This mindfulness practice is your breathing anchor.
Practice where you root your awareness into the present moment,
Like an anchor that roots a ship to one place.
This will help you to dissolve anxiety,
Decrease stress and allow the body to heal in a relaxed,
Peaceful state.
So to begin,
Adopt a comfortable position.
It is often best to be sitting,
But you can do it in any posture,
Standing,
Lying,
Sitting or even walking.
My guidance will assume you're sitting but adapt the instructions to whatever posture you've chosen.
Sitting with your back upright,
Get relaxed with your spine following its natural curves.
See if you can establish a position that feels dignified,
Alert and yet relaxed and allow your body to settle,
To rest down into gravity,
Letting be supported by the floor beneath you and gently close your eyes if that is comfortable.
This will help your awareness settle.
Gradually allow your awareness to gather around the sensation of the breath in your body.
Where do you feel the breath most strongly?
Be curious about your actual experience,
Letting go of what you think should be happening and being with your experience without judgment.
Now very gently rest your awareness within the whole torso.
Can you feel your belly swelling on the in-breath or subsiding on the out-breath?
Can you feel any movement and sensation with the breath in the sides and the back of the body as well?
Gradually inhabit your body a little more deeply with a sense of kindly curiosity towards whatever you're experiencing as you breathe and remember to be accepting of whatever is happening.
See if you can cultivate a precise awareness of the sensations and movement of the breath in the body as they happen moment by moment,
Being careful not to strain.
Allow your awareness to be euterally receptive as it rests upon the natural movement of the breath in the body.
Allow the breath to be saturated with kinliness as it rocks and cradles the body soothing any stress,
Pain,
Or discomfort you may feel.
Now become aware of any thoughts and emotions.
Remember that mindfulness isn't about having a blank mind.
It is normal to think.
Mindfulness is the training whereby you cultivate awareness of what is actually happening physically,
Mentally,
And emotionally so you can gradually change your perspective and feel you have more choices in how you relate to life.
Can you look at your thoughts and emotions rather than from them?
Can you be aware of what you're thinking and feeling without either blocking experiences or getting overwhelmed by it?
And remember thoughts are not facts even though we often think that they are.
As you develop perspective on your thoughts and emotions,
Including undermining ones,
Can you let go of being so caught up with them?
Notice how they're continually changing one moment to the next,
Exactly the same way your breath is always changing.
Your thoughts and emotions are not as fixed as solid as you perhaps thought.
Use awareness of the movement and sensation of the breath in your body as an anchor for the mind over and over again.
Follow the breath all the way in and all the way out.
Each time your awareness wanders as it will,
Simply notice and return to the breathing anchor time after time after time,
Moment by moment.
Making sure you're very kind and patient with yourself even if you have to start again a hundred times.
It's okay,
This is what the training is all about.
And remember that each time you've noticed you've wondered is a magical moment of awareness,
A moment where you've woken up from a distraction,
A moment of choice.
So when you catch yourself having wandered off,
You're succeeding in the practice just as you're succeeding when you manage to stay in the breath.
What is happening now?
What are you thinking?
Just notice and guide your awareness back to the sensation of the breath in the body over and over again.
And now gently begin to bring the breathing anchor practice to a close.
Open your eyes and be aware of the sound around you inside and outside the room.
Feel your whole body and gradually,
Gently begin to move,
Making sure you give yourself time to make a smooth transition from the breathing
