I invite you to settle into a position that embodies a sense of dignity and presence and bring your full attention to the simple experience of breathing in and breathing out.
Identify a point in the body where you can physically sense the experience of breathing in and breathing out.
It may be in the nostrils,
It may be in the lower abdomen,
Maybe just the sensation of the chest as it rises and falls with each conscious in-breath and out-breath.
Let your mind to rest on the breath itself,
Following it as you breathe in and out at a pace that is natural and comfortable for you.
You may find it helpful as you begin the practice of regular mindfulness meditation to support yourself in keeping your mind focused on the breath by counting,
Perhaps up to three or five as you breathe in,
Two,
Three,
And out.
In two,
Three.
Counting in that way is simply an additional support to concentrate the mind,
To tether it to the experience of breathing in and breathing out.
If you find that your mind is wandering or has wandered away from the simple appreciation of the experience of breathing in and breathing out,
Just notice with non-judgmental awareness that your mind has done what it normally does and invite yourself to begin the meditation again.
Consciously invite the qualities of a mountain as you sit,
The majesty,
The stillness,
The dignity,
The groundedness and rootedness.
Consciously invite those qualities into your experience or sense into the ways in which you're sitting in this moment embodies those qualities.
Doing so can provide a solid and reliable foundation to you for maintaining mindfulness,
Stillness,
And calm even in periods of stress and turmoil throughout your days.
Again and again,
As often as is necessary,
Bring your mind gently back to the sensation and the experience of simply breathing in and out.
See if you can sense even more deeply on the next in-breath and out-breath just how the body responds to a conscious breath.
See if you can sense something brand new about the way in which it feels to you in this moment to breathe in and breathe out.
As you breathe in and breathe out,
Invite yourselves to sit in this moment.
You may find emotions arise along with thoughts as you recognize some experience bringing itself up in your consciousness.
I invite you to accept whatever comes,
What thoughts arise,
What emotions arise as what is coming up for you in this moment.
You may choose to investigate what comes up for you.
Set aside time now or later to look more carefully,
More closely into what is beneath the emotion that you feel.
Or simply to explore more fully just what that emotion feels like for you in this moment.
And if you can allow some sense of spaciousness to coexist with whatever arises for you so that if it's a thought,
It is a thought that is arising in a field of spaciousness like an open blue sky and it may float away as a cloud of wood.
And similarly,
If it is an emotion,
Let it be the experience for you that this emotion can exist,
Can be felt,
Even as you can sense into some spaciousness around that,
Some way in which whatever the emotion is,
It is only part of your conscious experience in this moment.
I invite you to sense into not only the full experience of the next in-breath and out-breath,
But also the way in which the ground beneath you supports you fully in this experience.
It's you,
Nurtures you.
It's you,
Nurtures you.
It's you,
Nurtures you.
It's you,
Nurtures you.
It's you,
Nurtures you.
It's you,
Nurtures you.
It's you,
Nurtures you.
