Breath Counting With Options

A variation of the complete 25-minute Zen breath-counting meditation. This includes the option to count either each individual breath or each complete cycle of breath to move into more open awareness. Breathe deeply now.

Transcript

Finding your comfortable position.

You might want to just check that the lower half of the body is feeling stable.

The upper half of the body is feeling nice and free and open,

Spine is relaxed,

But long.

Now,

If you need to,

You could sway the upper half of the body just to get a sense of where that natural balance point is.

And starting to bring the awareness inside the body.

Bringing the awareness inside the body,

Starting to open up to what we're actually experiencing right now.

Perhaps first of all,

Noticing the connection between the feet and the floor.

Taking your awareness into the soles of the feet and noticing what it feels like to connect with the floor.

Noticing the sensations,

Starting to allow everything else to arise and pass.

That connection with the floor might help the legs to relax.

Might start to allow the mind to settle.

Just noticing your personal experience.

Bring the awareness to the sitting bones.

Having a sense that the weight from the upper half of the body can flow out through the sitting bones.

Letting that happen.

And here too,

Noticing the sensations as you connect with the chair.

Perhaps you can bring all of those sensations together and notice how the whole lower half of the body can connect with the surface.

Noticing the sensations and perhaps getting a sense of the body grounding.

What does that mean for you,

The lower half of the body grounding?

Can you tune into that?

And from that stable base that we're experiencing,

Can you allow the spine to be nice and open and long?

Perhaps a sense of it moving in both directions,

Opening out vertebrae by vertebrae.

Pushing downwards,

Growing tall.

Just checking that the belly is relaxed.

Allowing the shoulders to drop.

Weight of the arms can be taken by resting the hands,

One on top of each other in the lap.

Neck is long.

Tucking the chin,

If that helps,

To elongate the neck.

Softening the eyes,

Either half open or closed.

Perhaps a sense of it moving in both directions.

Either half open or closed.

Perhaps a sense of softening into the temples.

Letting go of the forehead.

Crown of the head naturally rising up.

Getting a sense of that grounded lower half open,

Alert upper half of the body.

Noticing how that feels.

Starting to get a feeling of the breath moving in and out of the body.

Noticing how that feels.

Starting to get a feeling of the breath moving in and out of the body.

Starting to notice that in as much detail as possible.

You might get a sense of where the breath comes from and where it returns to.

You might get a sense of the air moving in and out of the nostrils.

You might notice what that feels like.

How the tiny hairs in the nostrils are moved by the air.

Perhaps a sense of warmth or coolness.

Perhaps a sense of warmth or coolness.

And starting to notice the rest of the journey all the way down deeply inside the body.

Following the breath all the way down as deeply as you can feel it inside the body.

Perhaps getting a sense of the lower parts of the ribs moving.

Or perhaps even the belly involved in the breath in some way.

Allowing everything else to arise and pass resting the awareness down in the belly.

Let's begin counting each individual breath.

So on an in-breath counting one,

Out-breath two,

In-breath three.

All the way out to ten.

And then simply starting again.

Doing your best to allow anything at all to arise and pass as you focus on the breath and the counting.

Anytime you drift away.

Coming back to the counting as soon as possible and if you need to restarting the count.

All kinds of things can distract us.

Plans,

Thoughts,

Memories,

Sensations.

We can also sometimes get a sense of the counting becoming automatic.

And that automatic process allowing us to drift off.

If you do find the counting is taking on a life of its own,

Just trying to pin it back to each individual breath.

Trying to count to each individual breath.

So that's the end of the video.

Thank you for watching.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You may feel that things start to quieten down,

That your awareness is relatively undisturbed.

And if that's the case for you,

You might like to try counting each cycle of breath.

So rather than individual in and out breaths,

We might count in breath,

Out breath one.

In breath,

Out breath two.

Just as before,

Up to ten.

And starting again at one.

If you prefer to have more of a solid focus for the awareness,

You can stick with counting each individual breath.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If you're finding that the awareness is drifting off,

Perhaps the awareness is feeling a bit cloudy,

A bit dull,

You might like to check in with your posture every so often,

Just double check that you've got that sense of a grounded lower half of the body.

And that upright,

Open,

Elongated sense of an upper half of the body.

Giving us the best chance for a grounded and yet bright awareness with which to practice with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counting the breath is a very simple but very effective and powerful technique and you can use this technique at any point.

And we want to become a bit more mindful,

A bit more rooted with our day,

Perhaps while we're walking.

Perhaps when we feel like things are getting a bit too much.

You can try coming back to this technique that we're learning here.

And then going back to counting the breath and see what difference that makes.

Whether you've been counting each cycle of breath or not.

You've been counting each cycle of breath or each individual breath.

You can let go of the counting now and just remain with the sensations of breath deep in the body.

And starting to allow the awareness to rise upwards.

Starting to notice sensations towards the surface of the body.

Starting to notice sensations towards the surface of the body.

As the sensations come to the surface,

Allowing the awareness to also start to grow outside perhaps of the body.

Noticing how the body's resting.

Perhaps noticing how the room feels now.

Do you notice any sense of coolness or warmth?

Perhaps how the clothing is touching the body.

Perhaps more aware of sound or light and shadow.

Bringing the awareness right to the edges and feeling into the fingers and toes.

Bringing some movement into the fingers and toes.

Moving the rest of the body.

Stretching or yawning.

Waking the body up.

Whenever you're ready to do so,

If you had your eyes closed you can open them now.

Your meditation practice is complete.

Reviews

Excellent. This meditation brought me great clarity. Thank you.

Very calming

Very relaxing. Thank you.

Excellent. Very nicely guided with some quiet moments to practice. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏