You Find a comfortable posture,
Either sitting up comfortably straight or lying down.
Begin to sense the body from the outside.
Sense first at the level of the skin,
The temperature,
The sensation of air,
Contact with clothing,
Contact with the ground,
And sense the sounds both far and near.
Just sensing lightly at this surface level,
Taking your time,
Settling in.
Now I'll guide you through a series of three-second in-breaths and six-second out-breaths.
As you are breathing in,
Observe the general surface level sensations we've been looking at,
And as you exhale,
Letting that perception get more refined,
Deepening into the finer textures of sensation.
So beginning with the in-breath,
Two,
Three,
And out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
In,
Two,
Three,
And out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Breathing in,
Aware of sensations of the surface,
And out,
Letting your perception become more refined.
In,
Two,
Three,
Out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
And in,
Out.
And in,
Out.
And now allowing your breathing to return to normal.
Just letting the breath flow in whatever way feels natural for right now.
Sensing the effect of the practice so far in the body,
Sensations in the mind.
Now we'll look at the posture,
The structure of the body,
Solid aspects of bone,
Softer ligaments,
Tendons,
Muscles,
And the tissue that makes up the matrix of our form.
Inclining toward balance between maintaining posture and relaxing into the posture.
We'll begin with the same three in,
Six out breathing,
And this time we'll sense into what we feel as a center of gravity.
And on the out breath,
Sense that center gradually sinking lower.
So breathing in,
Two,
Three,
And out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
In sensing the center of gravity and out feeling your center of gravity move down on each breath.
In,
Two,
Three,
And out,
Feeling the weight like an anchor sink down through the body.
In,
Out.
In,
And out.
Lower and lower with each breath.
In,
Out.
In,
And out.
And in sensing the body and out feeling more grounded in the earth.
In,
Out.
In,
And out.
Okay,
Letting go of the breath again and allowing the natural breathing to return.
Sensing the ease,
The deep relaxation,
The groundedness.
Now we will look at the breath itself,
Beginning with the sensations of breathing where they are most easily encountered and gradually sensing into the periphery of those sensations,
Spreading the refreshing sensations of breath to combine with a sense of the body as a whole.
So we'll return to the same breathing pattern.
In for two,
Three,
And out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
In contacting the breath and out spreading the awareness in the body.
In,
And out.
In,
Aware of the breath and out the energy of the breath pervading the whole body.
In,
And out.
Every cell of the body bathed in the breath and in the whole body and out the whole body bathed in refreshing energy.
In,
Out.
In,
And out.
In,
And out.
And returning once again to allowing the breath to flow with ease naturally.
Staying present for the breath while letting it move of its own accord.
Feeling deep ease,
A pleasant refreshing abiding in this space.
In,
Out.
In,
Out.
