Welcome to this 15-minute Awareness of Breath meditation practice.
Let's begin just by settling in in a nice comfortable position.
No particular rules on what that needs to look like.
And as you're sitting maybe in a chair or on the floor,
Just settle in with the body.
Just checking in with this remarkable human machine that you've been gifted with and noticing how it feels.
Perhaps one way to start is to notice how your feet are making contact with the floor.
Notice how the ankles and the architecture in the feet are supporting the weight of your legs in some way.
Maybe checking in with our sit bones and our glutes and noticing how that part of our body is supporting the weight of our torso.
And then finally bringing awareness to our upper back,
Our shoulders,
The base of our neck.
And just notice how this part of our body supports the weight of our head.
And now just generally scanning our body and just paying attention to any tension that might be noticeable.
It's perfectly normal for us to carry physical tension in our bodies.
This is just a practice of bringing awareness to any tension that might exist.
And if you do notice any tension,
And perhaps you don't,
You might take a nice deep in-breath and on that nice full forceful exhale,
Just try to ease that tension slightly.
We're not going to make it go away,
But we might well bring a bit of ease to that tension that we feel in our body.
Now let's feel into the weight of our body.
Specifically just feeling into this force of gravity that's constantly pulling us towards the center of the earth.
And just getting grounded in it.
Really feeling into gravity,
Allowing our body to settle in,
Finding a nice grounded foundation with the earth beneath us in which to continue this meditation practice.
Now bringing our qualities of mindfulness,
Maybe in particular the curiosity,
The non-judgment,
The acceptance,
Let's bring some awareness and check in with our feeling states,
With emotion.
And just check in with this particular emotional weather system in our body right now.
And we're not looking for anything in particular.
We're not trying to fix anything that we find.
We're simply making an inquiry,
Gathering intelligence.
What's going on right now with this particular domain of my body?
Let's take a nice deep transition breath.
Breathing in deeply,
Breathing out deeply.
And shift our awareness and now bringing those same qualities of mindfulness,
Curiosity,
Non-judgment,
Acceptance.
And checking in with our thinking mind.
What's going on in this busy,
Busy mind of ours?
Can we notice the volume of thinking?
The speed and slowness of thinking?
Perhaps the chaos and or the order?
Or maybe both occurring at the same time?
Noticing even the nature of our thoughts without getting wrapped up in them.
Just trying to remain a skilled observer of our thinking.
Let's take a nice deep transition breath.
And let's bring the focus of our active attention to our belly.
And here at this particular place in our body,
We're simply noticing the physical sensation of breathing in and out.
So said differently,
We're noticing the gentle rise and fall of the belly as we breathe in and out.
And like any attention practice,
We'll find ourselves distracted on a regular basis.
And so as we notice ourselves being distracted,
We simply notice the distraction,
Meet it with curiosity.
Perhaps even noticing the judgments that emerge around that distraction.
And understanding that distractions are normal and a necessary part of this meditation practice,
We simply redirect our attention back,
In this case,
To the gentle rise and fall of the belly as we breathe in and out.
Active attention,
Distraction,
Remembering,
Redirection.
Over and over and over.
And as we move through this practice,
Remember your breath is your ally.
So feel free to take a deep breath or even two.
Whatever you need to throughout this practice.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
You can take a deep breath or even two.
In a moment,
We'll finish this meditation practice with a single strike of our bell.
And the instruction is very simple.
Just listen to the resonance of that sound.
And the silence that follows the strike of that bell will signal the finish of our practice.
The bell is invited.
