Let's do some mindfulness of breathing meditation.
You can choose whichever position you find supportive.
And wherever you're at,
It could be sitting up,
Lying down,
Standing up.
If you have a lot of restless energy present,
Some anxiety,
At any point actually in the meditation,
Feel free to gently move your body.
You can combine this with movement meditation.
Just know you always have some options.
Alternatively you can choose to stay still and just watch.
My suggestion would be to use your body as a guide,
As it's always right.
So let's just go ahead and start settling.
Connect to your body in this time and space.
Observe position of your body.
What energies are present?
And see if you can breathe into the areas that's calling for your attention.
And then you can go ahead and turn your attention to the breathing itself.
And then if you wish,
You can start by deliberately increasing the depth and the length of the inhale and exhale,
Just so you can connect and feel it in your body.
Just for a few inhales and exhales.
And then allow your body to breathe itself,
Whatever it might look like for you.
See if you can observe the quality of your breathing.
Maybe even its location,
Where do you feel it in your body?
Notice if there is a certain rhythm to your breathing.
And when you notice that the judgment arrived or the urge to control or manipulate the breathing,
My invitation would be to meet that moment with kindness,
That very moment of awareness that you notice.
See if you can be with that,
With grace.
And know that you have a permission to begin again with the very next breath.
And people feel the breath differently in their bodies and it also changes.
Your breath changes and the way we feel it changes too.
So my invitation would be to see how,
What's the felt sense?
How do you know that you are breathing without knowing but actually feeling?
It could be a sense of movement through your nose or the throat or movement in the chest or belly or both.
It could be a sense of breathing as a whole,
As a whole body breathing.
Or a particular small part of it,
Like a difference in temperature between the air that's coming in and the air that's coming out.
And whichever way is easiest for you to connect and stay with your breathing is okay.
It can change from different times,
It can change from your energy level or whether you're tired or not.
Paying attention to your breathing is just a tool,
A practice of how to be with whatever is present.
And if you find yourself being distracted,
Just know that that's normal as well.
Mind just makes thoughts and then they take us away.
That's okay.
Just know that you can choose to bring yourself back,
Your attention back.
And one of the tools is you can see if you can pay your full attention just to the next three breaths or so.
That way it's not so overwhelming for our mind.
And then you can choose to keep making those small increments of sustained attention or you can choose to just observe what is and just each time you notice that you got distracted or your attention moved somewhere else,
Each time you have that moment of awareness and you meet it with kindness and grace,
That's a mindful moment.
You can always begin again.
One of the ways we can also connect to our bodies during breathing is by using our hands.
So if you are doing fine as it is,
Go ahead,
Continue with what you're doing.
Otherwise you can put one of your hand on your belly and one of your hand on the chest if it's available to you.
And if you don't have hands that are available to you,
You can use something to rest your body on so you can have some feedback on the slight movement that happens as the body breathes into itself.
Just notice if there is that added sensations or feedback through your hands on the movement of the body.
Notice what happens to energies when there is a sensation of breathing into your hand.
Alternatively feeling that extra maybe pressure if you're laying down or resting your body on some surface for feedback.
Notice what happens to quality of your breath.
See if you can let your belly be unguarded and soft.
See what happens if you give your body permission to let go just a little bit and allow for some air to go just a little bit deeper or maybe even lower.
You can rest your hands if you used your hands or if you had some feedback for your body you can continue with that because my next invitation would be to have a sense of feeling the expansion and contraction of your whole body breathing as you were a giant jellyfish.
And as your circumference of your chest is this the body of the jellyfish that opens and comes back expands and contracts smoothly gracefully.
Maybe you can even sense the feeling of movement and expansion in your back or your sides.
Just notice what happens to quality of your breath.
The energies that are present.
Can you be with this moment fully?
And can you meet this as a friend?
I'm going to go ahead and sound the bell.
Just to signify the end of my guidance and then you can stay with this practice and whenever you're ready you can feel free to conclude it.
