Begin to find yourself in a comfortable posture.
Bring a chair or any other seating position like lotus with your legs crossed and find a position in which you can elongate your spine,
Lift your shoulders up and roll gently to the back to open up your heart.
Keep your eyes at face level and your chin gently tilted forward and then tilted back so that you find a comfortable L position in your body.
So we don't want you to pull your chin too far forward or jerk your head too far back,
Just somewhere in the middle so that your head is aligned with your back and your shoulders are aligned with your hips and your hips are aligned with your knees and then down to the ankles.
Take a moment to breathe in and think of your intention for your practice.
What drew you to this course?
What did you want?
What did you want to feel?
How did you want to feel?
And just think of that.
You don't have to make a long intention but just make a little note to yourself about why you're doing what you're doing right now.
With your feet planted firmly on the ground,
Stretch your toes up and down,
Maybe wiggle your feet around and then relax them back on the floor.
Or if you are sitting cross-legged,
Just wiggle around your hips,
Perhaps stretch your toes underneath your crossed legs and stretch up.
Take a moment to become aware of your breath and bringing your attention to the sensation of your breath.
Inhale feeling the breath as it moves through your nostrils,
Around your face and down your heart and gently begin to exhale.
You may notice that your exhale is a little bit longer than your inhale or you may notice that your inhale is really long but your exhale isn't.
And that's okay.
Eventually we want the in-breath and the out-breath or the inhale and exhale to be evenly matched.
For now it's just whatever feels natural for you.
Take an even deeper breath,
Allowing yourself to feel the spaces in your body where the breath travels to.
As you inhale,
Notice the sensation of the breath inside the nose and feel this breath as it moves into your body.
Sometimes it helps to visualize that there's a giant balloon in the center of your chest and the mouth of the balloon is your nose.
Inhale feeling the sensation of the breath from inside your nose and really allowing it to flow into your body,
Letting yourself feel the breath.
And the more you allow yourself to feel the breath,
The more you're helping your brain to change and the more you're unlearning the chronic anxiety that is part of our lived experience in our lives.
And when you notice you have a thought or a judgment about whether you're doing this right or wrong and whether other people know more than you,
As soon as you become aware of this,
Just gently bring your attention back to the breath.
And this has to be really,
Really gentle because we are taking charge of our own experience.
And so far our mind and all the conditioning that we've had in our past controls our lives.
And for us to take back control,
We need to be quite gentle with it.
It's not going to happen overnight and that's alright.
Taking a big inhale,
Feel this breath moving through your shoulders.
And exhale feeling this breath moving through your upper back and down your arms.
And on your next inhale,
Feel this breath as it moves through your heart.
Feel this breath as it moves through your back.
Bringing your focus again and again to the feeling of the breath.
As we breathe in,
We breathe out.
As we breathe in,
We breathe out.
Our mind somehow automatically knows when we're breathing in and when we're breathing out.
The breath is or can be called a type of technology.
Technology that helps us have the energy that we need for the day.
A technology that keeps us alive.
So when we take care of our breath,
It takes care of us.
And so this moment that you're giving yourself of self-care and nourishment of your breath is really special.
It's a special gift to yourself and it's an even more special gift to give to those around you.
Because the better you feel,
The better everybody else feels around you.
As you continue to focus on your breath,
You may notice how your attention shifts and connects.
And the more attention you pay to your breath,
The clearer your mind is going to become.
As you continue to focus on the breath,
You may begin to become more and more aware of the environment that you're in.
You may become more and more aware of how you're feeling or how your body feels.
Letting go of the temptation to analyze this or try to understand what it means,
Practice letting it go.
Use your breath to help you remember how to let it go.
Just the same way as you inhale and hold and exhale.
In the same way,
You take in experiences,
You process them and then you let them go.
And this is a natural part of your mind.
This is your true intrinsic nature to let go and move on.
And when we practice meditation,
We enhance our capacity to adapt to change,
To let go and move on.
Taking another deep inhale and exhale,
Knowing that this is what your heart truly wants with your practice,
A tool to help you take care of yourself regardless of the experiences that life is offering you.
You are in charge of your own experience of inhabiting your body.
Taking another deep inhale and exhale,
As you continue to listen to this tape and practice breath meditation,
You may notice that underneath the experiences,
There is something solid and stable and this stable and solid place is a place of joy,
Compassion,
Lightheartedness,
Playfulness and happiness.
In fact,
All the negative emotions and feelings are perhaps like clouds that cover up this stable,
Strong,
Steady place inside you where everything feels good to you.
Taking a big deep inhale and exhale,
As you continue your practice,
You may start to feel the vibrations of your energy.
You may learn to recognize that this is a signal that you are indeed in a meditative state,
In a state whereby you can notice that you are energy and it feels very real to have this experience of being human,
But when we close our eyes and meditate,
What becomes real for us is the truth that we are spirit having a human experience.
And just for a moment imagine this for true,
That you are indeed not this body,
Not these feelings,
Not these instincts,
But you are instead a witness and observer of your human condition,
And allow this to sink into your body with your breath.
And notice how it feels to you when you can detach like this and let go of all the other stuff that was in your mind.
Notice the freedom and sense of liberty that you feel,
The lightness of being.
Take an even bigger breath if this is true for you and exhale all the stale air and old thoughts and old feelings.
They are no longer relevant because in this moment the past is already past.
We can let go of it to completely enjoy this moment with every fiber of our being.
Taking in a deep breath of gratitude to yourself for making time to just be,
Making time for yourself,
Making time to feel your presence,
The truth of who you are,
Just sending yourself that gratitude.
Perhaps you can see in your mind I am so grateful that I am learning something new.
I am grateful that I am able to feel my breath.
I am grateful that I am breathing.
I am grateful for having this life,
This opportunity to make a difference.
Bringing your awareness again back to the breath,
Letting the breath nurture you,
Fill you,
Bring you the energy that you truly want.
The breath is almost like a mother.
And allowing yourself to feel the sensations beneath your feet,
See for some of you you may like to connect more fully to the sensation of the earth beneath your feet to truly ground and stabilize your mind.
You may imagine or sense a connection and this is the connection of gravity and also the connection of sustenance that we feel,
That we have throughout our life with the earth.
And in gratitude for all the things that Mother Earth does for us from growing our food to making our water,
For looking after us with hundreds of minerals and trees and plants and just for a moment connecting with gratitude to this divine energy of abundance and stability.
At any time if you notice that your mind has wandered off.
Somewhere else,
Bring it back to the breath.
Because the breath is where it's all happening,
Nowhere else but the breath.
This is where the dance is.
This is your true connection to your body.
In a moment I'm going to be ending this particular audio.
What I'd like you to do is flick your fingers and perhaps wiggle your toes in preparation for becoming fully awake and fully aware of your surroundings.
Be mindful of the fact that you were in a very deep meditative place and that you will now be transitioning from that inner connection to an outer connection.
And what we want ideally to happen is for you to have both,
To have both an inner balance and an outer balance.
And so give yourself a couple of minutes to emerge fully.
You can pause or stop the audio at this time.
You may allow yourself to come back into full awareness slowly.
Wiggle your fingers and toes.
Becoming aware of the energies and knowing that your energies are quite open after a deep meditation like this.
Being mindful of that special place you're in.
Give yourself a few extra minutes to come back to full wakefulness.
Or if you like or if you need to,
Just wiggle your fingers and toes,
Rub your palms together.
Separate the palms and feel the energy.
And just take the palms over your face,
Just wiping away all the thoughts that were there just a moment ago and wiping the hands down your head,
Your head and down your ears and shoulders,
Perhaps down your arms and just flick your fingers.
You may need to repeat a few times.
And if you want to,
And if you feel like there's a part of your body that needs extra healing,
Rub your palms and just place the palms over top of that part of your body.
Take a deep inhale and exhale and remember your intention.
Appreciating your practice.
I wish you many,
Many wonderful sessions of meditation and mindfulness on the breath.
I'm now going to bring the meditation to a close using a gentle tap.
