Welcome to this 20 minute meditation on watching the breath.
This meditation will help you gain more focus,
Mindfulness,
Remote feelings of calm and relaxation,
And also helps you build your meditative concentration.
This practice can be used as a warm-up for other meditations or used as a standalone practice on its own.
I'll first go over briefly the instructions and then you'll hear a bell which will signify the start of this guided meditation.
At the end of this guided meditation,
You will hear a bell which will signify the closing of our practice today.
So for this practice,
You want to find a comfortable posture and bring your mind's eye or your attention to the spot just below your nostrils.
And all we're doing in this practice is resting our attention below the nostrils and we're going to scan for any sensations at the point below your nostrils.
So to be clear,
We're not moving our attention up and down or following the breath up our nostrils,
For example,
But simply just resting our attention to the point right below the nostril area.
And we're just observing the breath as it hits this area,
In and out.
Now there will be two parts of this simple practice.
The first is that we will mentally note our in-breaths and out-breaths by mentally noting inhale or mentally noting exhale as our breath hits this area below our nostrils.
And by making a mental note,
A lot of people find it very easy to warm up to this practice.
But then the second part is once we've established an adequate level of concentration,
We will let go of the mental counts altogether and rest our mind's eye fixed at this point at nostrils and simply just observe the sensations of the breath at this fixed point.
So let's get started.
Once you've found your comfortable posture,
Take a moment and close your eyes.
Notice where your attention is focused on at the present moment.
Is it focused on a thought or a sensation in the body or a feeling?
Simply just observe where your attention goes to.
And wherever your attention is,
Direct your focus of attention to the spot right below your nostrils and above the upper lip.
And keep your mind's eye or focus or attention in this area.
Intertune into your breaths,
Not controlling your breath in any way.
And when you breathe in,
Mentally note inhale.
And as you breathe out,
Mentally note exhale.
And continue in this manner,
Observing your natural inhales and natural exhales and mentally noting each inhale and each exhale.
If your mind wanders,
Gently notice without any judgment.
And redirect your focus back to the area right below your nostrils.
And mentally note inhale as you inhale and exhale as you exhale.
With your attention still rested in the area right below your nostrils,
Start to now drop away the mental notes of inhale and exhale.
And simply just rest your attention in this area right below your nostrils.
As your attention becomes more focused on this area below your nostrils,
You'll observe some sensations start to arise in and around the skin of your nostrils.
As you become more concentrated and observe your natural inhales and exhales in this area.
Remember not to move your attention around to notice these sensations,
But rather just keep your attention very still in one point below the nostrils and just observe whatever sensations arise in this area.
Just by keeping your attention still and focused on this one point.
Notice if your attention has strayed away from observing the nostril area.
And if so,
Gently guide it back to the spot right below your nostrils.
And just watch any sensations once again arise and disappear in this spot right below the nostrils.
By bringing your attention back to this spot over again,
Whenever we've lost our focus,
We actually learn to develop the skill of mindfulness.
As we end today's meditation practice,
Just know that you can come back to this technique throughout your day.
To reestablish mindfulness and to calm a busy mind.
This can be done once again by mentally noting inhale and exhale as you go about your day,
Just observing your natural inhalations and natural exhalations.
The other method you can use is to simply just rest your attention in the area right below your nostrils as you go about your daily activities.
And this will bring a very nice added touch of mindfulness that will spill over to all your activities throughout the day.
Take a moment now and open your eyes and thank yourself for taking the time to practice meditation today.
