This is a guided 15-minute meditation with focus on the breath.
We can begin now by finding a comfortable seated position.
You can sit on a chair or perhaps a meditation cushion on the floor.
Just ensuring that we are in an upright posture,
Hands resting on our knees or in our lap,
And trying to embody a state of wakefulness throughout the duration of this practice.
And you can begin to close your eyes if you've not done so already.
And we'll start by bringing attention to the sensation of being seated on this chair or on this cushion,
Just noticing the weight of your body against the surface below,
Feeling the security of the ground below holding your body here in this meditation practice.
We're now going to begin directing our attention to the sensation of our breath in various parts of the body.
So we're not trying to control our breathing in any way here.
We're simply allowing the breath to flow naturally,
But trying to make sure that we are breathing through the nose,
Inhaling through the nostrils and out of the nostrils.
And to begin with,
We're going to direct our attention to the area of the nostrils,
Anchoring our attention here,
Noticing the sensation of the breath,
Of the air as it flows in and out of the nostrils.
Perhaps noticing the coolness of the air as it flows out or flows in.
And just seeing if it's possible to fully rest our entire attention in the area of the nostrils,
Allowing this to be the focus point of the mind,
Of our attention,
Enabling us to be fully present in this moment with this breath as it flows in and out of the body.
Just noticing the air,
The breath on the inhale,
And staying present as well for the exhale.
And if we notice that our mind has wandered,
Perhaps we've become distracted by thoughts,
Thinking about the past or the future or anything else,
We acknowledge that this is the nature of the mind.
When the mind has wandered in this way,
We just notice it,
And then gently and with kindness we bring our attention back to our anchor,
Back to the nostrils,
Back to the breath and to this present moment.
We are not trying to create an experience without any thoughts or without any distractions.
Instead we acknowledge that distractions and thinking will come and go.
Our purpose here with this meditation is simply to train our attention and train our awareness to come back to the present moment.
Even if it wanders a hundred times during a meditation,
It simply means that you have a hundred opportunities to bring your awareness back to each present moment.
And staying with the breath now in the nostrils for a while longer here.
And then we're going to move our attention now,
Explore the breath in a different part of the body.
We're going to move our attention now,
Our focus point,
Our anchor,
To the chest region.
Just being fully present to the experience of our breath in this part of the body.
Noticing the rise and fall of the chest,
The expansion of the lungs as we inhale.
Just riding that wave of the inhale and exhale with our attention.
The rise and fall,
The gentle movement that occurs as we breathe.
Maybe even directing the attention for a moment to the throat region.
Seeing if we can make out any sensations as the air moves through the throat.
Maybe a sensation of coolness here as well,
Or warmth.
Noticing the flow as it moves in and out with the inhale and the exhale.
And staying with the chest now for a while longer.
Experiencing your breath in this very moment again and again with each breath.
And again,
Perhaps reminding ourselves that feelings of restlessness or thoughts of restlessness,
Or maybe noticing that we feel tired or agitated in any kind of way.
Whenever we notice these thoughts or feelings appearing,
We do just that,
We notice them.
We can also label them if that helps.
So if we find ourselves with a mind that's occupied with thinking,
We can simply say to ourselves,
Thinking,
Thinking.
Or if we notice that we're feeling tired in our bodies,
We can also name that as tired sleepiness.
Once we've labeled the distraction,
We again once more bring our attention back to the breath.
Bring our attention back to our anchor in this meditation,
To the chest region,
To the lungs at this point in time.
And then we're going to move our attention to the abdomen,
To the stomach.
We're going to take a while now to be present with the sensations of the breath,
Of the movement in this part of the body.
Again,
Paying attention to the rise and fall of the stomach.
This movement in waves that occurs with the natural flow of your breath.
Just coming back again and again to each new moment with our attention.
Paying attention to the breath still.
Keeping our awareness in the stomach,
In the abdomen.
Fully experiencing the sensation of breathing activated in this part of the body.
And then for the last few minutes of this meditation,
We're going to see if we can travel with each inhale and each exhale.
So moving with the air,
With the breath,
Hooking our attention on to the beginning of the inhale.
As it moves through the nostrils,
Down the throat,
Down into the lungs,
Creating that movement in the chest and the abdomen.
And then traveling back with it as it moves out in the exhale of the body,
Back out through the nostrils again.
So journeying with the breath,
With your attention.
Inhaling and gently exhaling.
Feeling the air,
Noticing the air as it moves through the body.
And then letting go of this movement of the breath now and then coming back to the nostrils again.
The anchor,
The focus point where we began this meditation.
And just once more resting your awareness here.
And for a few breaths now,
The last few breaths,
Just noticing the inhale and the exhale as it flows through the nostril region.
And when you hear the sound of the ending bell,
You can begin to gently open your eyes when you feel ready.
And bring your awareness back to the rest of the body,
To the rest of the surroundings.
