3. Sitting Meditation - Breath and Body

Mindfulness of Breath and Body Meditation. This track can be used in conjunction with my 'Mindfulness of Sounds and Thoughts Meditation'.

Transcript

A guided sitting meditation practice.

So settling into whichever posture you've chosen,

Either sitting in a straight back chair or perhaps sitting supported by cushions on the floor or if you feel you need to,

Perhaps lying down.

And starting by simply bringing your attention to your posture.

And gradually making the transition from having your attention outward on the practicalities of everyday life to devoting this period of time to simply being with your direct experience,

Moment to moment.

And beginning with a sense of contact with the ground.

Feeling the places in the body that press down into whatever's supporting you,

Chair,

Cushion or a mat.

Feeling the hardness or the softness of the contact.

Pressure,

Tingling,

Warmth.

Perhaps feeling your hands in your lap or by your sides.

Now if as you're sitting here you find that your mind is very busy,

Caught up with plans,

Worries,

Fantasies,

Then bear in mind that that's entirely your own fault.

We're just inviting ourselves to settle on this simple experience of being here.

Trusting that the mind will settle down in its own time.

So as long as we have the intention to keep bringing our attention back to the actual sensations that we're feeling,

Moment by moment.

And if you scan through your body you'll probably find areas of tension or tightness.

Perhaps having a sense of your body bracing.

Again this is entirely normal.

And if you're feeling the pressure,

The pressure of the body,

This is entirely normal.

Perhaps just inviting your body to soften,

Allowing your weight to sink down through contact with the ground.

And then if you're sitting upright you may sense a rebound energy,

The energy that holds your spine upright.

So without force or strain,

Just taking your natural height,

A sense of dignity or poise,

Inviting the shoulders to be loose in the shoulder girdle.

And then with a sense of your posture in the background,

Bringing your attention to your breathing.

Feeling the rhythmic rising and falling of the abdomen and the chest.

Just noticing the breath wherever you feel it most clearly.

Opening to the experience of breathing,

Just as it is in each moment.

And as best you can,

Following the sensation from the beginning of the in-breath,

All the way through the length of the in-breath,

To the point where it crests over into the out-breath,

And then following the sensations all the way through the out-breath to the end of the out-breath.

Now if you find that your mind is wandering a lot,

Just know that that's entirely normal.

Just gently acknowledging where your mind has been,

And coming back to this breath,

Gently but firmly escorting your attention back to this breath,

This breath coming in,

This breath going out.

Now the practice is to bring your attention to the direct experience of the breath sensations.

But you may find it helpful to use an image to help you stay with the sensations.

Perhaps the image of waves sweeping up the beach,

Noticing whether the wave-like motion of your breathing feels turbulent,

Churned up,

Like waves crashing against the beach,

Or soft and gentle,

Waves gently lapping on the shore.

Perhaps curious about the quality of the sensations.

Does your breath feel rough or smooth,

Shallow or deep?

And where exactly do you feel it in the body?

And then perhaps bringing particular attention to the point at the end of each out-breath,

The moment of stillness,

Where perhaps for a fraction of a second nothing happens.

And then,

Shifting the focus of attention from a narrow focus to a broad awareness of the body as a whole.

So perhaps beginning by noticing all the places in the body that move in time with your breathing.

Your chest and abdomen,

Your back,

And also perhaps the collarbones and the shoulders,

And even the arms.

And then opening out to other sensations in the body,

Your contact with the ground,

And the warmth of your clothing against your skin.

And then particularly looking for pleasant sensation in the body,

Like tingling,

Warmth,

Comfort,

Relaxation.

Perhaps feeling a sense of energy in some parts of the body,

In your hands perhaps.

Maybe feeling a sense of the aliveness in your hands,

Resting in your lap or on your legs.

And then also in the spirit of wanting to be open to the whole of your experience,

Being fully present for yourself,

Perhaps choosing to bring your attention to other sensations in the body that are less pleasant,

Areas that feel tense or uncomfortable,

Perhaps even areas of pain.

So we always have a choice as to how much we open to difficult sensation.

One option of course is to place our attention elsewhere,

So this is something we'd often do in daily life,

Distract ourselves.

But here we can explore the possibility of generally opening to areas of restriction or tightness,

Which not just feels manageable,

And just breathing with them.

Perhaps having a sense of the whole body around difficult sensation,

So holding it in a wider context.

Of course moving if that feels like what you need to do,

Adjusting your posture.

You may even choose to bring your attention right into specific areas of discomfort.

Noticing the very precise nature of the sensations,

Is it sharp or tense?

Fuzzy sensation or achy?

Noticing if they stay the same or change?

And then coming back to a general sense of the body sitting or lying down,

Just fitting your posture,

And then just noticing how it feels to be sitting here.

Noticing any greater sense of presence for yourself?

Perhaps particularly noticing anywhere in your experience where there's a greater sense of stillness,

Quietness.

So in just a moment I'm going to ring the bell,

And at this point you have a choice,

You can either continue on to the next stage of practice,

Or you can bring the practice to a close at this point.

Thank you.

Reviews

This guidance invites calmness and peace. Very simple and yet powerful. Thank you. Namaste 🙏🏽

thank you, nice and simple, just what I needed this morning 🙏

wonderful guided meditation. I appreciate the moments of quiet in between the instructions. 🙏🏾

This is my go-to recording. I’d love to have both parts of the sitting meditation combined into one recording so that I do not have to leave the practice to start the second part.

Love your voice! So very soothing. And I now have a new favourite word: "shoulder-girdle." I shall use it very often and in many different contexts.

This is mindfulness 🙏🏻 Thank you!!!

A great way to start the day. Thank you!😏

Soothing pleasant voice and thoughtful guidance - saving this meditation to use again...thank you...namaste

Very nice and straightforward!

Good meditation to sink into and let go