Welcome!
Thank you for being here.
We're going to start our practice by finding a way of sitting that is comfortable,
That allows you to be upright,
Awake and at ease.
Find comfort in your body.
And allow yourself first to look around,
To acknowledge the room around you,
To bring curiosity to what you see.
Shapes,
Colors,
Opening to the sounds around you.
Noticing the contact of the air with your skin,
Your clothing and your skin.
Noticing now the places of contact,
The support of the structure where you're sitting on underneath you,
The earth underneath you.
Taking the attention inwards now,
You might close your eyes gently or simply lower your gaze.
And remember that even if you choose to close your eyes in this moment,
You can open them throughout your practice at any moment when you find that will bring more comfort.
Letting your face be soft.
We can take a few deep intentional breaths here,
So that we can collect our attention.
A deep inhale and a slow exhale.
Taking a moment here to notice if there is any tension or tightness that can be easily released.
You can bring your breath to that area and as you inhale,
You recognize any tension or tightness.
And with the exhale,
We release,
Invite that sense of softness that can come with a wave of the out-breath.
Inviting softness,
Relaxation with each out-breath.
If there are no particular places of tightness or tension,
You might just invite a general sense of relaxation and softness into your body as you follow the wave of the in-breath and the out-breath.
Allowing the breath now to go back to its natural rhythm,
If it hasn't done so yet.
Just let your breath be natural,
However it is.
Subtle,
Strong.
Be with your breath as it is.
And begin to notice where it is easiest to feel the breath.
To feel the sensations that accompany the movement of the breath.
It might be the movement and the coolness that you feel in your nostrils with the in-breath,
Or warmth and movement with the out-breath.
It might be a sense of tingling in the back of your throat,
With a rise and fall of your chest or belly.
The movement of the belly lifting and falling away with each breath.
If the breath is subtle or hard to feel,
You can try placing a hand on your belly and feel the rise and fall of your belly in the palm of your hand.
And keep this context throughout the practice.
So now,
Whatever you find the breath easiest to feel or most pleasant,
You're going to rest your attention in that place,
As if this is an anchor point,
A home base in the present moment.
A place in your body to rest your attention.
A place where you can be with the sensations that accompany the breath,
Moment by moment.
All we need to do is rest on our anchor in the present moment.
And whenever we realize that our mind has been wandering,
That our attention has drifted somewhere else,
We recognize this moment and we gently bring our attention back to the place of anchor,
Without judgment,
Just allowing our attention to float back to our anchor.
Each moment you notice that your mind was somewhere else,
It is a great opportunity to deepen your presence,
To realize,
Oh,
I've been somewhere else.
And with gentleness,
With no judgment,
Bringing the attention back so that you can rest in the present moment with your anchor.
It is completely normal that our attention keeps drifting away.
And every time we realize this,
It is an opportunity to cultivate presence,
To choose to come back with gentleness,
With no judgment,
And allow our attention to rest on the anchor,
In contact with the sensations that accompany the movement of the breath.
Where is your attention now?
If it's not resting on your anchor,
Gently bring it back to the inflow and the outflow of the breath.
Keeping your anchor in the foreground and let all the other experiences,
Sounds around you,
Thoughts,
Body sensations,
Any other experience,
Let it be in the background as you keep your anchor in the foreground,
Present with the sensations of your breath.
And when you notice my wandering,
Remember that this is a great opportunity to awaken from it and to come back with gentleness.
And for this last moment of the practice,
I invite you to notice how we don't have to do anything to breathe.
We are breathing all the time,
Unless we hold our breath of course.
So bring your attention to the fact of your body breathing,
Noticing that it's always breathing quite naturally,
Without effort.
Cultivating our capacity to be present for life.
Now arriving at the end of our practice,
Bring back the attention to the places of contact,
To the support underneath.
You might want to move gently,
Bringing that same quality of presence to your movement.
Thank you for choosing to practice with me.
