Welcome to this 10 minute sitting meditation practice.
And in this practice,
We're simply paying attention to our breath,
To the physical sensations of breathing in and breathing out.
And the invitation here is to find a safe space in which you can sit without prescribing any particular instructions on how to sit.
With the exception of the invitation to sit with a tall spine,
And the invitation to close your eyes,
And let's simply breathe together.
Beginning with a few deep in-breaths and out-breaths,
Breathing in through the nose if you can,
Breathing out through the nose if you can,
And if not,
The mouth works just as well.
Noticing the slight rise of the belly as you breathe in.
Noticing the slight fall of the belly as you breathe out.
Perhaps also noticing the expansion of the chest as you breathe in.
And simply taking a moment here to feel the physical sensation of the in-breath and the out-breath,
The movement of our abdomen,
The movement of our chest,
The sensation of the air filling our lungs.
Now let's bring the focus of our attention to the tip of our nose or perhaps the edge of our nostrils.
And breathing in,
Noticing the sensation of that in-breath.
Noticing perhaps temperature,
Perhaps there's some coolness of the ambient air.
Noticing the moisture in the air.
Noticing the flow of air as we bring the air into our nasal passages.
Whatever that sensation might be,
We're simply focusing our attention on that physical sensation of that in-breath and the out-breath in this particular place in our body.
And this is a practice with constant distractions.
And that's actually part of our objective here is to notice distractions.
And without wrestling with them,
Without holding them close or pushing them away,
Without judging ourselves for right or wrong,
Good or bad,
Correct or incorrect,
Just simply bring our attention from those distractions back to the tip of our nose,
The edge of our nostrils,
And the sensations of the in-breath and the out-breath at this particular place in our body.
And you might find it helpful now and again to take a deep in-breath and out-breath.
And as you find yourself distracted,
And you will commonly in this practice,
Simply notice those distractions,
Maybe also noticing any judgments that arise,
Any reaction that arises,
And just simply redirect your attention from those things back to the tip of your nose,
The edge of your nostrils,
And the sensation of the in-breath and the out-breath.
In this practice,
We'll find ourselves distracted by sound,
By thoughts,
Maybe rumination or worry,
Thinking about the past,
The future,
Maybe physical sensations in the body are distracting,
Perhaps discomfort,
Temperature of the room,
Smells,
Whatever it might be.
This is a practice of constant distraction and constant and gentle redirection of our attention back to,
In this case,
The tip of our nose,
The edge of our nostrils,
And the physical sensation of the in-breath and the out-breath.
We will conclude this practice with sound.
I'll strike the bell three times,
And when you hear the bell,
Just simply bring your attention to the sound,
Listening in particular to that final third resonance until you can no longer hear the sound.
At that point,
You can open your eyes.
