So Okay,
Begin by taking a seat,
Either cross-legged on the ground or on a chair.
And gather yourself into a relaxed but upright posture.
And beginning now to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.
We're just gonna take a few inhalations and exhalations as we gather ourselves here now.
As you're taking the next inhalation,
Gathering in a sense of the space around you.
And with the exhalation,
Just letting go of the momentum of your day so far.
Breathing in,
Know that you're breathing in.
Breathing out,
Know that you're breathing out.
And now,
Perhaps sitting up a little straighter,
Really begin to introduce an awareness of the body alongside the breath.
Noticing how does the breath show up.
Sit up there,
Nostrils and the nose.
In the back of the throat,
And the rising and falling of your chest and abdomen.
Just checking in,
What is the experience of you right now?
Is there lightness or heaviness?
We feel the sensation of gravity,
Perhaps a sense of groundedness.
There may be tensions in the body,
Just noticing them.
Observing that sensation,
And returning our focus to the breath.
It doesn't matter how many times,
How many times our mind wanders off on trains of association.
Our practice today is simply to notice and return back to the breath.
Seeing if we can gather more of the sensations of the body and the breath into our awareness.
Maybe a subtle lifting in the arms,
Hands,
Perhaps a little rising in the shoulders.
And as we grow closer to the moment of the breath,
We may find ideas about who we are,
Where we are at this stage,
What we have to do.
We can all begin to melt away into the background.
What's foregrounded here for us?
What's the present?
Is our present expansive?
Does it feel like there's some contraction?
We can notice both.
Our goal isn't to be any certain way.
Simply to be with things as they are.
Perhaps we can sink a little deeper into our posture,
Into the body.
In a curious way,
The closer we get to the breath,
The less we have to be in control of it.
We are the breath.
And the breath is always with us,
Even when we're not noticing it.
But there is a certain simplicity to be found when we just put things aside and come back to this.
There's no need to capture or describe the moment.
Just experiencing it.
And for the last few moments,
Just setting aside everything.
Breathing in,
Know that you're breathing in.
And breathing out,
Know that you're breathing out.
And you can begin to gently open your eyes if they've been closed and take this breath with you to the rest of your day.
Thank you.
