So find yourself in a comfortable seat and that can be on a cushion on the floor or you can sit on a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor.
Take your hands and rest them on your knees or gently in your lap.
If you feel comfortable closing your eyes you can do that or just take a soft gaze onto the floor in front of you.
Take a few moments here just to feel your body as it rests on the ground or on the chair.
Feel the weight of your body being held by the ground underneath you.
Then grow your spine nice and tall.
Sit up as tall as you can but at the same time allowing the shoulders to relax,
Allowing the muscles of your face to be soft.
Let the belly be soft as you start to feel the breath in your body.
Take a few breaths here just feeling the sensation of the air as it moves past the nostrils and then the expansion of the belly and the chest as the breath fills up the body.
The gentle release as the breath moves out and the air moving back out.
So in this meditation we're going to be paying particular attention to the breath and letting that be our point of focus.
To make things a little bit easier for the mind to focus we're going to count the breath.
And so as you breathe in you can gently name one or softly in your mind say the word one as the breath comes in and then silence as the breath moves out.
Next breath two as you breathe in and then silence as you breathe out.
Breathing in gently in your mind saying three and silence as the breath moves out.
You keep counting the breath.
Breathing on the breath in and then letting the breath move out all the way up to ten.
And so as you practice this you might start to find that you lose count quite quickly maybe if you get to five maybe it's just a two.
You might find that you your mind is counting but you've actually lost the breath you've lost the sensation of the breath the count isn't on the breath anymore.
So this is part of the practice so this happens for you try not to beat yourself up it's such a natural response to give ourselves a hard time for losing count.
So without judging yourself we can just start again at one.
You might find that you keep counting one two and then you lose the breath or you lose the count.
You find that the mind has become completely drawn away by a thought or by emotion by sensation some experience that is not the breath and not the count.
And if that happens just gently come back to one again.
Notice what the mind got caught up in but then let that go come back to the count come back to the breath.
And so let you practice this for a few minutes in your own time.
So Notice where the breath is now,
Where the mind is now.
If you'd lost the count,
If you'd lost the breath,
Come back.
Each moment an opportunity to begin again,
Knowing that this practice is strengthening our control of our mind.
If you get all the way to ten,
Again no judgment,
Just start again at one again.
And as we come to the end of this practice,
You might just like to reflect on how this was for you today.
Each day is different,
Each practice is different.
You might note whether the mind was particularly busy,
Particularly calm,
See this as a little litmus test as to the quality of the mind for this practice.
If you journal,
You might like to make note after you finish.
You can let the counting practice go.
Once again,
Sit up nice and tall,
Maybe take this opportunity to offer up any benefits or insights from your practice to someone that might need some positivity today.
As the sound of the bell disappears,
You can bring both hands together at your heart.
Thank you for choosing to meditate with me today and Namaste.
