To begin this breath and body sitting meditation practice,
Take a few moments to settle into a sitting position that will allow you to feel comfortable and supported throughout this time.
Perhaps taking a moment to check in with the body,
Seeing whether your spine,
Neck and head are in alignment.
Feeling your hands resting on your thighs or in your lap.
And if you are sitting in a chair having your feet fall flat against the floor or if in a cushion arranging it so that your knees are lower than your hips.
And then going ahead and closing your eyes if that feels comfortable.
Allowing yourself to feel the support of the chair or the cushion below you.
Settle into the sensation of sitting here.
Right here,
Right now.
And then when you are ready,
Shifting your attention from the sensations of sitting to the sensations of breathing.
Begin by finding the place in your body where you notice the breath most.
For some this may mean feeling the breath at the nostrils where the air comes in and goes out of the body.
Or at the chest,
Noticing the rising of the chest as the lungs expand on the in-breath and the falling away on the out-breath.
Or perhaps noticing the breath at the belly and abdomen region.
Noticing as the abdomen wall expands on the in-breath and returns on the out-breath.
And allowing your attention to rest on that part of the body where you feel the breath most and are aware of the breathing as it occurs.
Being with the natural rhythm of the breath,
This in-breath and this out-breath.
There is no need to try and control the breathing in any way.
Simply let the breath breathe itself.
As best you can,
Bringing this attitude of allowing to the rest of your experience.
There is nothing to be fixed,
No particular state to be achieved.
As best you can,
Simply allow your experience to be your experience without needing it to be other than it is.
And attending to the changing patterns of physical sensations wherever you notice the breath.
Attending all the way through as the breath enters the body on the in-breath and all the way through as the breath leaves the body on the out-breath.
In this practice there is no need to breathe in any particular way or use the breath to get anywhere.
Instead the focus is simply on feeling your breath from one moment to the next moment.
From one breath to the next breath.
And sooner or later you will notice that it's not easy to stay on this breath.
Your mind will have wandered into judging,
Planning,
Worry or daydreaming.
When you notice that your mind has wandered away,
Simply noting where it has gone and redirecting the attention back to the breath with firmness and kindness.
We have not done anything wrong.
This is simply what the mind does and our job is simply to notice when it wanders away without giving ourselves a hard time and then redirecting the attention back to the breath.
This breath,
The in-breath or the out-breath.
And bringing the breath back into centre stage of awareness and starting over again.
With this moment and the next moment.
With this breath and the next breath.
Each breath is different and unique.
And exploring each breath as if for the first time with an openness.
So no matter how many times your mind wanders in this sitting,
Simply acknowledging the wandering and escorting your attention right back to this in-breath or to this out-breath.
This noticing of the wandering mind is a moment of mindfulness.
With this in-breath and this out-breath being with the present moment experience and as best you can bringing a quality of kindness to your awareness.
Perhaps seeing these repeated wanderings of the mind as opportunities to bring patience and gentle curiosity to your experience.
And now when you are ready,
Allowing your attention to expand around the breath to include a sense of the physical sensations throughout the whole body.
Noticing where the body makes contact with the chair or cushion.
Becoming curious about sensations of touch or pressure.
Noticing the hands where they rest on the thighs or in each other.
As best you can holding all of these physical sensations in a wider sense of awareness together with a sense of the breath and the body as a whole.
Exploring the sensations that you find,
Perhaps noticing the quality of the sensations themselves.
Noting the intensities whether strong or soft.
Whether the physical sensations are continuous or whether they come and go.
Perhaps noticing other qualities whether they are sharp or dull,
Hot or cold,
Dry or clammy.
And just watching,
Observing as best you can from one moment to the next without having to do anything about them or trying to alter them in any way.
Holding all the sensations of the body in a friendly,
Spacious awareness.
Gently attending to the actuality of sensations throughout your body from one moment to the next.
And whenever you find yourself carried away from awareness in the moment by the intensity of physical sensations or thoughts or emotions or any other way,
Remind yourself that you can always reconnect with the here and now by refocusing awareness on the movements of the breath or on a sense of the body as a whole.
Once you have gathered yourself in this way,
Allow the awareness to expand once more.
So it includes a sense of sensations throughout the whole body.
And now for the last few moments of this sitting,
Bringing your attention back to the focus of the breath.
Tuning in to any and all sensations on this in-breath and this out-breath.
And as you sit here and as you breathe,
Allowing yourself to cultivate the sense of moment to moment awareness and remembering that the breath is available to you at any moment of your day as an anchor to ground yourself and as a gateway into the present moment,
This moment.
