Nalu | Mind The Flow, Day 6 Or 28 - Noticing Pause

Nalu, in the Hawaiian language, means wave. It can also mean mindful observation. In this 28-part series, we follow our protagonist, Nalu, as they observe and notice how the waves and flows happening around them can be observed as waves and flows within.

During the series, Nalu progresses through mindfulness, body awareness, relationship, and gratitude practices. Day six focuses on breathing by accessing the pause between breaths on the peaks and troughs.

Crystalphone music was created by and licensed by Mika Mimura Erickson.

Transcript

All right, Hello everyone. Welcome back to Nalu Mind the Flow. Today is day six. If you are joining for the first time, Welcome. If you are returning after having joined before, Then welcome back. I'm grateful to see you here today and to have you join this community of practice that we have been nurturing for almost a week now. So thank you for being here. For the past several days, Nalu has been exploring the touch of the breath. As the breath comes into the body in this area, It sort of touches the body. And as it exhales, It sort of touches the body on the way out. And Nalu has been noticing the touch of the breath for several days and becoming more curious about how that breath works within the body. Sometimes it's more shallow. Sometimes it's more deep. Sometimes it's more quick. Sometimes it's more slow. Sometimes it's very quiet. Sometimes it's loud. And so to deepen their understanding of this waveform, Of this flow that keeps moving in and out of them, Nalu decides to take notice of the top of the breath and the bottom of the breath. So as the breath happens, It inhales into the body and then there's a slight pause at the top of the breath before the exhale occurs. And at the bottom of the exhale of the breath, There's a slight pause before the inhale occurs. So for today, Nalu is just going to notice that. She just decides to concentrate just on those pauses at the top of the breath and the bottom of the breath, Even if they notice other sensations or feelings. And we're going to follow along. So you're welcome to have your eyes opened or your eyes closed for this. And again, Just bringing the attention to the breath and then specifically noticing the pause at the top and the pause at the bottom of the breath. And as the breath there is moving into the body and moving out from the body, Sometimes if we're really noticing something specific, There might be a temptation to take control of the breath. And this is very natural and you're welcome to do that. If it feels like taking control of the breath and observing how the inhale and exhale happens, That's awesome too. You might also like to just observe the natural breathing as it comes in and as it goes out, Noticing the natural rhythm of the body and then paying special attention to the very top part of the breathing as the inhale slows down and turns into an exhale and the very bottom part of the breathing as the exhale slows down and turns back into an inhale again. And sometimes Nalu notices that there might be a more deep breath in between some of the other ones or there might be a sigh on the exhale and this happens naturally, Seems to happen naturally many days now and it might might be happening today and that's that's to be expected. Even so, Nalu resolves to remain curious about the breath and the differences between each breath. So as the breaths come in and rest at the top of the breath and as the breaths go out and rest at the bottom of the breath, Nalu remains curious about it. And today Nalu notices that thoughts and and images and feelings from the daytime keep coming into their mind and and distracting them away from the attention on the breath and they've had this experience before and then they remember that it's it's okay and that this is part of the job of the mind is to formulate thoughts and stories and and that's that's what the mind is designed to do and just looks aside at the mind and watches that happen and acknowledges that it's happening and then they return their attention back to the inhale and the apex of the inhale and then the exhale and the trough of the exhale. And now after several days of noticing the breath and paying attention to the breath, Nalu is beginning to feel that some sensation some feelings and sensations arise that that might be unexpected and maybe they felt a little bit surprised by some of them. This is a natural occurrence as well as as we quiet the mind and begin to pay attention to our natural processes and and as we continue to delve deeper into the current moment sometimes emotions and and feelings arise and those are perfectly acceptable to observe as well and just notice them as they happen and take stock of them and then just return to the sensation of the breathing as it happens. And as Nalu then begins to come back to the awareness of the room around them and some of the sounds that they might be hearing or the feelings that they might be experiencing maybe their seat in the chair or the clothing they have on their body, Nalu decides to take a deep breath and maybe a little bit of a sigh to relax into this newfound awareness that they have and returns back to the room with a little bit more curiosity and maybe a little bit more outlook on the world around them a little bit better outlook and ways of seeing. Thank you for joining today this is day four of Nalu Mind the Flow and hope to see you again the next day.