Hello and welcome to Expansive Health Services Mindful Meditation Series.
Welcome back.
I hope that your practice this week has been fruitful in helping you to learn how to focus your attention usefully in the present moment and without judgment.
If you find that your mind is wandering as minds often do,
I hope that you're being kind to yourself about that and that you're able to bring your attention back a hundred times if needs be in any given practice.
Today's practice is a relatively brief one.
We are going to practice the art of the three-minute breathing space which is a practice common to a program called Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.
And there are three parts to the practice.
I'll explain those briefly and then we'll jump right into the practice.
The first part is just coming home to the present moment.
So acknowledging any thoughts,
Feelings,
Or other items,
Things that are going on for you in that moment.
Second part is to really tune into the sensations associated with breathing.
And we'll go into that in more detail as we go.
And the third part is just expanding that awareness beyond the breath throughout the remainder of your physical body.
So without further teasing,
Let's go ahead and move into the practice itself.
So as we do with each practice,
Please make yourself comfortable and try and find that balance between effort and effortlessness in your posture.
Perhaps you put your feet on the floor,
Your hands in your lap,
And your spine erect.
And just take a moment first off to consider this moment to acknowledge any thoughts that might be occurring in your mind.
These thoughts could be helpful,
Useful,
Creative thoughts.
They could be neutral thoughts about lunch or dinner,
Or anything like that.
They could be toxic thoughts.
They could be thoughts that aren't serving you currently.
But just acknowledge their presence,
As well as with any emotions that are presenting themselves from your intuition,
From the mystery itself.
Next we'll journey into your breath and take this next minute to really tune into the sensations that are associated with breathing.
Perhaps you notice the feeling of air as it crosses over the edges of your nostrils or the back of your throat.
Maybe you notice more into your upper breathing space,
Your shoulders,
Your chest.
Notice the movement of those areas in your body,
Perhaps even down where many of us notice in our abdomen,
Our middle breathing space.
Just acknowledging the rise and fall of your abdomen,
The expansion and the emptying of your abdomen.
And then down into your lower breathing space as well,
To your pelvis,
To your transverse abdominus,
And to your breathing in those areas,
Especially as you empty your breath.
Any other sensations that come with breathing.
Lastly for today we're gonna focus now,
Or expand our awareness to the remainder of our physical body.
So allow your attention to wander and briefly scan through your body.
Notice any sensations or things that stand out in your attention about your physical body.
Even allowing that awareness to expand beyond your body into the space immediately around your body.
And notice whatever you notice.
Thank you for joining me today on this three-minute breathing space.
I hope this practice is useful to you in the coming week.
Take care and be well.
