To begin today's meditation,
Find a comfortable seated position.
So either sitting on a cushion on the floor or on a chair.
You might also choose to lay down on your back,
Whatever is most comfortable for you right now.
If you're sitting,
Allow your back to be straight and your shoulders to be relaxed and gently place your hands in your lap.
Allow your eyes to close or if you'd prefer just gaze down in front of you with a soft focus.
And begin to let go of the day so far of things you've done,
Conversations you've had and become aware of your present moment.
Allow yourself to be here now.
And take a moment here to tune into your body and just notice how you're feeling today.
Perhaps you're feeling a little tired or cloudy or perhaps you're feeling quite calm and content.
Whatever or however you're feeling,
Just take note.
Allow yourself to sit with whatever is here.
So in today's practice we will explore the breath.
I will ask you to focus your attention on your breathing and your job is pretty simple,
To keep your attention here on your breath.
We'll take a few deep slow breaths together first to ground ourselves and to begin to switch on the body's relaxation response.
So we'll breathe in through the nose and out through the nose or mouth.
When you're ready take a nice deep breath in and now breathe out.
Breathe in and breathe out.
And one more together breathing in and slowly breathing out.
And then allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
And so for the next little while just continue to sit here with your breath.
You might like to follow the breath flowing into and out of the body.
Picture the air as it travels in through the nostrils,
Down into the lungs and then swirls around and travels back up and out again.
For the next little while do your best to follow each and every breath.
Now from time to time you will notice that your mind wanders off from the breath.
You might get distracted by a thought,
A memory or something in your environment.
This is completely natural and normal.
As soon as you notice that your mind has wandered off simply take note of where it went and then gently and kindly guide your attention back to your breath.
Continuing to follow each breath in and out.
Notice where your attention is and if it's wandered off gently coming back to the breath.
As the meditation comes to an end take a moment to tune back into your body now and observe how you're feeling.
Notice if anything has changed or shifted since the beginning of the practice.
What's your energy like?
Perhaps you feel more present or more connected to yourself or perhaps you don't feel differently which is completely fine too.
I'm going to ring a bell to signal the end of the practice.
You of course have the option to continue to sit here with your breath for as long as you like but otherwise when you can no longer hear the ringing of the bell gently open your eyes and come back into the room.
