wanders off so readily.

Well it's not just people who are starting out.

It continually surprises people who have been meditating for decades how seductive the thinking mind is.

How thought craves to be believed.

And again as we notice it,

We notice we're off,

Off in the realm of thinking.

We just come back,

Come back to the sensations of breathing.

Following it as best we can moment to moment.

And if we notice a sense of frustration that we've been lost again,

Well we can notice that too.

Notice what the frustration is like.

What's it like to be a human being sitting here frustrated?

What's it like to be beating up on ourselves?

How does it feel?

Acknowledge it,

Bow to it,

And come back to the breath.

We're cultivating a sense of deep listening.

Listening to what is without demanding it be different from how it is.

A radically different way of being.

And now we're going to let go of those specific areas of breath that you've been coming back to,

That we've been coming back to,

And place our awareness in our bodies in general.

The whole sense of your body sitting here.

Can you become aware of the entire body?

Sitting here,

Breathing,

Being.

So we're widening the lens of awareness to encompass all of us.

And perhaps awareness wants to move around the body.

Perhaps it wants to be in the feet and then in the face and then back to breathing.

We're going to open it up a bit so we can just follow where the awareness wants to go in the body.

Giving it some room,

Giving it some space,

Giving ourselves some space.

And perhaps we might become aware of our hands,

The feelings in our hands,

Maybe the tingling we can feel,

Or the moisture or the dryness.

And then coming back to the whole body sitting here.

It's nothing to be done,

Nothing to be undone.

Just being with ourselves exactly as we are.

Just tracking the awareness of the sensations that we can feel in our body moment to moment as best we can.

And we can't get this wrong when we find ourselves again planning,

Reminiscing,

Rehearsing.

When we find ourselves off,

Downstream,

Downstream in thinking.

All we have to do is nothing.

Because as soon as we're aware that we're gone,

Well we're already back.

This is a radical practice of not doing,

Of just being.

Of paying attention in a different way.

Taking our hands off the steering wheel and just noticing what it's like to have the sensations in our body.

Of being with the sensations in our body.

Moment to moment as best we can.

Letting awareness move as it wants to move.

And letting our awareness widen to take in the whole body.

And then perhaps narrowing it down to focus on specific parts of the body.

Of the direct sensations,

The pressure,

The tingling,

The pulsing,

The scratchiness,

The smoothness.

Perhaps noticing where we feel pleasure or where things feel unpleasant.

Or where they feel numb,

Where we feel nothing.

Or it's neutral.

Noticing perhaps how one part of the body can feel unpleasant and while another part can feel pleasant.

Both at the same time.

Perhaps noticing when things are unpleasant in the body,

How there might be a tendency to want to do something about it.

To shift,

To move.

And maybe this can be a powerful part of the practice.

Maybe playing with not responding.

Seeing what our tolerance can be like.

Seeing what it's like to sit with the unpleasant.

To get to know it a little.

To pay it some attention without having to respond and react to it.

We're just sitting.

We're just listening.

Listening with our body.

Listening with our awareness.

Listening with our attention.

Becoming intimate with our own experience.

And if we find emotions are coming up,

Strong emotions,

Maybe feelings of annoyance or joy or sadness.

Seeing if we can acknowledge those too.

If we can observe those feelings,

Those emotions.

If we can make room for them.

Maybe seeing how they present themselves in the body.

Seeing where they are in the body.

If they're in the throat or the belly or the forehead or the chest.

Maybe our shoulders,

We notice our shoulders are up.

Just noticing.

And if we find that it's getting difficult to stay with the body.

If our attention is moving more and more towards thinking.

It can be helpful to come back to the breath as an anchor point.

Perhaps even taking in a few controlled breaths.

So actively breathing in.

A deep breath in and a deep breath out.

Grounding ourselves back in the breath.

A deep breath in and a deep breath out.

Before we move back to the body as a whole.

All allowing awareness to move through the body as a whole.

Being with the sensations that we can feel in the body.

And at any time we can always come back to the breath.

The mindfulness of the breath.

The mindfulness of the body.

Being open to the wisdom that's in our bodies.

Being open to another way of being.

Being interested.

Being curious.

Being kind.

The direct sensations that we can feel in our bodies.

Being open to it.

The landscape of sensation that's presenting itself constantly.

Can we tap back into it when we're out?

Can we let go of the thinking mind?

Can we let go of our emotions,

Our stories?

And just come back to the direct sensations that are here all the time.

The sensations of breathing.

The sensations we're getting from making contact.

The internal sensations.

The surface sensations.

Can we use these to bring us back to the here and now,

Directly in the moment?

Just staying with it as best we can.

Focusing in on a specific part of the body,

Like maybe the face,

For a moment before coming back out to the whole body sitting here breathing.

The whole body just being here in space.

Welcoming our experience.

Being interested in our own experience.

Listening.

Listening to our own experience right here,

Right now.

Staying with the sensations moment to moment as best we can.

And again as we bring the meditation to a close,

Perhaps we can acknowledge and thank ourselves for spending time in this way.

Thank ourselves for taking time out to do the sitting practice.

And I'll ring the bell in a moment and bring the meditation to a close.

Reviews

I find this to be a very solid beginner-level practice.

Thank you for the lovely clear guidance

Nice descriptions of the wandering mind, thank you.

That was lovely! Nice mellow instruction and very calming meditation. Thank you! ☮️🙏💖