In this 18-minute meditation session we will be focusing on mindfulness of the breath throughout the entire body.
Take a moment to make yourself comfortable sitting or lying down,
Eyes open,
Eyes closed or hooded.
We begin by noting our positive motivation in completing this meditation session,
Recognizing that we've set aside this time to focus on cultivating our attention and our mind for the benefit of ourselves and those around us.
Now we allow our body to settle into natural state,
Releasing any tension in the body and allowing the body to be supported by the chair or the floor beneath us.
Now we allow our speech to settle into a natural silent state,
Not our verbal speech but the speech of mind,
How we allow our mind to settle into a natural unconfigured state,
Letting go of any thoughts,
Memories,
Images,
Ideas,
Allowing all of that mental proliferation to dissolve back into the space of the mind and acknowledging that we can come back to it at the end of our session.
But right now we have nowhere to be and nothing to do other than focusing our attention on the sensations of breath.
You may find thoughts or images coming back into your mind and they're grasping your attention.
You're cognitively fusing and after a certain period of time that cognitive fusion is broken and you realize you've been taken away by your thoughts.
This is something to be celebrated.
You've noticed that you became distracted.
Let go of those thoughts and come back to your practice.
Having developed some level of relaxation in our body,
Speech and mind,
We now come to the main part of this practice which is focusing our attention on the sensations of breath throughout the entire body.
This requires us to focus our attention on any sensations of breath in our body.
It may be rise and fall of the abdomen,
Sensations in the chest,
Air moving in and out of the nostrils or perhaps subtle sensations in the limbs.
Gently place your attention on any of these sensations,
Noting the wave-like features of the breath.
Refresh your attention on each breath and relax more deeply on each out-breath.
If you find it helpful,
You may say to yourself,
On the in-breath,
Refresh and on the out-breath,
Relax.
Refresh and relax.
Refresh and relax.
Refresh your attention and relax your body.
If you're finding yourself quite dull or sleepy,
As if your attention is becoming foggy,
Acknowledge that.
Refresh your attention.
Remind yourself of your resolve to work on your concentration skills and return your attention to the sensations of breath throughout the body.
Be sure that you are not deferring with your breath,
That you're not modifying or regulating your breath in any way but rather allowing the body to breathe naturally.
We are improving our attention skills while at the same time increasing our relaxation,
A sense of peace and a sense of calm.
But this practice can also help us improve our introspection.
Introspection or metacognitive awareness is the reflective portion of our mind that checks in on what our attention is doing.
Although the main focus of our mind is the sensations of breath in the body,
We can hold a small portion of our mind as quality control,
Occasionally checking in to see if we are still focused on the sensations of breath or if indeed we have been taken away,
Developing this sense of introspection or quality control for our meditation sessions can be extremely beneficial.
Refresh on the in-breath and relax the out-breath,
Checking in on our attention,
Introspecting to see if we are continuing to focus on our objective of meditation.
As we come to the end of this meditation session,
We acknowledge our positive motivation and may any positivity or merit generated from this session be shared for the benefit of ourselves and those around us.
Now that the session is ending,
You may choose to relax your attention and come back to your room or continue meditating at your own leisure.
