Coming Home To The Breath & Body

This practices allows you to gently focus on your breath and body with kindness and compassion. Shelby guides you into cultivating awareness of all pleasant and unpleasant sensations, allowing them to pass without reacting or clinging.

Transcript

Taking some time to let yourself arrive in a posture that feels comfortable and upright.

Put aside any distractions and see if you can give yourself the gift of coming fully into this moment without planning,

Without trying to figure anything out.

Really allowing yourself the gift of making space for whatever's here in the present moment.

As you begin to get settled into your posture,

You can take a few full breaths,

Allowing the whole body to lift and expand on the inhale,

Settle and soften on the exhale.

Let go of anything that's not needed in this moment that's willing to be let go of.

You can do that for a few times as we begin here.

You can even lift your shoulders with each inhale and exhale.

Drop the shoulders,

Soften the belly,

Sink the seat into the surface beneath you.

And after you've had some of those full breaths,

Go ahead and let your breath breathe you.

No need to control it anymore or make it be any way you think it should be.

You'll just begin to follow the natural breath and see what your body wants to do today.

There's no right or wrong.

We'll just study it and notice how it is in each moment.

And the beginning of this practice here,

Really bringing your focus in to the experience of how you feel the breath in your body.

Instead of thinking about the breath,

Notice the sensations that you can feel as you breathe in and out,

Feeling the expansion in your chest,

Your belly,

Noticing the shoulders rise.

And on each exhale,

Feeling the shoulders fall,

The chest come inwards,

The belly soften.

You can silently say to yourself in on the inhale and out on the exhale if it helps keep your mind focused right here in the experience of the body.

It's okay if the mind thinks that's what it does.

You can allow it to do that in the background and choose to put your attention on your breath on something that's right here in the present moment.

You might notice that there are really subtle ways you could be trying to control the breath.

If you are,

Just check in with that and see if it's possible at all to follow your breath,

To see how your body wants to exhale today and inhale even if it's not how you think it should be.

You can also pay attention to the ways you judge yourself or have expectations and see if it's possible to let that settle away today.

Just let yourself be as you want to be.

From time to time checking in with your posture,

Noticing if it's possible to soften any tension that's crept up,

Feel your feet on the floor,

Your seat sinking into the surface beneath you,

Your hands resting.

Just do that,

And it's okay to just let go.

From time to time checking in with your posture,

Noticing if it's possible to let that settle away today.

Just let yourself be as you want to be.

From time to time checking in with your posture,

Noticing if it's possible to You can broaden your awareness now,

Soften it a bit around the breath and start to become aware of the whole body and how it's feeling here today.

And as you scan through the body,

Simply noticing what's here with as little judgment as possible.

Just saying hello to anything you notice with as much kindness as you can.

Remembering that it's important to include in your awareness things that feel okay,

Things that feel pleasant.

So often we notice the tensions that are grabbing at us or the pain.

And it's really helpful to remember the whole of our experience,

To open to things that we can lean into.

We can feel our warm hands or the support in our seat.

And if it's difficult to connect with those things,

You can even notice something as simple as feeling an earlobe that doesn't hurt or the tip of the elbow.

And if the mind becomes too distracted trying to be aware of more than just the breath,

Just bring the attention right back to the breath and do this over and over again.

It's a great home base,

A place to feel like you can really come back,

Anchor yourself to the present moment and then move to broader and broader points of awareness as you begin to include more and more things in your mindfulness.

The mind can really react to things if it's untrained.

If we notice that there's pain in the knee,

Often what happens is a series of responses like fear and then a thought about the pain in the knee instead of it just being simple sensation like hot or buzzing or pressure.

And so when we can begin to meet our experiences with curiosity instead of reacting with fear and a story or emotion and a story,

We can start getting a little bit more space from them so that we can respond to whatever is with compassion.

Okay.

Our minds can also become quite reactive when we experience something pleasant instead of opening to it and allowing it to be here,

Feeling the sensations of it,

Like the warm hands simply feeling the buzzing,

The pressure,

The gentleness of the contact between the legs and the palms.

We can go into a fantasy or a story about other things that feel great or we can cling to it wanting more of it.

When our minds take us down these roads,

It takes us out of the present moment and keeps us from actually having joy right here,

Right now.

So this practice helps us be aware of where the mind goes and then we're able to come back to the sensations right here,

Right now,

Without the story.

Ality.

Whatever it is that you're noticing in this moment,

Whether it's a sensation in your body,

An emotion,

A thought,

Your breath,

See if you can meet it with some compassion,

With some care,

Some kindness.

If it's really painful or incredibly joyful,

Whatever it is,

See if there's a part of you that can meet it with this warmth,

This care.

And if there's not a part of you that can do that,

It's not a problem.

This is something that we cultivate over time.

Maybe see if you can meet that with just a little bit of care.

Meet the resistance or the part that feels shut down with a little bit of kindness.

Continuing to allow yourself to rest here,

Keeping yourself company with your breath,

Body sensations,

And your kind attention.

Including in your awareness the sounds in the room and outside of the room.

As we come to the end of this practice,

See if there's anything helpful that you're experiencing on the inside that you'd like to stay connected with.

You can bring this with you throughout your day and over time return to it whenever you need it.

Gradually bringing the light to your eyes.

Bringing yourself into the space where you are.

Taking a few full breaths.

And honoring yourself for giving yourself time today.

Time in this way where you put your distractions aside and come home.

Reviews

I come back to this meditation from time to time. Love the space and time you give and feel held in your compassionate voice. Thank you

Thank you Shelby

I really love this meditation. Her voice and manner are gentle and the silences well timed as well as the guidance about noticing your thoughts and feelings and how to respond. The length is good and I appreciate that there is no music and the spaces between speaking are long enough to settle in and follow the guidance.

Lovely! Thank you!

For me - the perfect blend of guidance & silence.

Slept like a baby!

Very nice. Thanks

Lovely experience

Wonderful meditation thankyou so much 'namasté'🕉☮

Lovely simple meditation, I enjoyed the pace.

Very simple in the best way! Good for beginners or anyone looking to reset. Thank you Shelby!

Very well done 👏:)

Very nice, soothing meditation. Thank you.