Welcome to this breath awareness meditation,
Using the natural flow of breath as an anchor point for the awareness.
You can practice this sitting down or lying down,
Whichever you prefer.
So just coming into your position now,
Making any last adjustments that you need to,
Making those adjustments mindfully.
Settling in.
Starting to bring the awareness inside the body.
Becoming comfortable with how things are right now for you.
Noticing in as much detail as possible without the need to hold on to anything that we find.
Bringing the awareness inside and just checking your position before we begin.
You're lying down,
Just making sure that you're as comfortable as possible,
Perhaps with something behind the neck or the head,
Perhaps something underneath the knees.
If you're seated,
Just checking the knees are apart.
Checking that the back is upright.
If you're seated,
You might like to check that the knees are below the pelvis.
Perhaps getting a sense of the lower half of the body being stable and grounded.
In the upper half,
Open,
Free,
Relaxed.
Just starting to tune in to how the body is resting on the surface.
Noticing the points of contact.
Noticing how they feel.
Perhaps it's the whole back of the body if you're lying down.
If you're seated,
Noticing how the feet are resting on the floor.
Notice how the feet are resting on the floor.
Notice how the weight is allowed to flow through the sitting bones.
Noticing the effect that that grounding can have on the body and the mind.
Allowing the upper half of the body to be open,
Free.
Allowing the spine to occupy its natural curves.
Belly is relaxed.
Shoulders are allowed to drop.
If you're lying down,
The arms can just rest outside the body.
If you're seated,
You might like to have the hands one on top of the other in the lap.
Neck is long.
Chin gently tucks in.
Crown of the head reaches upwards.
Tongue resting gently on the roof of the mouth.
Closing the eyes if you wish to.
Breathing through the nose if that's comfortable.
And of course if you need to,
Using the mouth for the breath.
So awareness inside the body.
Using this opportunity to get a global sense of how the body feels.
Just noticing.
And starting to allow everything else to arise and pass.
And within that global sense of the whole body.
Starting to notice how the breath can move naturally in and out.
Nothing to change or alter.
Just noticing.
Natural breathing pattern.
Noticing how the breath enters the body through the nostrils.
What are the sensations like of breath moving in and out of the nostrils?
Throughout the meditation.
Allowing thoughts to arise.
Allowing them to pass.
Just noticing the breath.
And perhaps noticing the breath as it moves more deeply inside the body.
Can you pick up on the sense of movement in the throat?
No right or wrong.
We're just looking for your experience right now.
Moving the awareness of breath down.
And perhaps noticing expansion and contraction of breath in the chest cavity.
Noticing how the rib cage moves.
Can you get a sense of breath moving in and out of the body further down?
Can you pick up on any sensations of breath moving in and out of the belly?
Perhaps a sense of rising and falling of breath in the belly.
Wherever you can feel the breath moving most deeply down inside the body.
Resting the awareness at that point.
And noticing as clearly as possible each in-breath and out-breath.
Allowing anything at all to arise and pass.
Anytime you get distracted,
Anytime the awareness is taken away,
Just gently bring it back to breath movement in the lowest part of the body that you can feel that taking place.
It's perfectly normal,
It's perfectly natural for the attention to start wandering off.
Just noticing as soon as possible when that starts to happen,
Gently bringing the awareness back.
Nowhere to go,
Nothing else we need to do right now.
Just using the breath as a focal point for the awareness.
Bringing the awareness back anytime it drifts away.
Noticing as much detail as possible in each individual breath.
Perhaps noticing the pauses too.
Using that level of detail to help keep the awareness anchored to the breath.
Breath awareness is a technique to keep us rooted in the moment with how things actually are right now.
Just noticing as soon as possible when that starts to happen,
Gently bringing the awareness back.
A simple technique,
But not necessarily an easy one.
Our minds often want to wander off to find distractions.
Anytime that happens,
Not telling ourselves off,
Just bringing the awareness back to the breath.
You You You Easy,
Natural,
Flowing breath.
Connecting us with the moment and also perhaps connecting us with everything that we perceive as outside of ourselves.
Breath is part of the connection with the whole.
You You You You You Noticing breath sensations deep inside the body.
You Noticing all the details And now starting to allow the awareness to rise up to the surface of the body You Gently coming to the surface And as you're doing so allowing the senses to start to open back out You Opening up the senses Perhaps a perception of sensations on the surface of the body You Perhaps starting to notice sounds close by or into the distance You And starting to notice the fingers and toes You bringing some movement into the fingers and toes very gentle movement wiggling the fingers and toes You And you can expand that movement into the rest of the body now You perhaps taking a stretch or a yawn Doing whatever feels good to wake the body up You you Taking all the time you need If you had the eyes closed You You can open them now your meditation practice on the breath is now complete
