Thank you for joining me today for the Just This One Breath meditation.
And the purpose of it is to create deeper focus and awareness and to provide a little extra support when you perhaps find yourself becoming distracted in meditation.
Many,
Many years ago,
I was studying martial arts and my teacher was a big advocate of meditation and he used to joke that you need to bore yourself to death.
And it's metaphorically has two meanings.
Number one for meditators,
When you sit for a long period of time,
Sometimes you do get bored and it's really hard to bring your awareness back and not let it go to your to-do list or think about other things outside of being in the present moment.
So it really requires some training.
And you get to that sense of quiet.
Well,
That's when the real work begins because you're boring into those little places in your subconscious where emotions might surface.
You notice little nuances in your body,
Thoughts that you weren't even aware you were thinking.
It's part of a deeper practice.
So often when we say focus on our breath,
After a while you think,
Oh,
It's not that interesting.
But when you breathe out,
So what?
So this practice is to really help you notice the nuances of our breathing.
And we're going to go through the exercise in a few different ways.
As always,
If you feel lightheaded during any of this practice,
Please stop and let your breathing return to normal.
And you'll notice that I mentioned ocean breathing at some point during the practice.
If you are familiar with ocean breathing,
That's great.
You can incorporate it.
If you're not,
I'll give a brief intro right now.
But don't worry if you haven't quite got it.
Just breathe normally or breathe deeply and follow the cues as well as you can and still be comfortable.
So ocean breathing,
You bring the tip of your tongue behind your upper teeth,
Mouth closed,
Jaw relaxed.
And if you can imagine somebody snoring,
That air is going to the back of the throat.
So you're constricting the back of the throat just slightly so that you can feel that subtle airflow going into the back of the throat.
Of course,
Not strong enough where you're snoring just so that you can feel that airflow as you pull it down into the belly to about two inches below your navel.
And pause and you'll exhale all the air out and gently pause.
So if you imagine the ocean waves going up and down with your breath,
Inhaling and exhaling.
So for now,
I'd like you to get comfortable.
You can be seated or lying down.
If you're seated,
Your hands can be resting comfortably in your lap,
Sitting tall,
Lengthening your spine.
Once again,
Bringing the tip of your tongue behind your upper teeth,
Keeping the mouth closed and jaw relaxed,
Breathing in and out through your nose.
And if you're lying down,
You can simply bring your hands out to your side,
Palms up,
Allowing your feet to fall open naturally,
Or you might want to rest your hands on your belly.
And if you're comfortable doing so,
Close your eyes and really begin to focus inward.
And we just start to notice our breath.
We're inhaling and exhaling,
Not trying to control the breath in any way for now.
And once again,
The purpose is to draw greater awareness and focus and to understand that each life-giving breath is a gift.
And what a joy it is that we can sit here and very simply breathe in and breathe out.
So as we take a few breaths,
We suddenly start to notice some of the nuances around our breathing.
For example,
You might notice the cooling sensation on your nostrils as you inhale and the warming as you exhale.
You might notice your belly rise and fall or your rib cage expand and contract.
Some people notice cooling behind their eyes or behind their neck.
Just noticing where the breath goes and how the breath presents itself.
Now what I'd like you to do is start to lengthen your breath just slightly.
Once again,
If you are comfortable with ocean breathing or want to give it a try,
It's a slight constriction on the back of the throat.
You're inhaling,
Drawing the air to the back of the throat down into the belly to about two inches below your navel.
Pausing at the top of that breath and then slowly exhaling from the belly all the air out through the nose and pausing at the bottom of that breath.
Inhale.
Nose and exhale.
I'm going to be quiet while you do that for several more breaths.
Don't be surprised if you start to notice that the exhale becomes longer than the inhale.
Now take a moment to relax your breath.
Again,
You're not trying to control it or lengthen it,
You're just letting it manifest however it wants to be today.
Now we're going to go back into that deep breathing in just a moment and I'm going to ask you to slow and lengthen the breath as much as you can without it feeling jarring or uncomfortable.
So it's a nice smooth inhale and exhale.
And as you do that,
See if you can mentally say to yourself just this one breath and notice that breath,
The full inhalation and exhalation.
And with the next breath,
Just this one breath.
And we'll do that several times.
Don't worry,
You might find yourself thinking,
Oh,
I'm still describing the other breath and I'm onto the next breath.
Just do the best you can.
So we begin to lengthen our breath again.
Inhale through the nose.
Pause and exhale.
And pause and inhale.
And whenever you're ready,
Do several cycles,
Just this one breath.
And now relax your breath,
Breathing in and out through the nose,
Not trying to control or lengthen the breath,
Just letting it be any way it wants to be.
Perhaps you hadn't noticed anything or maybe you noticed a few subtle little things.
For example,
I noticed one of my breaths got really deep and I was inhaling into spaces in my lungs that I hadn't on the previous breath.
Or you might notice that one breath felt a little more labored and another felt much more open.
So over the next few minutes,
I'm going to ask you to breathe comfortably in and out through your nose.
And every once in a while,
I'm going to pop in and say just this one breath.
And when I do,
I'd like you to really focus on the next breath,
The next cycle of inhalation and exhalation,
Capturing it in as much detail with as much awareness as you can.
And then relax your mind and go back to breathing.
We're not going to do that with every single breath.
So let's begin this part of the practice.
Inhaling and exhaling,
Keeping our breath soft and relaxed.
Just this one breath.
Just this one breath.
Just this one breath.
Relaxing your mind,
Relaxing your body,
And taking another minute in this space.
And whenever you're ready,
You kind of wiggle your fingers and toes,
Rock your head from side to side,
Bringing yourself back into the room fully.
Go ahead and open your eyes.
