Sitting in a way that allows you to be alert and relaxed at the same time.
Allowing the spine to be pulled gently upward.
Head balanced in a dignified way.
Watching your eyes or looking down and gathering all your attention within.
Brusting the hands in your lap or on your legs in an effortless way.
Briefly scanning through the body to notice any places of tension or holding.
Seeing if there are any areas that want to let go a little.
Letting the shoulders soften and release.
Focusing the muscles of the face.
Feeling the cheeks.
The eyes resting in liquid pools.
Allowing the brow to melt into smoothness.
Bringing a mild friendly expression to your mouth and eyes.
And then turning attention to the breath.
Becoming aware of the sensations of the breath wherever it's most vivid in the body for you.
This may be coming in and out of the nose.
The rise and fall of your chest.
The expanding and releasing of the belly.
Perhaps noticing a sense of the whole body breathing.
Feeling how the breath comes in cool.
Moving through the back of the throat.
Down the windpipe.
And into the lungs.
And then other sensations of letting go as it leaves the body in the opposite direction.
Feeling these sensations as it arrives and leaves.
Realizing that the breath happens all on its own without any effort from you.
We can let go of any impulse to control the breath.
It comes and goes as it will.
Feeling this breath of life lingering on the sensations of air flowing in.
Feeling any clutching or bracing,
Holding or tensing.
Feeling if you can let go a little more in any area of your body or mind.
Feeling a sense of gratitude for the breath.
For life.
For this moment.
Feeling aware of gentle air flowing out at the upper lip.
Perhaps feeling sensations of the skin on clothing and how this touch changes with the dance of life.
Of the movement with breath that happens at the shoulders or chest or abdomen.
Noticing the mind wanders away from sensations of breath.
It's not a failure or a problem at all.
Feeling we've gotten lost in the thought as a victory.
A moment of pure awareness.
Come back to the breath as air enters the nose and its coolness.
And then the effortless transformation as it leaves having been warmed in your miraculous body.
Breath does not stop when we get lost in thought.
Nor does it leave when our mind wanders from our intention.
Bringing awareness that the breath is always there even though we haven't earned it and there's nothing we can do to deserve it.
Feeling those sensations of the breath coming in,
Pausing for a moment and flowing out.
In stillness,
Realizing you have nowhere you need to go.
Nothing that needs doing.
A sense of contentment that this moment and this breath is enough.
A gift of another breath coming in and then deflating and relaxing on the way out.
Unending,
Dependable,
Ever there.
Returning to the pause between breaths.
And then bringing awareness to the slight rest between the in-breath and the out-breath when even the breath's rhythm has a moment of complete stillness.
Remembering when the mind is lost in thought that this is not a problem and just coming back to stillness.
We go of judgment,
The mind can no more stop thinking than the heart can stop beating.
The awareness to notice when we are off in thinking and the gentle return without judgment to feeling the breath once again is the mechanism for transformation over time.
Thinking and returning.
Coming back.
Each moment,
Each breath is an opportunity to begin again.
Focusing in on how it feels in the mind to wake up again from constructed thought to feeling the breath instead.
Coming out of thought and into awareness,
What is that like?
Feeling again the expansion and contraction of the rib cage and of the lungs.
The constancy of breath provides a measure of preservation and protection.
Feeling being supported from one moment to another.
Becoming aware of any subtle rocking sensations from the waves of breath coming in and out of the body.
Attuning to a sense of breath rocking your body as a whole,
Very gently,
Ever so slightly.
Receiving what is here in this moment with acceptance.
Breathing into the play of life right here in this moment.
Receiving this breath in and also receiving an opening to a willingness and a gratitude for life.
Accepting the miracle of this breath.
As this meditation comes to a close,
Letting go of any judgment for how the practice went.
Remaining open to the cycle of recognizing that getting lost in thought is part of being human and your intention to bring your mind back to the breath with kindness is enough.
Just the intention alone and perhaps spending a moment to savor the beneficial feelings generated in this practice.
Recognizing yourself for having taken this time to receive breath sensations as an act of focused self-nurturing.
And in conclusion,
Carrying this reward with you throughout the moments of your day.
