Hi,
This is Jay Gee at Mindful Life Project.
Hope you're having a very present day.
Today we're going to practice mindful breathing.
It's the foundational skill of mindfulness practice.
It's the one thing that's consistently available to feel both in sensations and experience in the present moment.
Toss,
Physical sensations,
Emotions,
They all come and go like clouds in the sky.
But the breath can get us back to the present moment because it's right here,
Right now,
All the time.
So allow yourself to find a seated position that's comfortable and dignified and relaxed.
And as we always start our Mindful Sits at Mindful Life Project,
You may repeat after me or just do it in your head.
I've got my feet on the floor.
I've got my spine in a line.
I've got my hands in my lap.
I've got my heart to the sky.
And now gently allow your eyes to close or find a soft gaze right in front of you.
And allowing yourself to be present inside and outside yourself,
Just being here now.
So let the entry point of your mindfulness practice be the sound of the bell to start with.
Thoughts might pop up.
Just come back to the sound of the bell.
And just noticing your body sitting,
Maybe the contact points,
Grounding ourselves in the here and now.
Notice where your feet are and how they feel.
Notice your sit bones,
Maybe the cushion or chair or carpet or wherever you're sitting.
Just noticing the pressure,
The weight of the body.
And then notice where your hands are.
Any temperature,
Tingling,
Any fingertip sensations.
And then we're going to just gently,
With that mindful one point of awareness,
Practice paying attention to the breath.
And if anything takes us away from the breath,
We just notice it without judgment and simply just start again.
That's mindfulness,
Noticing distraction and being able to come right back to the present moment with one point of attention,
With one thing that we're focusing on,
Which right now will be the breath.
So notice the inhale,
The pause between the inhale and exhale.
Notice where the exhale begins and where it goes.
And just notice the next space between the exhale and the new inhale.
Just gently bringing attention to the breath.
Inevitably the mind will start thinking.
Just notice it,
You can make a little mental note,
Kind of like you're sending yourself a little text message.
Thinking,
Thinking,
Thinking and redirect to the breath.
And that's the practice.
Just noticing what's arising and being able to come back to the here and now.
Right now let's do that with the breath.
Breathing in,
The pause,
Breathing out.
And try to notice the details of the breath.
The beautiful thing about mindfulness is we can notice that every moment is a little bit different,
Which means every breath is a little bit different.
Notice the length of it,
Where the breath begins,
Where it goes in the body,
Where you feel it the most.
And do the same on the exhale.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
If it's hard to follow the breath,
You can just notice the anchor spot,
Which is where the breath feels the strongest.
Just like a boat or ship needs an anchor to stay in one area through strong waves or strong winds.
Our anchor spot is where we feel the breath the strongest,
Right here,
Right now.
So maybe it's your belly and the rise with the inhale and the fall with the exhale.
Maybe it's your chest,
The expansion,
Again bigger on the in and smaller on the out.
Maybe it's even just at your nose,
The cooler air on the inhale and warmer air on the exhale.
Just find your anchor.
If you notice your mind fading into the distance,
Distracted,
Just come back to the new breath that's right here,
Right now.
We allow the judgment to fade away.
We bring that kindness,
That friendly flashlight of sorts.
Oops,
Distracted by something else.
No problem,
No judgment.
Let me just come right back.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And if we lose focus,
We gently just drop our attention back in the anchor spot,
The belly,
The chest and the nose.
Just notice if your mind starts thinking,
Can you notice a thought a little earlier than the past one?
Maybe it took three or four thoughts before,
Oops,
I noticed I was distracted.
Maybe now it's one or two thoughts and I notice it and bring mindfulness to it and then gently come back to the new breath.
And as we have practiced with the beginning of the sound of the bell,
We're going to end the practice with the sound of the bell and see if you can hear the sound a little clearer.
This time I'm going to introduce a little mindful listening challenge.
I'm going to change the tone of the sound of the bell and the first time I hit the bell it doesn't count.
I'm going to change the tone and I want you to think about how many times you hear the change in the tone of the bell.
And you can put them on your fingers or at the end when there's no sound,
You can say it out loud.
And then you can gently open your eyes.
If you heard the sound change seven times,
That was correct.
But if you didn't hear it seven times,
No judgment,
It's just out of curiosity and fun.
Thank you for joining me this time and may you keep building a mindful.
.
.
