Welcome to the 3-minute breathing space meditation.
The 3-minute breathing space is a mini-meditation for weaving mindfulness into your everyday life.
So try to practice at different times throughout your day.
The breathing space can be helpful when you notice that you're getting overly busy,
Caught up in your head,
Or experiencing physical tension,
Emotional upset,
Or tiredness.
It can also help you transition smoothly from one activity to another.
When you end or start an activity like a meeting or a phone call,
Or just before you walk through the door to enter your office at the start of the day,
Or as you come home at the end of a work day.
Engaging in this practice allows you to step out of the autopilot mode or your normal reactivity,
Re-establish contact with yourself,
And reconnect with the present moment.
This can help create a sense of space between you and the situation to see it from a different perspective and to choose to respond in a different and hopefully more supportive way.
So let's begin.
Step 1 is becoming aware.
Take a pause.
Step out of autopilot mode.
Become more aware of how things are in this moment.
Deliberately adopt an erect and dignified posture,
Whether sitting or standing.
If possible,
Close your eyes.
Then ask yourself,
What's going on?
What is my experience right now?
What body sensations are here right now?
What thoughts are going through my mind?
What emotions are here?
Take a minute to be and sense your whole self without judgment and without trying to change anything.
Step 2 is gathering your attention and gently redirecting it to the physical sensations of breathing.
Staying fully present with each in-breath and each out-breath as they follow one another.
Use the breath as an anchor or home base to bring you into the present and help you tune into your stealth with awareness and stillness.
Take a minute now to sense the flow of your breath.
Step 3 is to be aware of how things are in this moment.
Take a minute to be and sense your whole self without trying to change anything.
Step 4 is to be aware of how things are in this moment.
Step 5 is to be aware of how things are in this moment.
Step 3 is expanding the field of your awareness around the breathing so that it includes a sense of the body as a whole from bottom to top.
So sense your feet,
Legs,
Hips,
Belly,
Chest,
Shoulders,
Neck,
Face and head.
Sense your posture.
Sense your facial expression.
Sensing your whole breathing body right here,
Right now.
If you experience any discomfort,
Tension,
Or holding on in the body,
Take your awareness there by breathing into the sensations in the in-breath.
Then breathe out from those sensations,
Softening and opening and allowing with the out-breath.
Take a minute to sense your whole breathing body.
I'd like to invite you now to bring this mini meditation to an end.
Thank you for practicing.
Thank yourself for practicing.
And be well.
