Practice 3 Mindfulness Meditation Sensitising the body to the breath Part 1 Come into a seated position.
This can be on a chair with your feet flat on the floor or you can sit cross legged on the floor and allow the eyes to gently close.
Place the hands in a position in which they can rest.
This is usually one hand rested on top of the other in front of you or on your lap.
There are no rules though,
So whichever feels comfortable,
Bring that to your practice.
And relax.
Bring the spine into alignment.
The bones of the spine stacked up,
Supporting each other,
Bringing about an upright posture.
The skeleton supporting the whole body,
Allowing the muscles to relax.
No need to force anything,
No need for muscular effort.
Just be natural and relax,
Relax,
Relax.
In seated mindfulness meditation,
We are relaxed but upright.
Relaxed but bright and wakeful.
Take in a long slow breath,
Filling the lungs to the maximum,
Then holding for a few seconds.
And then letting the air out in one relaxing sigh.
Relaxing the whole body as you do.
Letting the shoulders drop.
Letting go of any tension that wants to leave.
Do this two more times.
Now just come to stillness.
Relaxed upright stillness.
Relaxing any remaining tension you might find.
And letting be anything that isn't ready to leave.
We don't need perfect relaxation in order to meditate.
However the body should be upright,
Bright and awake.
And however the body presents itself right now is good enough.
We accept whatever is here right now.
Committing to stillness.
Say to yourself in your mind,
I sit in stillness.
I will not move for the duration of this practice unless absolutely necessary.
If I have to move,
I will do it slowly and mindfully without judging myself for seeking comfort.
Know that bearing with discomfort is excellent training.
Each time we don't give in to the whims of the body we get stronger.
But don't turn this into a battle.
We are strengthening the mind not the ego.
So be gentle with yourself.
Sitting here in this moment in stillness to the best of our ability.
Relaxed,
Open,
Welcoming,
Bright minded and accepting whatever shows up,
Not as a distraction,
Rather the practice itself.
And from this vantage point of stillness,
You will notice movement caused by the breathing process.
Tune into that movement wherever it shows up.
Abdomen,
Chest,
Shoulders.
Whatever it makes itself known is perfect.
And try to feel the breath begin.
Right from the moment the body moves to begin the process.
As the breath comes in,
Try to ride the whole of the in-breath like a gentle wave.
Then the wave of the breath reaches a peak,
Pauses,
Then flows out of the body.
So we feel that movement too.
The falling away of the breath.
You can try saying to yourself on the in-breath rising and on the out-breath falling.
And all the while to the best of your ability being with the physical sensations that present themselves during this process.
Can you link one breath to the next without falling off,
Without wandering away into thoughts?
And when noticing we have forgotten the breath and wandered into thinking,
Realise that this is part of the process.
This is meditation.
We are not failing.
We are practicing.
It's a mental skill which improves over time.
No rush.
No self-judgements.
Just returning to this breath as it presents itself now in this body.
We can say to ourselves thinking,
Thinking when we notice the mind has wandered off.
This helps to break the thoughts.
And then we can place our attention back on the breath.
So try this each time you catch yourself lost in thinking.
Each time you return to the breath you are waking up.
Waking up out of a dream and coming back into life as it happens here in the present moments.
As you notice the start of the breath,
Try to find the exact point at which it arises.
As the breath comes in,
Allow your awareness to follow the physical sensations that come with it as it expands through your body.
You might feel it start in the lower abdomen and then slowly ripple outwards into the chest or back.
Anywhere you feel it is right for you.
No two breaths are the same.
So you might feel the next breath in a new place.
And that's fine too because we are slowly coming alive to the whole body.
Feel the physical sensations of the pause too at the top of the breath.
And don't force the out breath.
Let it start when it's ready.
Then feel where the breath starts releasing from.
Following the sensations out all the way until it has left the body.
Then feeling the pause and the whole process starts up again.
And now letting go of the breath.
Coming back into the room you are in.
Connecting with the whole body however it is right now.
Feeling any tranquility you might have cultivated.
Find the eyes to open and bring into practice to a close.
