The awareness of breath meditation.
The intention of this practice is to move out of our doing mode and into our being mode.
As we practice bringing our attention into what we're experiencing right now,
Not trying to have the experience be anything other than what it is,
Allowing whatever to show up,
Just show up.
So settling into a seated posture,
Whether that's on a chair,
Kneeling on the floor,
Or even sitting on a couch or a bed,
Taking time to experiment with your posture,
Maybe feeling into the feet,
Noticing yourself supported by the chair or the cushions beneath you.
And sitting nice and tall,
Allowing the spine to lengthen,
Feeling the top of the head resting on the neck.
And taking any movements that we need to to get settled in,
Finding comfort and ease in our seated posture.
Taking a moment to notice a room that you're in,
Seeing the objects around you,
Perhaps noticing colors or textures.
And when you're ready,
Gently closing the eyes if that's comfortable.
If not,
Just taking a soft gaze,
Maybe lowering the gaze down towards the floor and becoming aware of your sense of hearing,
Exploring sounds outside of the room,
Not trying to identify the sounds,
Just letting them be there,
Taking them in.
And then gradually bringing your awareness to closer sounds,
To sounds inside of the room,
Letting the sounds just come and go.
And making a choice here to allow yourself to be exactly as you are in this moment.
Thoughts and emotions will come and go.
And just allowing them to be there,
Paying attention to whatever sensations in the body arise,
Not needing them to be anything different.
And when it feels right,
Tuning in towards your breath.
There's no need to change it.
There's no need to control it.
Letting the breath be as it is right now.
Settling in and feeling the sensations in the body as we breathe in and out.
We might even want to place our hand on the body where we can feel the inhales or the exhales.
It might stay somewhere near the face and the neck,
The throat.
It might go down further to the shoulders,
The chest,
Maybe even lower towards the belly or further down the body.
Noticing how the breath and the body move together.
And as we practice sitting here,
We may notice that the body gets a little uncomfortable.
And knowing you have the choice to either explore being a little uncomfortable and noticing those sensations in the body,
Or if it's just too much or too uncomfortable,
You can always change your posture to help keep you here in this moment to bring you back into the breath.
As the breath rolls in and out,
You may notice a sound with the breath.
It might be loud,
It might be soft.
There may be no sound at all.
Noticing what's showing up.
Perhaps it's easy to sit with the breath.
Or it might be challenging.
There might be some aversion to the practice.
Just noticing what's here and allowing it to be here.
There's no need to make the experience different than what it is.
Noticing our actual pleasant moment experience.
Coming back to the breath again and again.
Exploring each breath with the beginner's mind.
Just like each moment is different,
Each breath is different.
Can we treat each breath as a new experience?
Discovering what's here.
Maybe noticing if our breath seems to stay with a similar pattern,
Similar rhythm.
Maybe it changes as we continue to observe the breath.
Can we sense a feeling of ease as we breathe in and out?
Allowing ourselves to surrender to the experience as it is.
Whether tuning towards the breath is easy or challenging.
It might even fluctuate throughout the practice.
Notice that our thoughts or emotions have taken us away from our breath,
The sensations in the body.
Just noticing what's pulled us away and knowing that it's fine that we've been pulled away.
Recognizing what's pulled us away.
And if we're able to,
Just letting our attention come back to the breath whenever we're ready.
With each breath,
Noticing if there's any movement in the body or corresponding sensations.
And when you're ready,
Expanding the attention to the entire body,
From the head all the way down towards the toes.
Feeling the body sitting on your chair or your support beneath you.
Sensing the body sitting here in this moment.
Becoming aware of the sense of hearing.
Hearing my voice but also the sounds in your space.
The constant sounds,
The sounds that come and go quickly.
Expanding the awareness to outside of your room.
What are the sounds outside?
Just beginning to flutter the eyes open,
Visually taking in the room around you.
Beginning to bring gentle movement in the body.
Stretching the body.
Noticing what feels good right now and then just adjusting the body.
Maybe taking small movements or a big stretch.
Whatever the body is feeling right now.
And this practice is now complete.
