Good afternoon and welcome to Calm Your Cursors,
My name's Michaela and today we'll be observing the breath through meditation.
So when you're ready,
Find a comfortable position in which to sit.
You may sit or lie down,
But make sure you remain awake and aware.
Gently close your eyes and settle into your body.
Take a moment now to tune into the posture of the body where it is right now.
Are there any minor adjustments you can make?
It is helpful to keep the spine straight and energised while relaxing the muscles around the skeleton.
You can aid this process through the breath.
As you breathe in,
Breathe energy and awareness into the spine,
Reaching the spine gently upward.
As you exhale,
Let go,
Allow the shoulders to drop,
Let there be some slack in the jaw and soften the belly.
And now in your own way,
Take a few moments to relax your body.
Take three slow,
Deep,
Conscious breaths and as you breathe out,
Feel your muscles soften and loosen,
Relaxing,
Awake and alert.
Allow your breath to find its own depth and rhythm.
Just let it breathe itself.
As you allow the body to resume to natural breathing,
See where in the body you can feel the breath.
It may be in the stomach or abdomen where you can feel the rising and falling as the body breathes.
It might be in the chest where you may notice the expansion and contraction as the body inhales and exhales.
Perhaps it's at the nostrils where you can feel a slight tickle as the air comes in and the subtle warmth as the body exhales.
You can pick one spot to stick with for this meditation practice,
Whichever feels right for you in this moment.
And as you feel the body breathing,
Try to stay with the breath all the way through,
From the beginning of an inhale through to the end of the exhale,
Being with the breath.
You don't need to force your attention on the breath,
Rather rest it gently on the sensations of the body breathing.
And when thoughts arise,
You don't need to push them away or resist.
You can notice them and leave them be,
Returning to the experience of the breath in the body.
Now,
We'll use a counting exercise to help in this process.
You can breathe in with awareness and as you exhale you can count one in your head and then with the next exhale count to two.
You can count like this up to ten and then simply start back at one.
Now remember that the counting is a tool to help build concentration that is not a measurement of how good of a meditator you are.
And if the mind wanders just come back to one and start again.
You you you You may have noticed the mind wandering.
When the mind wanders it really offers us an opportunity to cultivate mindfulness and concentration.
Each time we notice the mind wandering we're strengthening our ability to recognize our experience.
And each time we bring the mind back to the breath we're strengthening our ability to focus on an object.
Treat it as an opportunity rather than a problem and return to one.
You you you'd like you can let go of the counting for these last few minutes try to be with the breath with some curiosity looking at it with some interest and a beginner's mind you you as you come to the end of this practice take a full deep breath taking in all the energy of this practice and exhale fully and when you are ready open your eyes and return your attention to the present moment namaste
