This is a simple breath awareness practice.
I'm doing it sitting up.
My body is well supported and I'm comfortable.
You can also do it lying down on your back.
Maybe some supports under your knees.
Or if you're experiencing some trouble with your breath or some anxiety,
It can be very comforting and nourishing to lie on your front.
Bringing our attention then to the breath,
Exactly where we find it,
Where it's most present for us.
And it may be we can feel it as the belly rises and falls.
It may be we feel it at the nostrils or in the throat or somewhere in the chest.
Perhaps the rib cage we can feel moving,
Rising and falling.
Take a few moments now to tune in to the breath exactly as it is,
As you feel it in your body.
And without making any conclusions,
Perhaps,
Can we notice?
Where the breath might feel a little restricted or sticky.
It could be that the in-breath is more difficult,
Let's say,
Than the out-breath.
The out-breath is smooth and the in-breath feels restricted.
It might be the other way around that the in-breath comes very easily,
But it's difficult to get a sense of a full out-breath.
So simply noticing this for now,
We might have some words or images that could describe that if we get really close to those sensations.
If it's not sticky,
What word might describe how the breath is in your body right now?
Is it spacious?
Is it warm?
Cooling?
Smokey?
And as we watch the breath,
It may be that it lengthens quite naturally of its own accord,
That the in-breath gets a little bit longer and deeper,
The out-breath too.
And then we're going to take the attention more into the back of the body.
So we're imagining perhaps that the breath is going to fill up the back of the lungs.
We might find a little extra space back there that we weren't previously using.
And this can be quite calming in itself as well.
So breathing as if the back of the body was spreading,
The back ribs moving to open to let the lungs move.
We'll stay here for a few moments.
Breathing both lower in the back of the body and wider and also higher up near the shoulders where the lungs attach right onto the shoulders.
And for a last point in this exercise,
We might slightly extend the pause between the breaths.
So as we breathe in,
We'll be aware that the breath kind of turns around and pauses for a moment before it goes out again.
And at the bottom of the breath,
There'll be another slight pause before it comes in again.
So noticing these first of all,
These slight pauses as the breath turns around.
And then consciously waiting a beat or two more.
So breath comes in and we pause and wait a beat or two and allow the breath to release and pause,
Wait a beat or two.
We may find ourselves sighing or that we want to wriggle and move the body and that's fine.
We'll close the practice with just a little more ordinary breathing.
Just let the breath return to normal.
