Settling into a comfortable position where you feel supported,
Straightening your back so it's upright,
Dignified,
And it sets the intention to be alert and awake.
Gently closing your eyes or dropping your gaze downward and shifting your focus from external stimulation to now your internal world,
Bringing your awareness to the physical sensation of touch and pressure where your body makes contact with whatever you're resting on.
Exploring these sensations with a curious,
Open mind.
Becoming aware of them,
Noticing how these sensations might change,
And then releasing your attention from that sensation or that part of the body and creating space for whatever else might arise in your consciousness.
Now bringing your attention to the pattern of your breath as you're gently breathing in and out without trying to change your breath in any way,
Trying to find where in your breath the sensations are most vivid.
So this could either be at the nostrils,
At the chest,
Or at the abdomen,
Noticing the physical sensations as your breath moves in and out of your body.
Again,
Just being curious to these sensations,
Practicing beginner's mind,
Observing your breath as if you're observing it for the first time,
Seeing if you can notice each breath as a unique and different experience.
It may be helpful to even place a hand on your abdomen or your chest,
Just becoming aware of where your hand makes contact,
Feeling tuned into your breath,
Allowing the hand to just gently move with each breath.
Focusing your breath with your attention,
Noticing the changing patterns as you breathe in and out.
Focusing your awareness on these sensations with each in-breath and with each out-breath,
Noticing if you can follow your breath from the point it enters your body all the way through as your breath leaves your body on the out-breath,
Noticing the slight pauses between one in-breath and the following out-breath,
And then noticing if you can find the pause between the out-breath and the following in-breath.
You may notice that your attention is being pulled away,
Either distracting thoughts or emotions.
These are uncomfortable or distressing.
They will practice bringing our awareness to those sensations,
So rather than trying to let them go or push them away,
We'll create some space,
Seeing if we can explore a different way to respond.
Now shifting your attention and instead of directing it back to the breath,
Allowing these feelings of discomfort to enter the mind.
Shifting your attention to the body and seeing if you can become aware of any physical sensations that come along with this thought or this emotion.
Sometimes there might be tightness in the chest or in the throat.
When you begin to identify these sensations,
Then deliberately move the focus of your attention to that part of the body,
Wherever the sensation is the strongest.
Perhaps imagining that you can breathe into this area and breathe out from it.
So we're not trying to change the sensation in any way,
Instead we're trying to explore it to see it more clearly,
How it might change from moment to moment.
If there are no difficulties or concerns coming up for you now,
Then you might want to deliberately bring something of difficulty that's going on in your life.
Maybe not the most intense memory,
But a time when you felt very critical of yourself or someone else.
Something that is somewhat unpleasant or unresolved,
Maybe a misunderstanding or miscommunication.
And once you've identified some troubling thought or situation,
Allowing yourself to tune in to any physical sensation in the body that this difficulty evokes.
Seeing if you're able to approach this difficulty in a new way,
Investigating it inwardly,
What feelings are arising in your body,
And becoming mindful of these physical sensations,
Deliberately directing your focus to this area of the body where the sensations are strongest.
Trying to approach this area in a gesture of embrace and welcoming.
This gesture might include breathing into that part of the body.
As we explore these sensations,
Watching their intensity shift up and down from one moment to the next,
Perhaps it might be helpful to breathe into them.
You can imagine that if there's an area of tightness,
Just breathing into it on the in-breath,
And breathing out on the out-breath.
Once your attention has settled on this area of the body,
And you feel that you're present with it,
Unpleasant as it might be,
Try to deepen that attitude of acceptance and openness to whatever sensations you're experiencing.
It might be helpful to say,
It's here now,
It's okay to be open.
Whatever it is,
It's already here,
Let me be open to it.
Softening and opening the sensation.
Open and open to the sensation that you become aware of.
Perhaps saying to yourself,
Accepting,
Opening,
Softening,
Opening.
And then see if it's possible to stay with the awareness,
Exploring the sensations and your relationship to them,
Breathing with them,
Accepting them,
And letting them be as they are.
If you notice that you're getting caught up in whatever story or situation,
Redirecting yourself back to the physical sensations that you're experiencing in your body,
Allowing these sensations to be here.
So instead of narrating our experience,
We're here with them,
Here with those sensations.
It's okay if you feel that you're not comfortable or you don't like these feelings.
If there are strong emotions,
Then letting yourself feel them in the body,
Feeling them as these bodily sensations,
Focusing on that physical sensation,
Not trying to do anything about it,
Not trying to change it in any way.
When you let go of the effort of trying to control things,
Then the body is able to experience these emotions and eventually they will pass.
Whenever a strong thought comes up,
Just curiously scanning your body and bringing your awareness from the thought to the emotion,
And then to where you're detecting that sensation of the emotion in the body,
Letting go of the thoughts and being with the body or the breath.
Again it might be helpful to breathe into these emotions or sensations,
Especially if there's any sense of discomfort,
Tension,
Or resistance,
Holding both the experience of breathing and the emotion,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Softening and opening.
On the in-breath,
Bringing awareness,
And on the out-breath,
Softening,
Opening.
And when you notice that the body sensation is no longer pooling your attention to the same degree,
Returning to sitting with the breath in the body and returning back to the breath,
Just noticing the rising and falling of each breath.
And when you're ready,
Expanding your awareness back to the body sitting here,
Opening your awareness to sounds in the room around you,
Opening your eyes,
And seeing if you can maintain this open awareness as you continue with the rest of your day.
