Close your eyes,
Take deep breaths and relax.
Allow your attention to move inward.
Feel your whole being beginning to soften and relax.
Breathe in fully and exhale with a deep sigh.
Exhale again and exhale with a deep sigh letting go even more.
Feel a sense of comfort,
Safety and peace begin to wash over you.
Now release your attention and allow it to float freely throughout your experience.
Notice how it may gravitate towards a thought,
Move to a sensation or rest on the breath.
Make no effort to interfere with or control attention.
Simply watch as it spontaneously and effortlessly moves among the various experiences present in each moment.
And now bring your awareness to the breath.
Become aware of your natural breath pattern without trying to control it or change it.
Witness the breath breathing itself.
You may find the breath to be fast,
Maybe slow,
Deep or shallow.
Whatever's happening,
Relax and witness the breath.
If any thoughts come into your mind,
Just let them go and come back to awareness of the breath.
And on your next inhalation,
Breathe in through your nose,
Filling your lungs fully and completely without straining.
And as you exhale,
Purse the lips and gently blow the exhaling breath out through the mouth as if blowing through a straw.
Letting the exhalation be a long,
Steady,
Managed stream,
Emptying your lungs completely.
And as you breathe in,
Feel coolness and calmness spreading throughout the body.
And as you breathe out,
Let each exhalation empty your mind of thoughts,
The body of tension.
Stay attentive to the flow of breath without any effort or struggle.
Be calm and steady.
Now simply notice the pause at the top of the inhalation and at the bottom of the exhalation.
And each time your breath stops,
Empty your mind into the field of silence.
And if the breath naturally stops for a longer period of time,
Allow it to happen,
But do not force.
Let your breath flow in a long,
Steady,
Unbroken stream.
And towards the end of the exhalation,
Holding the breath out only until comfortable.
And while holding the breath out,
Maintaining your attention at the third eye.
Wait until natural urges arise in the body to breathe again.
Let the impulse to resume breathing arise directly from your body rather than your mind.
Then inhale regularly,
Filling your lungs fully.
Let your inhalation be natural and relaxed.
And now notice that after inhalation,
Your breath may momentarily pause or cease of its own accord.
Let this internal holding happen naturally with effortless ease.
And now simply allow the breath to naturally and effortlessly pause at the bottom of the exhalations and at the top of the inhalations.
If you are straining in any way,
Simply return back to the basic straw breath in through the nose.
Inhale through the mouth with pursed lips as if blowing through a straw.
And when you feel the urge to dissolve into stillness,
Allow it to happen.
Breathe normally.
Maintain your focus on the third eye.
Withdraw all your attention from all the disturbances and distractions arising from within and without.
And when you become distracted or notice the mind wandering,
Use the straw breath to reengage you into stillness.
All of your awareness is on the breath.
Now allow the breath to return to normal and be still.
Feel yourself overcome with a deep sense of peace and calm.
Allow it to pervade all aspects of your being.
Let the effect of the breath draw you deeply into silent awareness.
Enter an empty,
Open,
Relaxed space.
And now expand your awareness to include the whole physical body.
Notice how relaxed the body is,
How empty the mind is,
And how soft the breath is.
Be still and be grateful.
Know that you can easily return here again and again.
