Today,
Let's focus on the breath.
Find yourself in a comfortable position.
You can have your legs crossed or your feet on the floor,
Back straight,
Eyes closed,
Or just sing your body,
Taking a look for a moment where your breath is happily.
Oftentimes when we're under stress,
Our breath will be shallow in the chest.
As we use the breath in meditation,
And as we use meditation to learn how to manage our nervous system,
We can move the breath down into the belly.
Allowing that breath to come down requires a little bit of letting go in the abdomen,
A softening.
As you breathe in,
The belly should come out.
When our body is relaxed,
We breathe naturally into the belly.
If you've ever watched somebody laying on their back sleeping,
They breathe that way.
The belly goes up and down.
As we breathe down into the belly,
We are hinting,
Coaxing,
Instructing what's unconscious within us to let go and relax.
As we take in each breath and release each breath,
The nervous system begins to turn down the stress response and turn up the relaxation.
So allowing a breath to come in using that diaphragm.
As the diaphragm moves down gently,
Massages our digestive organs,
Waking up these parasympathetic nerve endings,
Which helps us calm down.
As we calm down,
We can go deeper within.
So just breathing at your own pace,
Slowly,
Gently into the belly.
As you breathe in,
Recognizing this process of relaxing,
Also of nourishing.
This part of our nervous system helps us rejuvenate and repair.
So as you breathe in,
Recognize the energy that's coming in,
The oxygen.
So we bring that in,
We receive this nourishment freely into our body,
Into our bloodstream.
And as we breathe out,
We have the opportunity to let go,
To release a little of what we're holding onto.
And if we held onto too long,
It would be toxic in our system.
Releasing that carbon dioxide,
But also releasing whatever it is that we're ready to let go of.
So breathing in nicely,
Softly and deeply into the belly,
And then letting go.
Moving your attention fully into the breath,
Meaning you can feel the breath,
Sensing how the breath changes the feeling inside of our torso,
Feeling it expand,
Feeling it receive.
Just focusing on this sensation.
We can also listen to the breath,
Focusing on the sound of the breath.
You can even close the back of your throat just a little bit to make a sound of breath more clear.
And as we focus on the breath,
As we focus our attention there,
We cannot also pay attention to all that wants to drag us out of the meditation,
Our thoughts,
Other sensations.
So as we breathe and as we focus on the breath,
We can calm our system and practice focusing,
Putting our attention where we want to place our attention rather than simply being drawn into the thoughts that come up automatically.
Thoughts that try to distract us from simply sitting,
Always an idea of something else that should be done.
But for these few more moments,
We're paying attention and breathing.
Breathing in deeply,
Softly and breathing out.
Breathing sensations,
Noticing sound,
You can even imagine light coming in as though you were breathing in light using your visual sense.
Keeping your attention there.
With every breath out,
Just letting go of a little more tension that's held in the body.
Direct a breath into a tense area of the body,
Infinite.
And then as you breathe out,
Just releasing a little bit of that holding.
Using that part of us that can notice the tension that builds up.
And using that same awareness,
That same attention to release,
To let go.
Some more nice,
Gentle,
Full breaths in and out.
And then on your next out breath,
When you're ready,
Just wiggling your fingers and your toes and gently opening your eyes.
Feeling the body being a bit calmer,
A bit quieter to take you into your day.
Thanks for joining me.
I wish you well.
And I'll see you again soon.
