Finding Stillness With The Pauses In The Breath

Following the breath cycle in this meditation, using inhalation & exhalation- one finds the natural pauses in the breath, where one stops breathing for a fraction of a second which brings peace, stillness, and calmness to oneself.

Transcript

In this meditation we will use the breath as our guide and we will find the pauses in the breath cycle to help us find stillness, Peace and calmness. Getting yourself nice and comfortable, Sitting up nice and tall on your sit bones or laying flat on your back with the arms out to the side, Making yourself as comfortable as possible. Take a cleansing breath here. Inhale through the nose, Sigh it out the mouth, Sigh it out the mouth, Close your eyes and begin to bring your focus inward. Begin to settle into the pose. With every exhalation release any tension held anywhere in the body. Simply allow yourself to relax. If you find you're holding tension somewhere in the body, Some part of the body refuses to relax, On your next inhale send your breath to that part of your body. As you exhale feel that part of your body begin to relax, To release out the tension, Allowing you to settle a little deeper and to relax a little bit more. Feel the relaxation begin in your toes, Rise up through your feet, Into your ankles, Into your shins and your calves, Into your knees, Rising up through the thighs and into the pelvis. Everything from the waist down grows heavy and relaxed. Feel the relaxation rise up through the torso, Feel your back muscles widen, Feel your belly soften, The chest it broadens as the shoulders relax down and away and away and the arms grow heavy. Shoulders to elbows, Elbows to wrists, Into the hands and each one of your fingers. The arms are heavy now. Relax your neck, Your head and your face. Take another cleansing breath here. Inhale through the nose, Sigh it out the mouth and we'll bring our awareness now to our breath, Our natural breath. Don't try to control it, Just bring awareness to it. It's something we do every moment of every day, Paying little to no attention to it. Simply become aware now that you're breathing. Now awareness of the breath usually falls in a couple different ways. It can be the rise and the fall of the belly and chest, It can be the inhalation and the exhalation through the nose, It really doesn't matter. There's no wrong answer here. Simply become aware now that you're breathing. And notice as you bring your awareness to your breath it does just naturally deepen even though you're not controlling it. Become aware now that when you breathe you inhale and you exhale. And you can mark this however works for you. You can say to yourself in and out, You can say rise and fall, You could even count the breath, It doesn't matter. So long as you become aware now that when you breathe you inhale and you exhale. Now there's two other aspects of the breath cycle and we're going to bring our awareness to the first one. And because you've marked the inhalation and the exhalation you may have become aware of it. There's a slight pause that occurs between the inhalation and the exhalation. It's a moment in time, It's a fraction of a second, You're not breathing. Take a moment now and find the peace, The stillness and the calmness that's here. Bring your awareness to this pause now. Now there's a second pause in the breath cycle. This one occurs between the exhalation and the next breath. It's another moment in time, It's another fraction of a second, You're not breathing. Find the peace, The stillness, And the calmness that's here as you bring your awareness to this pause now. And for a moment, Focus on these two pauses in the breath cycle. The one that occurs between the inhalation and the exhalation and the one that occurs between the exhalation and the next breath. Two moments in time, Two fractions of a second, You're not breathing. There's peace, There's stillness, And there's calmness here. Bring your awareness to both pauses now. And now take a cleansing breath. Inhale through the nose and sigh it out the mouth. Feel the peace, The stillness, And the calmness in your body and in your mind. Bring your awareness to the top of your head. Draw it down through your face into your neck. Drawing the awareness down into the shoulders, Feel how broad the chest has become because the shoulders have relaxed down and away. Drawing the awareness down the arms from the shoulders to the elbows, Elbows to wrists, Into the hands and each one of the fingers. Feel how heavy the arms are. Drawing the awareness down the torso, Feeling how broad the back muscles have become and how soft your belly. Drawing the awareness down into the thighs and down the legs, To the knees, The shins, The calves, The ankles, The feet, And your toes. Take another cleansing breath here. Inhale through the nose, Sigh it out the mouth. Allow the awareness to return to the body. You can begin to wiggle your fingers, Wiggle your toes, Move your hands and feet, Bringing the awareness back into the limbs, Back into the body. When you're ready, You'll lightly crack your eyes and take in your surroundings. Take the peace, The stillness and the calmness from this meditation with you throughout your day. Namaste.