Paying attention,
Paying attention to ourselves,
Paying attention to all of our motivations,
Instincts,
Impulses,
Desires,
Acknowledging the vast range of those desires and impulses,
Many of which are not things that when we are relaxed and consciously aware,
Would we even want to do,
But they're in us,
Recognizing this complicated nature that we have is part of the process of self-examination that comes with the training and meditation and mindful practice of being able to look at what's going on inside of our own minds non-judgmentally,
Without trying to fix it,
Change it,
Or decide whether or not we are good or bad,
But notice the complexity,
The complicated nature of our minds and how the mind is intricately woven into our bodies through the impulses of emotion and action.
So as we sit in the meditation and we breathe and we relax our bellies,
With each breath,
We soften a little bit,
We release a little tension,
And we make a small step from being completely engaged with our thinking mind.
With each breath,
Take another small step to notice the complexity of our being,
The tension in our bodies,
The movement of the mind,
The movement of thought,
What is attractive and repulsive,
And also to observe indirectly all that's going on in our bodies and our minds that we don't even see,
We can't directly access,
Whether it be the beating of our heart or the deep unconscious aspects of our brain that decide whether we're safe in the moment or not.
What we can recognize is our place right here,
Right now,
And that we're always right here and right now,
Whether or not we are deeply engaged in thought or whether we're deeply engaged in some stressful situation,
Frightening situation,
Joyous situation,
Contemplative one,
We're always right here,
That part of us.
So as we breathe in and out,
Connecting with that part,
That's always just right here,
That awareness,
It's the part of us that can say,
Well,
That was scary or that was fun.
So as we drop the breathing into the belly and soften and quiet further,
Deeper,
That part of us moves forward,
Both into our awareness,
As our awareness,
And the mind and the thinking can move further away so that we can start to notice it.
We can notice our attraction to our thinking,
It's sneaky ways of getting our attention.
And then we can gently,
With practice,
Pull ourselves back to ourselves,
To being.
So just breathing gently with each breath a little more deeply into the belly,
Releasing the breath,
Allowing that out breath to elongate till you have to start pulling in the belly to get a little more breath out.
Start filling the abdomen,
The chest,
Till there's no more space.
Slowly and gently,
And then breathing all the way,
Really bringing all the focus to the breath,
Feeling it,
Feeling all of the contours of the breath,
Listening deeply to the breath,
Entering the visual experience of bringing in breath.
What does that look like?
When you're at the edge of a full in breath or a full out breath,
Just holding that breath for a few seconds,
Noticing the feeling that in between desires,
Impulses,
Feeling of satisfaction,
Feeling of lack,
And then letting go of the breath completely,
Dropping in,
Simply being,
Noticing,
Sensing without engaging,
Letting the breath breathe you.
And then very slowly and gently opening the eyes,
Still watching,
Noticing,
And bringing in the outside information,
Gently,
Softly,
And keeping some of this for the rest of your day.
