Soothing Breath Meditation

Two words that greatly influence this practice are: effortlessness and breath.

Learn how to befriend your breath. Experience how the breath naturally soothes the soul.

This meditation can support you to embody this tantric teaching:
Your attention already knows where to go.
Your job is not to control it, but to notice what it is drawn toward and learn from that.

Effortlessness shows up when we:
allow, follow, feel, linger, respond instead of control.

Practice the skill of becoming effortless with this meditation practice in order to experience a profound sense of restoration and relaxation.

The guided practice begins at the 8 minute mark. The first 8 minutes are connecting to who showed up live, figuring out the technology and naming my present experience with Dr. Lorin Roche’s passing.

Transcript

How are you right here right now? Give me a couple words to describe your state in this moment. We'd love to hear if you're willing to share. There's no requirements to share in this space, But. Always will have an idea where I'll have a theme, I'll have a technique, I'll have a doorway. And then really depending on who's here. That always shifts the exact direction of where I will take this. So let me give a few seconds to see if anyone shares anything and then. We'll do about a 15-20 minute practice and then we'll. . . We'll zoom out. My idea for this will be an arrival, Five-ish minutes. I'll do a brief intro, And then we'll head into practice. So all together, 25, 30 minutes. Thought is this will be a weekly Maybe more ish. I've had this note in my phone. And it pops up. I think it started last year. And then I would just like put it to the next month, Like, Nope, This isn't the month. And to the next month and then something inside of me a couple weeks ago was like. . . It's time. It's time to start this. I feel ready. I feel available. So here we are, Here we are beginning something. New here on this platform, Yet not new to how I've been showing up in the world for the last 17 years. And just excited to be back and exploring. We'll be back, I should say, Be sharing outside of some of the other spaces I've been sharing in over the last three years. Let me read some recent maybe or it's broke. You're feeling OK, Balanced, Relaxed and content. Great to hear some I relax. OK. OK, Cool. Thanks for sharing. Hmm. How am I right here right now? Let's let me have a check in right here right now. Now. What's honestly what's really alive in me right here right now is is my teacher, One of my, I called him my life teacher. He crossed the other side a few days ago. And as I was preparing for this, And I have my Radiant Sutras book here, One of the books that he wrote, I just really feel him here and I feel called to start with. Naming that, Naming that this happened, And that I'm in this sort of grieving process, An appreciation process, A gratitude process, Digesting the news and being with all the waves, All the waves of gratitude and emotion and memories and It's really in awe of how books, How people. Can and do influence our lives. Yeah. I'm just feeling an immense amount of gratitude for that. And now to have this opportunity to continue to to ripple what I've experienced through him and with him and the community and really beyond. Just to continue rippling it out into the world. So. . . Another thing I want to name is. . . I usually have background music when at least I've been doing that for the last couple of years on the zoom settings. I'm usually doing this through zoom. So this will be a new experience to not have like my playlist going. Um, But I was like, Again, I was sitting in preparing. So like Lauren and this gratitude and just really wanting to honor him today. As well as aware of the there's all these toucans like going crazy and there's just so much bird life here and then there's this trickling of the rain I don't know if you can hear any of that but it's like well there's this the surround the sounds of nature that are influencing this meditation then more than, Yeah, More than music from humans. Also an awareness that I am that I am in Costa Rica and there is some rain and that can influence the connection, The Starlink, It can take some extra pauses when the weather's a little bigger, So we might have some glitchy moments. I just want to acknowledge that and ask for some grace in that. I'm hoping that it will, Like the Zoom, It kind of glitches out and comes back, But we'll just see. We're just going to roll with it. We're rolling with it. All right, I think that's all I want to intro with today. Two words that are influencing our practice today would be effortlessness and breath. I think that's all I really want to share about it. Yeah, Let me check in with anything else. So the. . . How I generally guide is that we take about four to five minutes to transition into the practice into sort of any techniques or doorways that we'll be using will be inside of that portion that's techniques and doorways for a little bit and then I'll transition us out. With the practice being about. Yeah, 15, 20 minutes today. So with that. If you want to have any music on in the background, Feel free to have your own music going. And. . . I'm actually going to set a timer because. . . Bye. Can go. Go far and wide in these spaces, So I'll keep us on track. I'll keep myself on track with the timer. All right, So. The first about five minutes today, We're just going to acknowledge that we're making a transition together into the space of we could call it meditation, We could call it inner inquiry, We could call it relaxation. Um. . . And we're all shifting from. Something. We were all doing something right before you decided to say yes to this. And most likely whatever was going on a few moments ago, Other parts of this day, Days and days ago, Like some of that's going to be here, Maybe a lot of it's going to be here in your awareness with your thoughts without any emotions. And so we want to begin by accepting that. But just because we're saying, Hey, I'm here to meditate that like, That would just somehow just go away. I'm going to sit still. Often is taught. Let's sit still and just try to quiet our minds like that. Generally speaking, Doesn't work. So we're gonna, We're just gonna delete that, But that's what meditation is, And give ourselves freedom. So for the next few minutes, Freedom to think. Freedom to be walking around your space. Freedom to be dancing, To be stretching, To be setting up maybe a cozy sort of nesty spot where you can lay down and. And get more comfortable in your physical body. You'll notice when I guide, I tend to be seated and close my eyes down, But that's not a requirement. I'm going to give you permission to have your eyes open, To move your body, To be still, Whatever suits you in this moment. And you just have to give it to yourself to really. . . Allow for 10 to 20 minutes of a practice time. Whenever you practice, The invitation would be to be free. Wow, I have 10 to 20 minutes just be freely, Uniquely me inside of this space. Free to have thoughts, Free to have emotions, Free to. . . Acknowledge sensations and different voices and different inner characters. Free to be uncomfortable, Free to have rage, Free to be in such joy and contentment. So we noticed together how. How our attention can sort of bounce around. And how it dances and how it moves and how it generally is not lingering anywhere for far too long. And an opportunity today to say yes to that movement. To not resist yourself. Instead to embrace. The state of your body. A variety of thoughts. All that you are aware of how amazing how much we can be aware of. Give me one moment. How amazing and. And at times, How overwhelming. To not resist the overwhelm, To not resist the amazement, The awe. Whatever is true for you in this moment. I welcome that too, And I welcome that too. So let's together begin to. Just simply notice this movement that we call breathing. And today we're gonna aim to notice this particular sensory experience of the breath that is really gentle and light and soft, Like the soft touch of the air coming in and out of your nose. So see if you can. . . For a few seconds at a time decide like let me let me just really notice let me get super curious about this delicate fine touch of the air coming in and out of the nostrils. Let's pay attention together. You seconds. So it's not a demanding our attention. I have to pay attention. Think a bit more. Let me just get a little more curious. How delicate, How those little hairs in our nostrils get tickled ever so slightly. How soft and smooth can I make this? My breath become just with my awareness. We're leaning in just a little closer as if. There was a child sort of whispering, Trying to whisper something to us, And we had to lean in. It's the same similar type of pain attention. Let me just lean in a little closer. To this rhythm that we call breathing, This in and out. Let's begin to consider just when in the last few days or week you've been maybe a little critical, Hard, Harsh, Maybe even mean. To to this body and criticize an action. Had some sort of judgment. Action you took. Critical. Does your eye towards something you created or some area of your body? Let's imagine. Right here right now. The soothing and smooth quality of our of our breath as if it can. To that. That frazzled nerve ending. Where that judgment, Where that criticism. Hit in the heart or in the gut or in your throat or in your face, Your eyes. Where that tension may still be living, That this breath can go and soothe and smooth. Just bring some, Some compassion to. To that area of your body where you tend to hold, Where maybe again, The criticism or the judgments are storing. So again, This noticing that. Light. Gentle rhythmic quality of your breath. And is that as if that breath was carried. That smoothing, Compassionate. Soft. Gracious. Breath moving into those nooks and crannies that are a little hard and rigid. Frazzled, Fried. Soothing and relaxing. And let's remember together how natural and normal how it makes sense that our attention at times goes on a different path. Turns to the right, Turns to the left, Spirals around, And we say yes to those movements. No resistance, No denying. How our attention naturally moves. And then we awaken again to that choice now. Now what would I like to choose to pay attention to for a few seconds? Just a few seconds. Right here, Right now. What do I, What do I choose to notice? The invitation today, This gentle touch of the breath. Maybe there's something else. Let's spend time. Few seconds at a time. What do I need? I choose to be with, Linger with? Is it a thought? Is it a sensation? Is it a memory? Something that gives you a little pep to your step, Something that brings a smile to your face. Maybe it's a type of stretch. You get into your body like, Oh, I just want to melt into this shape that feels so good at this moment in my day. So as we transition here, This. This practice of allowing. Less resistance. Less resisting of our own inherent nature. Both inside of. Practice space, But what would that mean for you? Tonight, Tomorrow, Just 2%. More, Less, Less resisting. You notice an instinct, A little intuitive hit. Less questioning. Inside of the space of practice, You have thoughts, Less care. A thought, Who cares? The who cares attitude can be very useful. When is that a useful technique? Not giving things so much weight sometimes. Less grip. So if your eyes have been closed and you've been relatively still, This is a great time to add some subtle motion. And I'm transitioning I tend to slow opening of the eyes if they've been closed and I usually want to take a sip of water it kind of helps to like Refresh. I know some people like to journal before and after. Practices if there were more. Anything interesting that comes up or there are a lot of thoughts, Things that you don't want to forget or just things to further reflect upon. So we're here just right at the top of the hour if you need to move on to. Whatever's next for you, Of course, Feel free to do that if you want to. Share anything in the in the chat, Happy to hear from anyone if you have anything. Any questions, Any reflections from today? I'm going to stay on for a couple minutes. And I'm curious, Just again, First time figuring out the technology, Just how the sound was. Could you hear me? Were there techie glitchy things? I guess I'll listen to the recording as well. Thanks for showing up for this first one. Those of you who are here live, Really sweet. I'm excited to use this platform to be in practice together. You know, I planned this before Lauren, Before I knew what was going on with with Lauren and It just feels, It feels. . . Divinely orchestrated to me that just showing up a little bit more and in that idea of rippling out. So much of what has influenced my life and how I facilitate and the spaces that I want to be in with you all. Sending out a little bit more this this week and bringing people together to Yeah, Just to do this feels aligned and right. So thank you. Thanks for listening. Showing up today, Yeah. Thanks for sharing. Okay, I was wondering if you could actually hear the rings that really started coming coming on a little. Little heavier during this time. So cool. A little rain in the background. Yeah. Yeah, You're so welcome. Thanks for showing up. Okay, Cool. Yeah, There's an opportunity, I guess, To just do audio rather, I could take my video off. But it's Yeah, It's really most of the time. It's like, Who cares if I'm on on video, But if it doesn't make a difference for the audio, I'm fine to be on on video. But thanks for Sharing. Lenora. Hmm. All right, Well, I don't know if it will be every Wednesday. My thought is to just schedule them out. Whenever I want. To not have to just say, OK, Now every Wednesday is at this time. We'll see. I'm going to test out different times and see what, Yeah. Do you have any suggestions on times? I'm open to hearing that. Um. . . But we're just going to start sprinkling them in and seeing how it goes. Yeah. Every time we'll have a slightly new theme or technique. That's my idea. To give us this understanding that there's just not one way to meditate. You know, What, Something that Lauren said to me, I feel like one of the first times I met him, It was probably in one of his talks. One of the first few that I attended and it was like, For every person on the planet, There's potentially, Or maybe more likely than not that many ways, That many ways to meditate. And so it's like, Endless fascination and endless opportunity to explore all these different you know techniques and. Um Yeah, Just be, To be in. Different types of I call like experience. I don't know if you can call it a meditate like a meditation. It's like some sort of Yeah. Embodied experience type of practice experience. Um. . . Because yeah, Meditation is such a loaded word, You know? So if we were just to delete that word and just say we're here to. . . Savor the thrill of aliveness. That's one of the phrases that I love so much that Lauren brought into my life. Learn how to savor. The thrill of all the layers of aliveness, Taking 20 minutes at a time to do that. And what that can teach us. Okay. Okay. Background noise is company. Great. We'd love to see you again. Thanks for showing up Gabriel and Andrew. Lovely anytime is great. I agree. We're just gonna practice. We're just gonna practice. That's what we're gonna do All right, Everyone Wishing you a lovely evening. Thank you. Thank you for Showing up again, And we'll see you We'll see you soon. Lots of love.