Welcome to this mindfulness of breathing meditation.
Just to start with,
Finding a posture that is comfortable for you and that you'll be able to sustain for about 10 minutes.
Just making sure that you're sitting comfortably,
That your back is straight but not rigid,
With a natural curve in your spine.
Feeling the points of contact of your sit bones on the chair.
Feeling that support.
Really closing your eyes if that's comfortable for you.
And just becoming still.
Arriving home in your body.
Sensing the temperature of the air in the room.
Maybe there are sounds outside or inside that you can hear.
Feeling of your clothes on your skin.
Sitting here now in this body in this moment.
And taking two or three deep breaths to begin with.
Filling the lungs,
Feeling the expansion in your body as you breathe in.
And the gentle release as you breathe out.
And again,
Breathing in,
Feeling the expansion of the breath.
See if you can sense a release of tension,
Stress as you breathe out.
And one last time,
Feeling the lungs.
And slowly exhaling any tension or stress.
Letting your breath resume its natural rhythm.
Just gently letting your awareness land on the physical sensation of the breath in your body.
We're not aiming to change the breath in any way,
We're just checking in to what the breath is like for us today.
No right or wrong answer.
What sensations are present as you breathe in and as you breathe out.
Try as much as possible not to think about your breathing but really feel it,
Get a proper sense of it in your body.
Where do you feel the breath most strongly in your body right now?
Is it in your chest?
Raise of your shoulders?
A swell in your belly?
Is it your ribs?
Or maybe it's as the air comes in the tip of your nose,
Your nostrils.
Wherever that sensation is the strongest for you,
Just gently lay your awareness there.
As if you're laying a gentle hand on that point in your body.
Just like a butterfly lands on a flower,
A very gentle touch of awareness.
Now you may notice that your mind starts wandering off and the good news is that is completely normal.
This is what minds do,
The nature of mind is that it likes wandering.
And so the interesting juicy moment is when you notice that you've wandered off and you gently guide yourself back to the sensations of breathing in your body and that point of most sensation.
No need to judge,
No need to be unkind to yourself as this happens.
It might happen one time,
It might happen a hundred times in ten minutes.
Practice is there.
Just guide yourself back and guide your awareness back to the sensations of the breath in the body.
Your kind ally,
Your steady anchor in the present moment.
It may be helpful to imagine your awareness as a bright blue vast sky and your thoughts and feelings come and go as clouds lightly blown by a breeze in that vast blue sky.
Just noticing your thoughts when your mind wanders and letting them go.
Maybe bringing yourself back to the breath again and again and again.
No need to judge,
No need to be unkind to yourself as this happens.
Now gently bringing your attention back into your whole body,
Expanding that light of awareness to the feeling of your whole body sitting in this room,
Supported in whichever way it is.
Finding a sense of the outside world again in the sounds,
The temperature of the air.
Bringing some movement in your fingers and toes and gently opening your eyes when you're ready.
I wish you a wonderful morning,
Afternoon or evening wherever in the world you are.
Thank you for joining me today.
