Let's begin with awareness of the body in your chosen posture.
Feeling yourself firmly planted on the earth,
Your hands resting easily,
Your heart soft.
Notice the places of contact that the body makes with the floor,
Chair,
Whatever surfaces,
Hardness,
Softness you're aware of,
Pressure,
Contact.
And then bring awareness to the state of your mind.
Is it alert,
Dull,
Agitated,
Constricted,
Open?
What emotions are you aware of?
Happy,
Fearful,
Anxious,
Angry?
Are the emotions subtle?
Are they strong?
Bringing awareness to the state of the mind and to emotions,
To the body,
Not with the intention of analyzing,
Judging,
Fixing,
Eliminating,
Or even examining the feelings,
Just in order to acknowledge what is here.
Checking in with the mind and body as a good friend would check in with you and not try to fix you or change you.
And now taking three deep diaphragmatic breaths,
Inhaling through the nostrils and directing the breath down to the base of the abdomen,
Filling up the whole torso with the in-breath,
As if filling up a vessel with water from the bottom to the top.
And then on the exhalation,
Emptying the torso of the breath completely,
As if emptying the vessel of water,
And repeating this for two more complete cycles of in-breath and out-breath.
On your third exhalation,
Releasing the breath to its natural rhythm,
Allowing the belly to be soft,
And allowing the breath to flow as quickly,
Slowly,
Roughly,
Or smoothly as it does naturally,
Without manipulation.
Letting your attention rest on the sensations of the breath wherever you experience them the most clearly.
Perhaps the rise and fall of the belly,
Of the chest,
Or the sensations around the nostrils as the breath flows in and out.
For this practice,
You can allow the eyes to gently close or keep them slightly open with a neutral,
Soft gaze down towards the floor.
Whatever is more comfortable for you.
When you notice the attention has wandered,
See how gentle,
How easy and patient you can be in escorting the awareness back to the breath,
Back to the sensations in the body as you breathe.
There's no need to fight with the mind,
To push thoughts away,
To cool an agitated mind,
To change the emotional state.
Just for these few minutes,
Recognize what's present,
Acknowledge it,
And gently escort the attention back to the breath,
Allowing your awareness to ride the waves of the breath like a boat riding the waves of the sea.
Each new in-breath or out-breath is an opportunity to begin again.
Remembering that it's the nature of mind to wander,
Not a mistake or a problem,
Nothing that you need to fix.
When you become aware that the mind has wandered,
Just escort it back to being aware of the body breathing.
For the last minute of this awareness practice,
If you like,
Experiment with setting an intention to bring forth a particular quality.
It may be of kindness or generosity or whatever comes to mind.
To practice this or bring it forth through the course of your day,
Afternoon or evening.
