Our Breath Is Always With Us

Enjoy this 16-minute guided mindfulness practice with Missy, wherever you are in your day. Missy Brown, the founder of DPK, is devoted to serving and feels deeply honored to have the privilege of sharing these practices with others.

Transcript

Radical welcome.

I'm so excited.

We will be sharing a practice together this morning.

The practice of meditation,

Of sitting with yourself,

Of me sitting with myself,

And us together as a Sangha,

A community gathering for a secret internal event.

Thank you for taking this time for yourself.

An opportunity to set up your day or a reset of your day.

Get whatever you need to be supremely comfortable.

A blanket and eye covering.

Get back into bed.

Sit on the chair,

On the floor,

Lay on the couch.

Wherever your body will find the most ease and comfort.

There's no wrong way to be here.

And wherever it is in whatever position you've chosen to be in,

Without any strain or overarching,

Find length in your spine.

Move at any time and adjust accordingly as you are in your body and you're your own best teacher.

These days,

We are being asked to give out buckets of water from our well.

And for myself and many of us,

More than we've ever been asked to do.

I keep giving from a dry well,

A mucky well,

A craft well,

A sludge well.

At this time,

Replenishing is essential.

And that is why I'm here.

That is why we are here.

So thank yourself for this invaluable act of self care.

These days,

I find that I'm riding the roller coaster of emotions that shift from I've got this to I can't do this.

It may be many times a day,

Many times within an hour or moment to moment.

I notice I'm feeling shame and judgment around feeling this way.

I should be able to do this.

And they give myself a break,

Permission to be with it all and feel exactly how I'm feeling and I'm extending this invitation to you.

Allow your eyes to remain open with a soft gaze towards something not moving your lap,

The floor,

Out the window.

Or if it feels safe,

And will allow you to be at ease,

Invite the eyes to close.

My wish and intention for us this morning is to spend time together with some short,

Repeatable practices for grounding,

Exploring and welcoming.

Feel yourself right here with all that is present.

There's nothing you need to change or fix.

Simply notice what's happening.

There's nothing to get right.

You're already doing it right.

And as we take a few moments to settle in and land,

Feel the weight of your body,

Releasing and surrendering into whatever surface you're standing,

Sitting or laying on.

Allow your whole self to be welcomed.

We will be taking three letting go breaths.

I'll demonstrate and take a moment to explain.

Letting go breath is a breath in through the nose or the mouth.

And then releasing with a sigh with the sound with movement.

Breathing in,

I'll show you.

And then breathing out.

For me when I practice these letting go breaths,

I bring my shoulders up towards my ears.

And then I drop them down on the letting go.

Simply noticing the sensation of the breath as it comes in and when it's time for it to leave.

So are you ready?

Take a breath in and exhale with a deep sigh.

And do that again and breath in big or small and let it all go.

And one more time,

Breath in and let it go even more.

And now come into silence.

Feel a deep sense of peace and contentment in your heart.

Meditation is tying our mind to a task,

To an object.

Like tying a puppy to a post.

Imagine that you're outdoors at a cafe and you bring your puppy with you or you see a puppy nearby and the puppy is tied on a leash to the post.

The puppy is excited and it wiggles and it jumps and it barks and then it settles down.

And it's quiet and it's still perhaps for a moment or minutes.

And then another dog comes by or your cup of coffee gets delivered or a loud truck passes by and the puppy gets up and again begins to bark and jump and move.

And then it quiets down.

So we'll be tying our puppy mind,

Our monkey mind,

Our chattery minds,

Which is what the mind is supposed to do.

We'll be tying it to a post and our post is going to be our breath.

So drop into the natural rhythm of your breath again without trying to change anything or fix anything.

Simply notice the breath as it comes in.

Notice the breath as it goes out.

Hands can be resting down by the side of the body.

One hand can be on the heart,

The other hand over the hand on the heart,

Hands on the belly,

Wherever the hands feel most comfortable.

And notice the sensation of the hands,

The tactile experience of wherever the hands are.

Drop all expression from your face.

Release the tongue in your mouth.

Release holding of the jaw and the brow.

Release the shoulders down the back like dropping a backpack after the end of a long day at school,

Carrying the weight of the backpack and then dropping it off of your body.

Soften hands and feet.

As the body begins to settle,

Invite the mind to settle.

Notice how the body feels as it brings new breath in and when the body informs you to let the breath go.

Feel the breath wherever it's most prominent in the belly,

In the chest,

In the nose,

Inside the mouth.

Nothing to change or fix.

Simply notice.

Whole body becoming vibrant,

Healthy,

Renewing and refilling.

Sense the soles of your feet touching the earth,

The seat connected to the chair,

The back body connected to the bed or the couch.

Notice contact with something.

Sense the whole right side of the body.

The whole left side of the body.

The front of the body and the back of the body.

Breath flowing on its own.

The weight of the body dropping down,

Down,

Down.

Notice where the current situation in the world and in your world may have landed in your body.

Release the shoulds and the coulds.

I should feel grateful because I live in a beautiful home.

I should feel thankful because I have a wonderful partner.

I should be appreciative that I have food on my table.

Yes,

All of this is true and I have uncertainty,

Isolation,

Unknowns and lack of control.

I make space to hold it all and I invite you to make space to hold it all.

I am the truth of my inner self.

Each breath in and each breath out,

My inner landscape is alive and bright.

Continue to invite tension and tightness to melt.

Allow judgment to melt.

You are doing a great job.

You are safe.

You can let go.

I am doing a great job.

I am safe.

I can let go.

Returning again and again to the breath.

If you notice the mind wanders,

Go get the mind and call it back.

If you have to call it back a hundred times,

Do it with kindness and gentle compassion.

Breathing in,

I know I'm breathing in.

Breathing out,

I know I'm breathing out.

Breath activating the relax,

Rest,

Digest.

Everything is okay.

Part of our nervous system.

There's nothing that we have to do that happens on its own.

Welcoming the breath in,

Releasing the breath out.

Feeling the breath in the belly,

In the chest,

In the nose,

In the mouth.

Simply noticing and witnessing the breath.

Feel yourself wrapped in the cosmic blanket of arms.

A shimmering light.

As you feel yourself sitting here,

Again,

Notice the right side of the body and the left side of the body.

The front of the body,

The back of the body.

Without yet habitually moving.

In a moment,

I'll begin to very gradually call you back.

As you feel ready,

Begin to invite gentle movement into your fingers and toes.

Wiggling them,

Making fists and then releasing the fists.

Soft circles of the ankles and the wrists.

Take in the sounds around you and notice the sounds within you.

Bring awareness to how quiet the mind is.

How soft the heartbeat is.

This is the essence of you.

You didn't have to go anywhere.

You didn't have to leave wherever you are.

There was no special equipment or clothing required.

Our breath is always with us,

Always available to us.

It's an anchor that we can come home to again and again.

As you feel ready,

Gradually allow your eyes to open if they were closed,

Taking back in the light.

Come up to seated if you were laying down or you can stay right there.

Know that you can return here again and again at any time that you'd like.

May you feel blessed,

Protected and at ease as you move into your day or back into your day.

I'm grateful to have shared this with you.

Reviews

Completely relaxed after overthinking events of the past few days. This was amazing, thank you Missy!✨️💞

Missy’s calm and gentle voice is exactly what I needed to hear. I could literally feel my mind and muscles relax as I listened.