We're about to begin the breath awareness practice,
So find yourself a comfortable,
Warm position,
Either seated in a chair,
On the floor,
Or lying down as you prefer.
And just feel free now to settle into that space.
Feel free to gently close your eyes or half close them if you prefer.
And just bring your awareness to your body.
And feel your body becoming still.
And then just simply bringing our awareness and our attention to the fact that you are breathing,
Like you always do.
Just resting our awareness on it softly.
Just becoming aware of the movement as it passes in through your body.
And then as it leaves your body.
At this point,
Not necessarily changing it,
Just observing it.
How does it feel?
Is it long and deep,
Or is it shallow and short?
Just tuning your senses inwards towards your breath.
And observing all the sensations that are associated with it.
Nothing else matters right now,
Except for your breath.
So we're going to take some nice intentional breaths now.
So as we breathe in through the nose,
We expand the belly area.
And then as we breathe out,
We let the belly area just naturally sink.
So again,
As we breathe in through the nose,
We direct our breath towards the belly as it rises.
And then we gently breathe out whatever comes natural through your nose,
Through your mouth,
Or both.
And then one more time together,
As we breathe in through the nose,
Belly naturally rises.
And then as we breathe out,
Just let it sink out and just let it go.
We're tuning all our senses towards our breath now.
Perhaps feeling the temperature as it passes through the nose or through the back of the throat.
Is it cold?
Is it warm?
And also feeling the rise and fall of your belly as this just happens naturally.
Feel it naturally rise as you breathe in.
And feel it naturally sink as you breathe out.
Nothing else matters now but our breath.
Tuning our inner ear towards our breath.
Can we hear our breath?
Is there a sound?
Perhaps as it passes through the nose or the back of the throat,
You can hear the breath.
Connecting totally with each single breath.
Feeling the fullness of each breath as it passes through your body.
And we're not trying to do anything with our breath.
We're not achieving a goal with our breath.
We're just simply being with it and following it and resting our awareness on our breath.
As it just continually has this never ending cycle and flow.
Just like the waves of a calm sea as they just continually ebb and flow on the shore.
Just letting them naturally rise and fall.
And you can learn that from time to time you lose your awareness of your breath and your mind wanders off to thoughts or distractions.
And this is totally normal.
This is what the mind does.
Just whenever you notice that just bring it back to your breath.
Bring it back to your body.
Without judgment.
Without attachment.
Just bring it back slowly,
Time and time again.
Bring your attention back to your breath and ride the waves of your breath.
Bring it back to your belly area.
Feel the new in-breath.
Fill you up with new life and new energy.
And then feel the out-breath.
Just anchor you towards the floor and anchor you into this present moment.
So we're now using the breath as an anchor just to focus our attention inwards into the present moment.
Using your breath to keep you in that nice relaxed state of awareness.
Nothing else matters now but your breath.
Feel it as it naturally rises and feel it as it naturally lets go and falls.
And as we keep our awareness in our breath we also expand it out to the bigger field of awareness of our body.
Feeling our body from the top of our head right down through our toes.
And becoming aware of all the sensations in our body.
And try to feel each breath to fill up our whole body and feel it sink naturally as it comes out.
So now just not observing only the breath but also observing the body as a whole.
Totally present with whatever your feelings are with your breath and with your body as one complete being.
And again if your mind wanders off that's fine just gently guide it back.
Bring it back to your breath.
Bring it back to your body.
Breathing should be slow,
Deep,
Even and fine.
Just continually bringing your awareness and resting it on your breath.
Feeling each breath come in and energize you and feeling each breath just let go and ground you.
I want to be quiet for a little while just letting your breath take its natural course.
So just continue that breathing.
Feeling each breath.
Breathing should be slow,
Deep,
Even and fine.
Just feeling the wholeness of your body.
Feeling the fullness of each breath.
And using your breath and the sense of your body to anchor yourself to stabilize yourself into this present moment.
It's amazing how each new breath is different to the last one.
No two breaths will ever be the same.
Just being with each breath moment to moment just sitting in stillness,
Grounded,
Peaceful,
Relaxed and calm.
Just being here right now.
Being complete.
Being still.
Being whole.
We're about to come out of the practice in a moment so bringing our awareness to our body as a whole.
Again bringing our awareness to our breath.
And just taking the time to thank yourself for having spent this time nourishing yourself in such a deep way.
And for intentionally taking time for yourself just to simply be who you are.
And savor this moment for a little while.
And remember that anytime you can use your breath as an anchor to feel the stillness inside of you.
Just taking your time.
When you're ready.
Slowly opening the eyes.
And moving about slowly and keeping the benefits of the practice to expand into your everyday life.
