Hey friends,
Thanks for sitting with me today.
Today I want to sit with you for just a simple breath awareness practice.
Sometimes our meditation practice can get pretty elaborate,
But I fear sometimes with more elaborate techniques,
More elaborate practices,
Sometimes we can get expectations in regards to those.
So today I just want a simple practice with you.
Keep it sweet,
Keep it simple.
No expectations.
This can absolutely be your first meditation practice ever.
It's that simple.
This is as simple as it needs to be.
So join me in a comfortable,
Upright position.
Maybe you're sitting cross-legged on the floor or on a cushion.
Maybe you're sitting in a chair or on a couch or the edge of the bed.
Whatever it is that works for your situation right now,
Meet me there.
As I said,
This is a breath awareness practice.
So let's invite the breath into our awareness now.
Notice the inhale.
Deep inhale.
And notice the slow exhale.
Just take a few deep breaths like this.
Notice the breath starting in the diaphragm,
Moving up through the chest,
Through the throat,
Up into the nostrils.
And then as you start the out breath,
Notice it going back down.
Follow the breath in this way from beginning to end.
Good.
As we're following the breath here,
Let's explore the breath a little bit while we're there.
So you followed it from beginning to end.
Let's focus on the belly.
Feel the breath in the belly.
And exaggerate on the inhale,
Your belly extending a little bit.
Then on the exhale,
Your belly deflating.
Really feel the breath in the belly now.
As you do,
See how far down you can send the breath.
See if you can get the breath to reach all the way down to the belly button.
Whatever that means for you.
Move the attention up to the chest and feel the rise and fall of the chest as you inhale.
And as you exhale,
Feel that space created in the lungs.
You fill them up with air.
Put the attention in the nostrils.
Just right at the edges of the nostrils.
Feel the cool air coming in as you inhale.
And that recycled warm air leaving the nostrils as you exhale.
And cool air in.
Warm air out.
So choose whichever of these three locations you enjoyed the most.
Hang out there for a while.
Following the in-breath and following the out-breath.
Really concentrate on every minutia of detail with the breath.
You think you've gone as deep as you can go.
See if you can get just a little bit more still.
Still enough to dive just a little bit deeper.
Get a little bit harder.
Get curious about how deep into this experience you can go.
Get curious about what's in each breath.
And as I leave you with a little bit more silence here and there,
Be aware that your mind's going to do its job.
It's going to try to shove thoughts into your mind.
It's going to try to distract you.
If you notice you've been pulled away from your focus on the breath,
Just kindly and compassionately move the attention back to the breath.
Connect your attention gently like guiding a puppy on a leash.
This is a practicing concentration,
Our concentration on the breath.
It's also a practice in awareness,
In that moment when you discover that your thoughts have strayed.
It's you exercising your awareness.
That's the practice,
You're doing it right.
Told you there wasn't much to it,
Right?
Pretty simple.
Again,
Noticing where your thoughts are.
And if they've strayed compassionately,
Direct them back towards the breath to whichever part of the breath you've chosen to focus on,
To all those tiny,
Tiny details of the breath.
Excuse me.
Maybe you're noticing a lot of distractions.
Maybe as soon as you bring the attention back to the breath,
It turns right back around and it's gone again.
It can be frustrating.
It can feel like you're failing over and over and over again.
That's not failing again.
That's the practice.
Every time you notice the mind is strayed and you pull it back to your focus,
That's the equivalent of one bicep curl for your mind,
For your concentration muscle.
So maybe even each time you get distracted,
You thank your mind for the opportunity to recover from that distraction.
You thank your mind for that opportunity to practice.
Okay.
So gently let go of your focus on the breath.
Let it fall away.
Sway in your seat a little bit.
Wake the body back up.
And gently blink open the eyes.
I hope you found value in this simple practice.
Whether it was your first ever practice or just an attempt to keep things simple today.
Either way I thank you for sitting with me.
