Following the breath meditation.
Realising the power of harnessing our breath.
Just allowing yourself a moment to get comfortable right now.
Comfortable in a seated meditation position.
Whether that's on a chair or cross legged on a mat or a cushion.
Having your spine long sitting nice and upright.
Just relaxing the face,
Relaxing the jaw,
Relax your tongue.
And just begin your practice by taking two or three deeper breaths.
Inhaling through the nose and exhale a sigh through the mouth.
Now just resume your natural flow of breath.
Breathing in and out of the nose.
And drawing the breath low down into the body,
Into the belly.
Our horror,
Our control centre.
Allowing the belly to slightly rise on the inhale.
Allow the belly to stick out.
And on the exhale the belly draws back towards the spine.
Sending your breath low down into the body.
For the purpose of this practice your awareness will be your breath.
I just want to begin by reminding you of the two kinds of thoughts.
Intentional thoughts and unintentional thoughts.
The unintentional thoughts we'll call free thoughts.
So intentional thoughts are those created by the mind.
This is the voice you use to talk to yourself internally.
And the unintentional thoughts,
The free thoughts,
They just seem to bubble up without any effort.
Sometimes they're memories,
Sometimes emotions,
Sometimes seem like complete drama.
And remembering that you are not your free thoughts.
And the trick here is not to cling on to any of those thoughts or to act on them.
So now we've found our comfortable posture.
Having our attention onto the breath.
Just take a few moments to repeat an intentional thought three times internally.
Your thought could be I am thinking of this thought.
Repeating that three times.
And then stop and wait.
Come back to the sensation of the breath into the belly.
And notice what happens next.
As you wait long enough,
Another thought will for sure arise.
But this time it will not have been inserted intentionally in the mind.
It would simply have bubbled up from somewhere internally.
What was the thought?
You can use that practice if you wish throughout this meditation whilst maintaining our focus,
Our awareness,
Our attention on our breath.
This in time becomes freeing knowing that we are not our thoughts.
We are just an observer of our thoughts.
So as you are breathing easefully through the body,
Allowing enough space,
Even your mind as wide as the sky.
So that you can sit focusing on the breath.
Just observing anything at all that may arise.
Noticing and allowing it to pass by bringing your attention back to your breath.
If your mind is particularly busy,
You could even use the mantra to go with your breath.
Saying internally,
Breathing in and breathing out.
Or simply the words in and out.
If you are feeling anxious or worried,
Frazzled from the day.
You could even use the words peace on the inhale,
Calm on the exhale.
Any word of choice actually to help you with your awareness,
With your focus on the breath.
God's death is an old forcing factor in our time as Fireworks,
Few that could perhaps Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Anytime you get distracted,
Just come back.
Ten times,
A hundred times.
Just keep coming back,
Staying with the breath.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
You can also draw the breath through the body,
If you wish.
Each nourishing inhalation drawing up from your seat,
All the way up the front of the body,
Up through the crown of your head.
And each exhale drawing back down,
Over the face,
Over the front of the body,
Out through your seat.
A nourishing inhalation.
And each exhale an opportunity to almost reset again.
To wipe the slate clean if the mind is overly busy.
And just keep that tune,
That attention,
On that wave-like breath all the way through the body.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Anything at all that arises with thoughts of things that you may need to know about.
Don't try to hold onto them.
Anything you really need to know will stay with you after the meditation practice is over.
Mm.
And sometimes it can happen as we relax.
Sometimes things from the past,
Grief or anger,
All sorts of things can arise.
Just allowing them to arise and pass without any particular involvement,
Any worry or investment in them.
Your job here is very simple.
Just stay with the breath rising and sinking in the belly.
Or flowing all the way through the body on your inhale and exhaling all the way back down.
Or using a mantra.
Peace.
Calm.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Just allowing,
Allowing the space for anything to arise.
We're not resisting anything.
We're not pushing anything away.
We're just sat here meditating in our practice.
Trying our best to focus on our breath.
And just noticing any intentional or unintentional free thoughts that may come into our awareness.
And each time they do,
We just do our best to come back to our breath.
Mm.
Mm.
We're coming towards the end of our practice now.
But the choice is yours if you wish to stay seated here for a little longer to continue your practice.
Then please do.
Or if it's time to continue on with your day.
Just begin taking two or three deeper breaths again in through the nose.
Exhaling through the mouth.
Maybe gently swaying your body from side to side.
Backwards and forwards.
Just giving yourself plenty of time.
Have a stretch.
Draw the hands up high to the sky.
Bring the hands together in prayer and exhale.
Draw your hands back down to your heart space.
Back down your central Nadi,
Your Shashana.
And gently opening your eyes.
Enjoy your day.
