Three-Stage Breathing Space Meditation

A short practice to help you pause and slow down when life is feeling stressful and hectic. In just a few minutes you'll be guided to step out of busy 'doing mode' and into a more spacious, accepting frame of mind. Use this practice when you're feeling frazzled, or practice it regularly as a way of checking in with yourself, and building up your resilience.

Transcript

The three-minute breathing space.

So in the first part of the practice,

Allowing yourself to slow down a little,

To step out of busy doing mode and give yourself some time just to be.

So feeling your body settling back and down into your seat,

Feeling your feet firmly connected with the floor beneath you and just allowing yourself to arrive,

To settle and then gently observing how are you feeling just now.

You can include any sensations in the body,

Any emotions you're experiencing and any thoughts that are passing through and knowing that from a mindfulness perspective there's no right or wrong way to feel.

Do as best you can,

Just allowing things to be as they are.

So in the second step of the breathing space,

Focusing in,

Zooming in on the sensations of your breath in your body.

So you might feel your belly expanding as you breathe in and subsiding as you breathe out.

You might notice the rise and fall of your chest or the movement happening down the sides of the body or the ribcage,

The back of the body.

And just letting each breath arrive in its own time,

Just observing that gentle ebb and flow,

That natural rhythm.

And in the last stage of the breathing space,

We're going to zoom out again.

So keeping that awareness of the breath and the body,

Your emotions,

Your thoughts,

But now expanding a little bit further beyond yourself.

So you might become more aware of the room that you're sitting in,

Maybe the people nearby,

Whether that's in the house or outside,

Neighbours.

Noticing any sounds you can hear and having a sense that your awareness is broad enough and deep enough to hold all these different aspects of your experience and to hold them lightly with care,

With warmth.

As we come towards the end of the practice,

Perhaps just making a gentle intention to take any sense of spaciousness you found in this practice into the next few moments of your day.