In this meditation we'll look a little bit at the basics of using our breathing as a way to concentrate the mind and bring awareness to our being.
Just find a comfortable seated position,
One which allows you to be upright and alert and wakeful.
So if you can,
Try not to lie in bed,
But if you're sick or unwell or unable to sit upright then just find a comfortable position for you.
Try to keep your spine as upright as possible.
So you can imagine somebody's got a really big balloon and tied it to the top of your head and the balloon's just lifting you upright so that you're really really up,
Nice and straight.
Then you can let your shoulders hang down so they're really relaxed and just rest your hands either on your knees or on your lap so the arms feel really relaxed and just allow your chest to open up.
So you're feeling a lot of space in the front of the body.
So we've just got this balance between feeling upright,
Alert and attentive and relaxed,
Easeful and gentle.
It's a kind of a balance balancing.
Then from here we're just going to take three big deep breaths,
Bigger and deeper than we usually would.
Just breathing in nice and deeply,
Filling the whole body with air and then relaxing,
Breathing out.
Just do two more of those at a rhythm that works for you.
And breathing in this longer,
Deeper way helps us to relax a little bit,
It helps the body to shift into a mode that's more gentle.
From here we're just going to find an interest in our breathing.
So we don't need to concentrate on it 100% really,
Really intensely but just more find an interest in what's happening.
So one way we can start to do that is to take one of our hands and just place it on our belly or on our chest and as we just breathe in at our normal natural pace,
Just see if the body moves in relation to that.
So see if your belly rises and falls or if your chest is moving.
Just use your hand on your belly or your hand on your chest to notice that happening.
Just try and take an interest in what's happening.
What's the breathing like?
Is it fast or slow?
Is it deep or shallow?
Just stay with that for a few moments.
Just noticing that rhythm of breathing in,
Breathing out.
Our bodies do this all the time,
All the time.
From the moment we're born to when we die,
We're breathing.
Or just see where else we can pay attention to the sensations associated with breathing.
So maybe that if you're breathing through your nose,
You can notice the air coming in and out through your nostrils.
You might feel it on the top of your lip or on the bottom of your nose.
You might notice that the air is a little bit cooler as it comes into your nostrils and a little bit warmer as it comes out.
Or if you're breathing through your mouth,
You might notice the sensations of the air moving through your mouth.
So we just take some interest in that.
How do we notice our breathing?
How do we know that we're breathing?
Where do we feel it in our body?
Where can we feel it most easily?
Where can we be most aware of the sensations of breathing?
Then just for the next minute,
We'll just choose one place in the body where we can be aware of these sensations.
And we just try and keep our attention on that for one minute.
So the breath is very subtle,
So if it's hard to focus on it or pay attention,
That's okay,
That's normal.
Just find this interest in what's happening and see if we can keep our attention on the sensations of breath at one place in the body.
So that's just an introduction to using the breath for meditation.
We can develop these principles and techniques,
But the basic method is just to find an interest in what's happening with the breathing and continue to pay attention to that in a way that really brings you into an awareness of the body and what's happening and the rhythm of life that your body is living all of the time.
