10 minute mindfulness practice.
Making yourself comfortable sitting on the chair or a cushion on the floor.
Feeling the weight of your body in contact with whatever is supporting you.
Feeling your awareness all the way down your body,
Down your legs,
All the way down into your feet,
Into your toes.
For a few breaths noticing whatever sensations you can feel here in your toes.
Being aware of the sensations in the soles of your feet.
In the top of your feet.
Allowing your attention to drop down into your body into the sensations you can feel here in your feet.
Now as you breathe in,
Scanning up through your body,
Noticing the sensations in your legs,
In the torso,
The arms and fingers,
All the way to the top of your head.
And as you breathe out,
Scanning down through your body,
Simply noticing the sensations in your body as you scan down to your toes.
And taking a few breaths like this,
As you breathe in,
Being aware of the sensations in your body as you scan from your toes to your head.
As you breathe out,
Being aware of the sensations in your body as you scan from your head down to your toes.
Now starting to become aware of the gentle movements in your body connected with the breath.
Resting your attention in the pelvis,
Noticing if there's a slight rocking here in the pelvis as you breathe.
The tailbone tucking under as you breathe in.
Bringing this awareness up through your spine,
Noticing any movement in the vertebrae as you breathe.
And expanding this awareness out into your back,
Noticing the movement in the ribs in your back as you breathe.
Opening and closing.
As you breathe in and breathe out.
Noticing this movement in the shoulder blades,
Gentle rising and dropping in the shoulder blades as you breathe in and breathe out.
Feeling how this connects to your arms.
Now bringing attention to the breath at your nostrils,
Noticing the touch of the breath against the skin as you breathe in and breathe out.
Whatever the temperature and texture of the breath is,
Changing between the in-breath and the out-breath.
Bringing that awareness down into the chest,
Feeling the movement in the front of the ribcage as you breathe.
Opening,
Closing.
Noticing any movement in your belly connected with the breath.
And now if the mind is feeling calm,
Settled,
Clearly anchored on the breath.
Then keeping a broad awareness of the whole body breathing,
Gently noticing the movements in the different parts of your body,
The sensation of the breath against your nostrils.
But if your mind is busier,
More distracted,
Then choosing one point of focus.
Wherever you found it most enjoyable to place your attention on the breath,
Choosing this one point as your anchor.
And then in the next few minutes,
As you notice your mind getting distracted,
Gently guiding your attention back to the breath,
To this one single point of focus.
If the mind is busy,
Then gently saying to yourself,
Thinking,
Then coming back to the breath.
Seeing if you can start to find the spaces between the thoughts,
Rather than fighting the thoughts,
Or trying to avoid them,
Or getting lost in the thoughts.
Noticing the silence before and after a thought,
The space in which the thoughts are arising,
Just as clouds exist in the vast space of the sky.
So holding whatever is there in that spacious awareness that simply allows it to be there without fighting it,
Without getting lost in it.
Simply breathing in and breathing out.
Noticing where your attention is,
If you need to,
Gently guiding it back to the breath.
And now at the end of these 10 minutes,
Deciding if you wish to continue in this way for as long as feels comfortable.
Or bringing the practice to a close.
If you're now finishing the practice,
Feeling the weight of your body on the chair or cushion,
The contact of your feet with the floor.
Noticing any sounds around you.
And when you're ready,
Opening your eyes.
