Bring your awareness to your whole being.
Focus first in our physical body.
What's happening in your physical body right now?
As we sit for this five minute practice,
Notice if there's some areas in your body that are tight.
You could relax your forehead and eyebrows,
Let your eyes soften.
Notice the flow of air,
That sensation as the air flows through your nose.
The coolness of the inhale,
The warmth of the exhale.
And soften through your mouth if you're clenching your teeth.
Put a bit of space between your upper jaw and lower jaw and let the hinges of your jaw relax.
Soften through your chin and your throat,
Let your vocal cords be still.
Notice the sides of your neck,
Down into your shoulders,
Down into your arms,
Your hands,
Fingers,
Fingertips.
Let your arms be still,
Your hands relaxed.
Bring your attention back to your face and then the sides and the back of your neck.
Relax through your shoulders and the upper back.
Let go of any bracing or shielding,
Any sense of carrying a burden through your shoulders and back.
Let the whole of your back body soften,
Let your arms and legs be at rest.
Notice the whole of your front through the face,
Relax your eyebrows,
Small muscles of your forehead,
Your mouth and jaw.
As you come down through your throat and relaxing the front and sides of the neck,
The shoulders,
Come down through your collarbones and the large muscles that cover the rib cage at the front.
From your upper ribs through your lower ribs.
And we begin to notice in the stomach area that your body is moving with the breath.
All those muscles of your stomach and navel center and lower belly just soften as you breathe out.
And then with that softness,
The in-breath becomes easier,
The muscle fibers lengthen.
Allow your breath to be continuous and smooth.
Keep your mind focused on the breath as you finish the out-breath.
There's that movement,
That transition to the in-breath.
Take in the nourishment of the in-breath.
And then we let that go into the out-breath,
Knowing that in just a few seconds we'll have another in-breath.
Focus your attention on that reliability and that stability of the breath.
Maintaining your belly as you breathe out,
Maintaining that softness as you breathe in.
Letting your mind be stable and focused,
Your whole body relaxed.
Your breath even and smooth.
Keep your mind stable and steady.
Stay with this smooth,
Easy rhythm of the breath and the softness of your body as long
