Sit in a comfortable but attentive posture,
Allowing your back to be straight but not rigid or stiff.
Feel your head balanced on your shoulders.
Allow your face and jaw to relax,
With arms and hands resting in a comfortable position.
Be attentive to what's happening within your own awareness,
Right here and right now,
Without judgment.
As you sit,
Begin to notice the sensations of breath.
Pay attention for a moment to how your abdomen moves on each in-breath and out-breath,
The movement of air through your nostrils,
The slight movement of your chest and shoulders.
Find the spot in your body where the sensation of breathing is most vivid,
Whether it be your abdomen,
Your chest,
Or your shoulders,
Or the movement of air through your nostrils.
See how fully aware you can be of your whole cycle of breathing,
Recognizing that each part of the cycle is different from the other part.
You will notice your attention shifting away from the breath from time to time.
It's perfectly normal for thoughts to wander into fantasies,
Memories,
Worries,
Or things you need to do.
When you notice your mind has wandered,
Try to meet it with a spirit of friendliness.
You don't need to do anything about it.
There is nothing to fix.
Rather than forcing it,
Just try to allow yourself to become curious about what it's like to be breathing right now,
And you'll find that the attention is naturally drawn back to the physical sensations of breath as it moves through your body.
Stay alert,
Relaxed,
And above all,
Compassionate as you maintain awareness of where the mind goes.
Each time you notice the mind has been distracted or has wandered,
Gently shift your awareness back to sensations of breath.
You Notice the tendency to want to control your breathing.
Let the quality of attention be light and easy,
One of simply observing and noticing.
You don't need to control the duration,
Intensity,
Pace,
Or the pause between each breath.
Just be present.
You you You may notice that there are sounds that come from inside or outside the space you're in.
Sounds of traffic,
The movement of others in the room,
Or something else going on.
If your attention has been drawn by the sound,
Just be aware of it.
Stay with it long enough to notice the quality of the sound,
Vibration,
Tone,
Volume,
Or intensity.
Being aware of the urge of the mind to label sound as traffic,
As voices,
As music,
Etc.
Try to experience the sound without the labels we put on it.
Practice recognizing it as just vibrations in the eardrums,
Just hearing.
Once you've noticed the sound,
Let it go and bring your attention back to the breath.
Let your breath be your anchor of awareness.
Each time your awareness goes somewhere else,
You can just gently come back to the breath without judgment.
You As this meditation comes to an end,
Recognize that you spent this time intentionally aware of your moment-to-moment experience,
Building the capacity for opening the senses to the vividness,
To the change,
To the aliveness of the present moment,
Expanding your skill to be curious about and open to whatever presents itself without judgment.
Then,
When you're ready,
Allow your eyes to open and gently bring your attention back to the space you're in.
