Breath, Stillness and Simplicity

This is a beautiful and simple practice that guides you through simple breathing techniques and plenty of space for self practicing.

Transcript

Just taking a moment to bring yourself into this moment and just gently and kindly finding the posture and space to cultivate soft alertness.

This meditation will start with some breathing guidance and we'll move into some spacious practice for you to grow and evolve into.

So just sitting in a space and way that's comfortable for you.

Just grounding yourself into the posture.

Sinking and immersing yourself into the moment and being okay with where you are right now.

Often done with a little smile internally that this is the place for you.

So now just bringing your attention into your breath with your mouth closed gently.

Roof just resting on,

Tongue sorry,

Just resting on the roof of your mouth.

Nice soft eyes.

Relax the jaw.

We're just going to follow the breath in through the nose down past the back of the throat,

Past the chest and let it fill the belly.

Watching it as an image filling the belly and then as it leaves the belly,

Past the chest,

The throat and back out the nose.

So just bringing the attention to that rhythm of breathing right now.

Just following the breath as it comes in and then just watching it fill and then leave again.

If the mind wanders away from the breath and the breathing rhythm,

Just gently start with the nose and start with the next inhale.

Just following this beautiful process of breathing that brings life to us every single second of every single day that we often do not bring our attention to.

So this pause is just a nice way to say thank you to the breath.

Just normal breaths.

No need to do anything special.

The breaths are fine just how they are right now.

As you breathe,

Just again sinking yourself and grounding yourself,

Noticing the sensations of the position that you are sitting in.

Just really gently allowing yourself to come into this practice.

We are now just going to transition into what we call a box breathing where we are going to breathe in for 4 seconds.

Count of 1,

2,

3,

4.

We are just going to on the internal breath hold that for 4 seconds.

1,

2,

3,

4.

On the exhale,

Control the breath.

Just let it come out smoothly and gently on 4 seconds.

1,

2,

3,

4.

And then again on the exhale,

Pausing on the exhale for 4 seconds.

So we are just going to box breathe for a few minutes now.

So just breath in.

1,

2,

3,

4.

Holding the inhale.

1,

2,

3,

4.

Now holding the exhale.

1,

2,

3,

4.

Inhale.

Hold.

Exhale.

Hold.

And inhaling again in your own time on your own count.

As you do this breathing practice,

Just finding points of stillness as you pause on the inhale and pause on the exhale and just again granting yourself into those little points of stillness that you have and just relaxing within those moments.

The mind wanders just starting on the inhale of 1,

2,

3,

4.

Pausing.

Exhale.

Pause in.

Inhale.

Pause in.

Exhale.

Pause in.

Inhale.

Pause in.

Now just bringing the attention and the practice back to your normal breath.

Just granting yourself back in.

Just checking in with the body.

Noticing that if anything has become a little tighter or uncomfortable,

Just adjusting as you need to in your practice.

This is the right way for you to practice today.

Now just bringing the attention back into the breath.

And with the breath,

Finding an elliptical breath.

Imagine you're breathing around an oval and we're going to go into a really rhythmic breath of just going around with real effort of just continuing to keep a relaxed breath.

So just breathing in.

Letting go.

Breathing in.

Letting go.

Continuous breathing around the oval.

Imagining that your breath is going around a circle or an oval.

It just continues really simply.

Just following the breath.

Down and round.

Noticing that if the mind wanders,

Becomes a little distracted,

Just kindly start at one end of the oval and just start the breath around the outside of the oval.

Just really gentle and rhythmic breaths.

Just granting yourself into the breathing as you,

Your position and your breath become one.

Just breathing in.

And out.

In.

In.

In.

Catching the attention and the mind when it wanders is the practice of mindfulness.

Just as you notice it's drifted away from the oval.

The rhythm of breathing becomes distracted,

Just gently coming back into the rhythm,

Bringing your attention to the breath.

Just gently coming back into the rhythm.

Mind is a little busy.

It's completely normal.

Again,

Coming back and granting yourself into the posture,

The practice and the breath.

Just as you notice it.

Just allowing yourself to immerse into the rhythm of your breathing.

Just allowing everything else to settle and you to just bring that attention to this beautiful rhythmic breathing.

Just letting everything else settle and you to just bring that attention to this beautiful rhythmic breathing.

Just bringing your attention back to the posture in which you sit,

Bringing the attention back to the body.

We're just going to finish this meditation with a cleanse of the breath,

Some nice deep belly breathing.

We're just going to start with a relaxed jaw,

Soft eyes,

Just bringing the breath in.

Just pulling that belly right up,

Imagining a balloon that's expanding and then just on the outward breath letting it all release and cleanse through the body.

Just allowing every bit of breath to leave and starting from the top,

Breathing into every limb,

Every part of the body.

Just letting everything else settle and you to just bring that attention to this beautiful rhythmic breathing.

Just imagining that this short but more intense practice is like the breath is cleansing and just allowing good breath,

Good energy to come in and just filtering out any breath or anything that's been sitting around in our lungs,

In our heart,

In our muscles and blood that everything's getting released.

Just continuing on for another 10 breaths before we finish this practice.

Just letting everything else settle and you to just bring that breath in.

Just letting everything else settle and you to just bring that breath in.

Allowing everything as you continue to fill up,

Allowing the good energy and the good breath to come to every part of your body and then allow that to all release again.

Our final few breaths,

Really continuing to expand the breath,

Lengthen the breath as you can.

Making this your last breath.

Returning to your normal rhythm of breathing,

Granting yourself back into the posture and the mat,

Noticing any sensations that you're feeling from that practice and just sitting in stillness for a moment until you hear the sound of the bell.

Just allowing yourself to be with that internal smile on your face of gratitude towards yourself and saying thank you.

Reviews

Rejuvenating, Thank you!

Such a good practice. Cues are really easy to follow with. Thank you.

Great breathing exercises with plenty of space. Loved it. Thank you

Thank you perfect.. ending came to soon 💐💗🙏

Several different breathing exercises, plenty of time to practice. Occasional guidance to keep you on track. Spectacular. Thank you! Namaste 🕉❤🙏

The Aussie accent is great and I liked that Luke left space for silence. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Lovely to hear an Aussie accent. :-)

Heartfelt thanks for a beautiful bringing back to the breath. Much appreciated today 🙏

Lovely breath focused practice with minimal instruction. Plenty of silence.

Clear guidance for the breath & plants of silence to allow for prCtice

Wonderful pace. Wonderful voice. Gentle encouragement to return to the breath. Will revisit. Thank you!

Simple but lovely meditation! Nice voice! Thank you!

Great simple breathing exercises, with time to focus on just breathing in between the directions.

This was very helpful- I liked the different ways of using the breath - thank you 🙏🦋

Love this! Thank you!!

As always Luke, excellent. Thanks.