Settling the mind.
So we begin by sitting comfortably with your back straight.
And then we can focus in a very relaxed way on your breathing.
Breathing a little deeper than normal and then gently releasing the breath.
And just making sure very gently that the in-breath and the out-breath are soft and relaxed and should not be audible.
And we can move now just to making our in-breath and out-breath equal.
And we may find this useful to count.
Perhaps we can count three or four on the in-breath.
And to a count of three or four on the out-breath.
And so with this practice we are doing two things.
Breathing and counting.
You will find that thoughts will continue to pop up into your mind.
This is fine.
It's completely natural.
No need to worry.
We are not trying to get rid of any thoughts or try to push them away.
We're just allowing our thoughts to just be there.
We are just learning to become less involved in our thoughts and more focused on the breathing and the counting.
Just noticing the thoughts moving through our mind.
So any moment we can shift our focus to the thoughts and thinking.
But in this practice we don't do this.
Just refocusing gently back onto the breathing.
If you find that the counting is uncomfortable or it doesn't quite work for you.
Then perhaps saying a short simple phrase as you breathe in.
Something like,
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
And so thoughts arise.
We notice them but our attention remains on the breath and the counting or the gentle phrase.
You might detect a subtle belief that we have to achieve something or that we're not getting it right.
Remembering that these are thoughts too.
Just returning to the breathing and counting.
Letting go of any sense of striving,
Exceeding,
Trying.
Just simply breathing with a very light touch.
Now as we move towards the end of this practice.
We just focus a little more attention on the out breath.
We can drop the counting,
Focusing on an out breath which is just slightly longer than a relaxed in breath.
And as you breathe out,
We may notice a sense of release,
A sense of relaxation.
And just notice as your body relaxes a little on the out breath.
Just see if the mind can learn from the body.
The body releases breath and relaxes,
So mind releases involvement with thinking and begins to settle.
As we come out of this practice,
Just allowing the breath to fall back to a natural breathing pattern.
Letting go of counting,
Softening the breathing.
Just settling into a natural process of breathing.
Letting go of counting.
