Coming Home to The Breath

A short meditation to bring balance, calm and ease. This was created for beginners who have no experience of sitting calmly and quietening the mind.

Transcript

Coming home,

Breathing exercise.

Settle somewhere quiet and comfortable and sit with the right side of the body mirroring the left side of the body.

Have a sense of the chair underneath you supporting you and the back of the chair supporting you and also the ground through your feet.

And then start to be aware of your breathing,

Just noticing the in and the out breath.

And then allowing the breath to be slightly longer,

A slightly longer in breath and a slightly longer out breath.

If you find yourself getting tight,

Let the mind wander away from this and then just bring it back with a sense of ease,

Acceptance and allowing the slight lengthening of the breath to happen.

So to further settle the mind,

We give our awareness an object to rest on.

So as well as the breath,

We're going to balance the length of the in with the out breath.

And to do this,

We use a slow count of three or four to measure the in breath and the same count to measure the out breath.

And at the end of the out breath,

Have a little pause so you don't over breathe.

When we sit quietly,

Often sensations in the body,

Sensations like tightness,

Vibration,

Heat,

Cold,

Attention,

A pain will start to reveal itself to you.

So when this happens,

Just take your awareness to the sensation and accept that it's visiting you.

So we don't try to push it away.

We just bring it into this breathing exercise.

And then go back to the measuring the in and the out breath using the slow count of three or four,

Knowing that that sensation is visiting you for a moment.

Even though our intention is to follow the breath using these slow counts,

Quite quickly a thought will come into our head.

It's no big deal.

This is what the mind does.

Tends to get a bit busy.

But when we notice we're no longer counting and measuring our breath,

We accept the thought without judgment or criticism.

And then very kindly,

We let the thought go and come back to the practice and be prepared to do this over and over again.

So we keep bringing the awareness back to our breathing,

Allowing thoughts to dissolve like a bubble coming up through water,

Just disappears into nothing when it meets the air.

And relaxing the body,

Really feeling held and supported by the chair.

So after a while we let go the counting and we allow the out breath to be even longer.

So we're releasing it fully.

And as we release the breath,

We wait at the end of the out breath for the in breath to arise naturally.

So our breathing is like a gentle wave lapping ashore.

And as we breathe out,

We allow all the tensions of the body to be relaxed.

The shoulders released,

The legs feeling heavier,

The feet and the hands relaxed.

So we're connecting to the wonderful capacity of the out breath to soothe,

Ground and centre us.

As we do this,

We can also allow any thoughts that pop into our head to be dispersed with the out breath.

And allowing the breath to drop much more deeply,

Deep into the pelvic bowl,

So the belly,

The lower belly is moving with each breath.

On the out breath it just falls into the body and when we breathe in there's a slight rising of the lower belly on the in breath.

One place to bring our awareness to of our faces.

We have about 35 different muscle groups in our faces.

So it's a veritable magnet for tension.

So as we breathe out,

We can allow our foreheads to be calm,

Clear and open.

Loosen and soften all the muscles around our eyes and deep into the eyes.

And allow the mouth to soften and relax like the sweet presence of a baby's mouth.

So there's a little space between the teeth.

The lips are still together but relax.

So releasing all the tensions that are often spread from the mouth into the rest of the head.

So releasing,

Relaxing,

Feeling supported as we breathe out.

Just letting go.

Becoming present with the breath,

The body and the ground.

And then just allow the breath to settle,

Not doing anything special with it at all.

As you do that,

Just notice how you feel.

And maybe you had your eyes shut for this short breathing exercise.

So just staying where you are,

Open your eyes and maybe just wriggle your body a little bit before getting up and carrying on with your daily life.

Thank you.

Reviews

Good information

Amazing, short & sweet. Loved it. 🙏🏽

Good stuff.
But she talks like she's speaking to an adult.

I tried to get my nephew to do this, but he's autistic.
So that was like putting rubber bands on jello.

Any suggestions ?

Really nice. Made me feel happy and purposeful at the end of it. Thank you.

Very helpful, was able to match my breathing to the tide of the ocean. This further helped me keep my focus on the breathing. Thanks!

It was really good

Very basic, thorough, soothing meditation for mind and body. All I need this morning. Thanks much.

Very insightful. Felt very calm and grounded. Thank you 🙏

My 7 year old nephew told it was good because she knows how to explain about the body and knew how his body would react before he did the meditation🤗🙄that face because it makes him think too.

A short and sweet meditation, thank you.

My kids say that was great

Very nice work break relaxation

Very helpful thank you

One of my new favorites! Simple and easy without any distractions. I enjoy the breath only focus.

Relaxing and enjoyable. Thank you

Exactly what I needed. I especially appreciate how she approaches dealing with thoughts that come in to distract.

Super simple
Light and clear
Great one for beginners and old timers alike

A very refreshing meditation, I found it easy to let go of thoughts by concentrating on the breath. Thank you