Welcome.
I invite you to find a posture that feels balanced by either choosing to lay down comfortably,
Or you can choose to sit upright.
But notice all of the adjustments that you're making with your body in order to move into alertness and relaxation at the same time.
And then you can either choose to keep your eyes open,
Gazing down towards the tip of your nose,
Or you can choose to relax your eyes closed.
For this practice,
We'll start to pay attention to the sensations of breathing.
We'll begin to shift away from thinking and doing,
To witnessing and observing.
At first,
Noticing a slower inhale,
And then deeply sighing it out,
Noticing yourself relax any obvious tension throughout your body.
And then once again,
Slowly,
Deeply inhaling,
Filling up the lower lobes of the lungs.
And then as you deeply sigh it out,
Maybe you try to relax the neck and shoulders.
And we'll start to now shift into our natural rhythm of breathing.
Noticing if it feels more comfortable for you to place your awareness,
Either in the abdomen,
The chest,
Or the nostrils.
Allowing yourself to anchor your attention in the sensations of breathing moment by moment.
And choosing to interrupt the momentum of your thoughts,
So that you can come back to witnessing.
Observing this one breath as it expands the body,
And the way that the exhales contract the body.
Allowing yourself to notice and observe without trying to manipulate the breath or needing it to be different,
Or trying to understand why one side of the nose feels more open than the other.
Instead,
We're choosing to notice each of the sensations that create the inhale.
Witness the sensations that make up the exhale.
Letting go of any analysis,
And instead sensing into the cool air as it enters,
The warmth as it exits.
Notice this next breath from beginning,
Middle,
To end.
Where in your body you feel sensations as you breathe in and out.
We start to notice that after a few breaths,
We become entangled with thoughts.
And instead of judging ourselves,
We simply acknowledge those thoughts and bring ourselves back to this next breath.
And then the next.
Instead of forcing your concentration,
And trying to hold on to it tightly.
See if you can feel yourself resting your awareness on the sensations of breathing in the abdomen,
Chest,
Or nostrils.
Noticing wherever you feel sensations the most,
That's where you invite your mind to rest.
Observing all of the layers of sensations.
All of the subtle movements happening because of the inhale flowing into an exhale.
And exhales transitioning to an inhale.
The nature of the mind is to have thoughts.
We start not judging ourselves because we have them.
And instead noticing that we're simply sharpening our minds.
We're sharpening the ability to let go of internal as well as external distractions and choosing to once again rest our awareness on this next breath.
And then the next.
Moment by moment,
We witness the breath.
We give ourselves a permission to interrupt all of the planning.
We choose to let go of trying to analyze.
If you notice yourself very distracted with thoughts,
You can also see if you can feel yourself release the energy of the thoughts as you exhale.
Maybe even deeply sigh it out once or twice.
So that you can interrupt those thoughts.
And imagine yourself releasing it.
And then come back to this next breath as it is.
For these next few moments.
Witness yourself.
Interrupting the thoughts.
And instead choosing to ride the wave of the breath.
The rhythmic dance of inhale flowing into an exhale.
The exhales easing into an inhale.
Now that you've started this process of concentrating your awareness.
And choosing to disentangle yourself from the thoughts.
See if you can witness seven full breaths from beginning,
Middle to end.
If you notice that you got distracted.
See if you can let go of the judgment.
And just witness the next breath.
Take a deeper breath in.
And deeply sigh it out.
Relax your hands,
Relax your feet.
You've started this process of training your attention.
And now see if throughout your day,
You can acknowledge your ability to choose what you pay attention to.
Notice that you do have choice.
You can let go of even your stickiest thoughts.
And that you can choose to interrupt that and become present once again.
The breath is always available to you.
And allow that to be your anchor into being instead of all of the doing.
