Come into a comfortable seat,
Either sitting on the floor or sitting on a chair with your feet gently grounded to the earth.
Create a little more length through your spine and soften through your shoulders.
Release and relax the muscles of your face.
Just notice if you're tensing or clenching through your jaw.
Just create a little more space in your mouth.
And when you feel grounded and settled,
Softly close your eyes.
And let's just begin with three deep,
Grounding breaths.
Inhale deeply through the nostrils and exhale out through the mouth.
Again,
Inhale deeply through the nostrils,
Exhale out through the mouth.
One more time.
Inhale through the nostrils and as you exhale out the mouth,
Releasing any tension or stress that you've brought into this meditation with you,
Allow it all just to gently dissipate away.
And for the next few moments,
Just simply notice that you are breathing.
Observing this ever-present life force in your body.
And now just starting to observe the ebb and the flow of your breath.
Observing your inhalation and observing your exhalation.
Without shifting or changing anything in any way.
Without desiring for anything to be any different than it currently is.
Just simply observe the fluctuations of your breath.
Observing the inhale.
Observing the exhale.
When we observe the breath in this way,
We stay present to this very moment.
Observing the breath as it draws in through the nostrils.
And observing it as it gently pours out.
And if you find at any point during the meditation that your mind gets pulled elsewhere,
At the point at which you realize that your mind has drawn off,
Effortlessly come back to your breath.
Just come back to your breath.
And simply continue to observe the natural rhythm of your own breath.
Now take your awareness to your nose,
To your nostrils,
And simply observe the sensation of the breath as it draws in through the nostrils.
And again observing the sensation as it draws out.
Perhaps noticing the gentle feeling of your breath as it brushes gently over the top of your lip.
Noticing the slight difference in temperature,
The coolness as the breath draws in,
And the warmth as the breath pours out.
Just keep observing your breath in this way.
Just noticing that the breath draws in more easily through one nostril than the other.
Perhaps you can sense an evenness in the flow between both the left and right nostril.
There is no right,
There is no wrong.
We are just simply heightening our awareness of our breath.
Now taking your awareness to your chest,
And simply observing the rising and falling of your chest as you breathe.
Observing as the ribs gently expand as you inhale,
And feel that gentle condensing back to centre as you exhale.
If your mind wanders off,
That's okay,
Just come back to your breath.
Come back to this observation of the sensation of your breath.
Now take your awareness to the tempo of your breath,
The speed of your breath.
And just observing if your breath feels fast,
Or if it feels slow.
Again no right or wrong.
Just simply observing your breath.
Now noticing the fluidity of your breath.
Noticing if your breath feels fluid,
Or perhaps it feels a little jagged around the edges.
Noticing if each breath flows seamlessly into the next,
Or perhaps you can observe just an infinitesimal pause at the end of the breath,
Before the next breath starts.
Again no right or wrong,
Just observing simply what is.
Again we begin to expand our awareness of our breath.
We also begin to create a deeper awareness of our self.
Remaining long through your spine,
Soft through your shoulders.
Just checking in that your body still feels relaxed and soft.
No tension creeping into your body during this meditation.
And keeping your awareness rested on the natural rhythm of your breath.
Now observing if your breath feels shallow,
Or if it feels deep.
Observing the space in your body where your breath begins.
And observing the space in your body where your breath returns to.
If your mind wanders off,
Just keep coming back to your breath.
Keep coming back to the ever present life force that is your breath.
Full observation of your inhale,
And easeful observation of your exhale.
Observing the gentle expansion of your body as you inhale.
And that softening condensing back to centre as you exhale.
And now taking yourself through five more slow steady breaths.
Keeping your awareness rested on each and every breath.
And then when you get to the end of your last exhalation.
Just very gently begin to invite some movement into your body.
Maybe wriggling your fingers or your toes.
Or maybe stretching your arms overhead and having a nice big stretch through your body.
And then gently opening up your eyes.
And maintaining this sense of calmness,
Groundedness and centeredness as you continue on with the rest of your day.
