Come to sit in a comfortable position,
Either on the floor with your legs gently crossed,
Or on a chair with your feet rested on the air.
Either way,
Make sure your position is comfortable such that you can remain here for the next 20 minutes in relative stillness.
Allow your spine to elongate,
But your body to remain soft.
When you're ready,
Begin to close your eyes.
Taking three full,
Deep,
Empty in-breaths,
Inhaling through the nostril and exhaling it all out the mouth.
Two more times,
Inhale through the nostrils,
And as you exhale,
Let go of any stress,
Tension or holding.
Do that one more time.
Inhale through the nostrils,
And exhale through the mouth.
And now simply just become aware of the fact that you are breathing.
Simple awareness of the fluctuations of your breath.
Breathing your inhale and observing your exhale.
Simple awareness of your breath.
Allow your body to relax a little more with every breath that you take.
Feel that your inhale creates just a little more space throughout your entire body.
And with every exhale,
You relax and let go a little more.
Relaxing the body with your breath.
And allowing your mind to relax by accepting everything that is present in this moment.
Releasing the desire to shift or change anything.
Releasing the wish that things were any different than they are right now.
Keep your awareness rested simply on the fluctuation of your breath.
The in and the out.
Now taking your awareness to your physical body,
And just for a moment noticing any tension that is there within your body.
And wherever you notice tension,
Bring your awareness and your breath into each place of holding.
Perhaps your shoulders,
Maybe your forehead,
Perhaps your belly.
Direct your breath into these places where you notice tension.
And again with each inhalation,
Feel a little more space being created in those areas.
And with each exhalation,
Allow for the tension,
The restriction and the holding to gently melt away.
Breathing deeply and consciously into any areas of tension in your physical body.
And if you're aware of any tension in your mind,
Breathe the energy of your breath into your mind.
And again in the same way,
Allowing each exhalation to effortlessly float this tension away.
Giving more space,
More calmness and more peace of mind.
On each inhalation,
Let the breath flow easily into any areas of tension.
And on the exhale,
Allow the tension,
The tightness,
The constriction to effortlessly flow away.
Simply continue observing and working with the breath in this way.
Breathing to create space,
Exhaling to release.
And now bring your awareness to the movement of your breath.
Effortlessly observing the movement of your inhale and the movement of your exhale.
Observing the breath as it draws in through the nostrils.
Filling the lungs,
Expanding the chest.
And again observing as the breath gently pours out of the lungs,
The chest softens and back out through the nostrils.
Continue observing the movement of your breath in this way.
And if you find that your mind has wandered off at any point during your practice,
That's okay.
At the point at which you realise your mind has wandered off,
Just effortlessly,
Without a story,
Come back to the awareness of your breath.
Taking your awareness now to the space at the very entrance of your nostrils.
And observing the sensation of the breath as you draw in through the nostrils.
And again observing the sensation of your breath as it empties out of your nostrils.
Perhaps noticing the gentle brushing of the air over your top lip as you breathe in and as you breathe out.
Full awareness of your breath.
Now observing the flow of your breath through your nostrils.
Perhaps noticing the breath flowing a little more easily through one nostril than the other.
Or perhaps it feels the same.
So there's no right or no wrong.
Just simple observation of what is.
And now observing any sounds of your breath.
Observing the sound as you draw the breath into your body.
And any sounds as the breath gently empties out.
No need to change or alter anything in any way.
Just simply observing the nature of our breath.
When we begin to deepen our enquiry of our breath.
When we get a little more curious we develop a deeper relationship with ourself.
Now taking your awareness to the tempo of your breath.
The speed of your breath.
Noticing if your breath feels fast or if it feels slow.
Perhaps noticing how many counts are your inhale and how many counts are your exhale.
Simple awareness of breath.
Taking your awareness now to the fluidity of your breath.
Noticing if your breath feels fluid,
If it feels smooth.
Or perhaps it feels a little jagged.
No right no wrong in our observation of breath.
Just simply observing what is here in our present moment awareness.
Noticing if your breath flows smoothly from your inhale to your exhale.
Back to your inhale and to your exhale.
Or maybe you can notice an infinitesimal pause at the end of either or both of the breaths.
Now observing the depth of your breath.
How deep within your body your breath begins.
And how deep in your body your breath returns too.
If your mind want us off,
Just effortlessly come back to this observation of breath.
It's not important how many times our mind want us off.
It's important as how many times we're able to come back to our breath.
Notice if your body still feels soft and relaxed.
Is your spine still long?
With every inhalation feel your spine getting a little longer.
With every exhale allowing any tension or holding to gently melt away.
Taking your awareness now to the way that your body responds to the movement of the breath.
Observing the different parts of your body that gently expand and move when you inhale.
The different parts of your body that gently soften and return back to centre when you exhale.
Observing this gentle expansion and softening with every round of breath that you take.
Feel this gentle awareness of the movement of your breath.
Focusing on the inhalation,
Softening back to centre on your exhalation.
This observation of your breath.
Keeping this awareness of your breath as you take yourself through five final rounds of slow conscious breathing.
Remaining present to each and every breath.
The end of your last exhalation.
Beginning to invite some very gentle movement into your body.
You may want to stretch your arms overhead.
When you're ready in your own time,
Begin to softly open up your eyes.
Maintaining the sense of calm,
The sense of groundedness as you continue on with the rest of your day.
