Breath Meditation With Body Scan

This is an improvised meditation rather than one I read from a script, drawing in real time from my own practice. I will use this method for the next few tracks.

Transcript

D식 Let all our influences disappear The steps of trans anxiety andlage Welcome.

Let's begin by finding a nice relaxed but alert posture.

Just getting settled in.

And begin by taking a few nice deep,

Refreshing breaths.

Really letting your rib cage expand to allow the breath in.

And breathing all the way down to the bottom of the lungs.

And starting to get a sense of where you feel the breath in the body,

The sensations of breathing.

And if the deep breathing continues to feel comfortable,

Stay with that.

But you can adjust the breathing to whatever feels the best right now.

And all the while maintaining your awareness of the sensation of breathing wherever you feel it in the body.

Becoming interested in the sensations of breathing.

Where does the breath begin and end?

Is there any place that the breathing seems to get stuck?

Where it isn't so smooth or comfortable?

See if you can relax into a smoother and more comfortable breath.

Other sounds,

Sensations,

And thoughts may arise in your awareness.

And you notice them,

Just remind yourself to return to the breathing just for now.

Have patience with your mind.

No matter how many times it wanders away from the breath.

Just gently bring it back as soon as you remember to do that.

As your breathing and body become more settled,

Noticing where it feels particularly comfortable.

Any sense of pleasure,

Any relief from settling in and taking a break.

Allow that sense of pleasure to loom large in the mind.

And now let's take the same gentle attentiveness that we've been giving to the breath and briefly move through the body.

Just checking in to each area and see if we can bring some of the ease and pleasure that we've begun to experience in the settling in to this sitting.

Just bringing our attention to our hands.

Just noticing the relaxed heaviness of the hands.

Allowing them to feel full with our attention.

Moving slowly up the arms.

Moving through the elbows.

Moving all the way up into the shoulders.

Allowing the entire arm to just hang relaxed.

Almost as if it would be hard to lift.

Bringing our attention up into the neck.

Maybe feeling the breath move through in a soothing way.

Relaxing the jaw.

Moving slowly into all the muscles of the face.

Just the gentle attention.

Moving over the top of the head.

Feeling the head sitting easily on top of the spine.

Not having to do any work.

Being supported.

Moving down the back of the neck now.

And just slowly at the pace of the breath.

Bring your attention gradually down the entire spine.

The vertebrae stacked.

Holding you upright without effort.

Bringing your attention now to the area around the heart.

Very gentle and soothing attention here.

Sending your awareness to begin to fill the entire rib cage.

This is a place where it's easiest to use your breath as a guide.

Just allowing that feeling of fullness and comfort to remain throughout the entire inhalation and the entire exhalation.

Moving down through the diaphragm.

Breathing down into the abdomen.

All the way down into the pelvis.

Seeing if you can experience the breath all the way down into the pelvis.

As if it was a cauldron which held the breath.

Moving your attention to the hip joints.

Down the legs.

Through the knees.

All the way to the tips of the toes.

Still allowing the breath to be at the center.

Seeing if we can get a sense of the entire body unified in this space.

Just allowing the settled feeling to pervade the whole body.

Keeping the awareness gentle and attentive.

Using the same level of gentle attentiveness that you might with a child learning how to walk.

Again becoming curious about where the sense of ease and pleasure has arisen.

Just for the time being allowing the pleasure and ease to be at the forefront of our attention.

Allowing it to bathe our awareness.

Where we have taken this brief time for ourselves.

For the cause of our own well-being.

And in so doing bringing about the conditions which will allow us to bring well-being into the world with us.

And perhaps setting that intention now as we draw nearer to the end of the sitting.

And keeping in mind that even after we open our eyes and move into our day.

That we carry the tools with us to bring about ease and well-being wherever we go.

Bell Bell Bell

Reviews

That was very nice! You have a relaxing voice and I loved the body scan and space left to practice! Thank you! Many blessings ❤️🙏🏼❤️

The Buddha taught that meditation and mindfulness of the breath and body are the foundations of awakening. Thank you for this skillful practice. 🙏

Beautiful, just what I needed after a very cold swim. Thank you💓🩷

An excellent way to spend 20 minutes. Highly recommend.

A true Buddhist meditation. Nothing extra added. Loved the simplicity and space. Thank you.

Lovely...spacious. Especially helpful after not feeling well and having missed practice for a atretch. Thank you...

Nurturing and calming. I'll return to this meditation ♥️🙂

Wonderful.! Lovely calm and well directed meditation

Wonderful. A true connection with your students rather than a performance. Pacing was lovely. Thank you.

I enjoyed the calm and soothing voice and easy manner. Really relaxing meditation!

Great practice, thank you.

Feeling full of well being and ease and ready to share it with the world. Thank you, Mark, and wishing you a beautiful day.

Soothing, comforting focus. 🙏

Just about perfect. Thanks for making it.

Loved it. Thank you Mark for helping me (through your course and other meditations) to start to love my breath, which has sometimes been a big stressor to me.

Very relaxing. Tone and pace are great

Nice voice tone. Gentle, perfectly audible and able to guide one softly. Thank you for this meditation

I appreciated the consistency with which he fscilitsted the gentle retrun to the breath and guidance of that breath as a kind of dront edge of our attentiom's body scan.

Thank you

Perfect tone and pace. Added to favorites. Will definitely use regularly. Thank you 🙏🏻

Simple wise & deep