Settling,
Grounding,
Resting with breath support.
Bringing our mind to our motivation to practicing mindfulness right now and thinking about what's important to us and then remembering our intention.
And for this practice perhaps a willingness to allow the mind to rest to give ourselves a break from this constant engagement of a busy mind.
And so taking a posture that's upright and relaxed and a posture that honors the practice and also your willingness to learn.
Just being curious and aware.
And then beginning to take a moment to settle our mind.
Allowing the breathing to deepen perhaps with a count of three or four on the in-breath and three or four on the out-breath.
Just allowing the arising and passing of thought and if we get caught up in thinking just gently guiding our attention back to the breathing and counting.
And then letting go of the counting and allowing the breathing just to settle into a natural pattern and moving our focus onto the out-breath.
Just slightly extending the out-breath with a normal relaxed in-breath.
And maybe noticing if there's a tendency for the body to relax or to release with each out-breath.
And we can begin to become aware of the variety of body sensations within the body,
Whatever they are.
And then just noticing how the body is supported by the ground or the seat beneath us.
Feeling any heaviness within the body,
Spine rising up to the crown of the head so we are upright and alert.
And just resting in this posture supported unconditionally by the chair or the ground.
And we can move our awareness outwards,
Perhaps becoming aware of the space around the body.
And for a moment just letting go of any sense of having to do anything at all.
The idea of just nothing to do,
Nowhere to go,
Nothing to fix.
So thoughts and sensations,
Distractions will appear,
Remembering that's what they do and it's not a problem.
We can leave the distractions where they are,
Plenty of space for them.
And we can let our attention rest on the breath using our breath as a support.
Just gently maintaining an awareness of the breathing.
No need to push thoughts or sensations away.
Most of our attention just gently focusing on the breath.
And again from time to time we become lost in thought.
We are no longer aware of the support of the breath.
Maybe we got caught up in a story,
Maybe we were distracted.
And that's fine.
Just focusing on the breath with no sense of failure.
Just returning to the breath as a sense of support for this moment.
We can allow space for thought and sensations just to be there.
And if we don't get caught up in them we can remain focused on our breath as a support for this breathing practice.
And again just gently coming back again and again to the breathing as a way of strengthening our focus and strengthening our practice.
Thoughts continually coming in.
No need to analyse,
No need to speculate.
Just giving ourselves permission to be aware.
Just giving ourselves permission to be aware of the sensation of breathing.
An awareness of the body breathing and mind resting.
And again as we come to the end of the session we can reflect on moments of mindfulness and not worry about the moments of distraction because it's all learning.
And we can make an aspiration of changing the habit of the mind of total distraction to learning to rest with the benefit that that brings to us and being able to share that benefit with others.
