Breath Awareness For Experienced Meditators

A breath awareness meditation starting with three deep breaths to support a sense of stillness and spaciousness. Then an invitation to connect with the ground through the points of contact and opening to sensations here. Allowing the body to rest, feel held and supported, we then begin to connect with the breath as a place of refuge and a resource that can support deepening embodiment and connection with ourselves, others and the world.

Transcript

So we'll do a breath awareness practice, Starting with three deep breaths. So just seeing what it's like to exaggerate the inhalation and the exhalation here. Really letting the belly, The chest, The whole of the body fill up with the in-breath, Feeling that natural expansion. And then with the out-breath, Really allowing the body to drop down into the ground. Each in-breath bringing space, Each out-breath supporting stillness. And here you can even make a sound that feels good to you on the out-breath. So you might want to sigh or groan or some other sound. Sounds of relief, Satisfaction, Ease. And then when you're ready, Returning the breath to its natural rhythm. And then very gently bringing awareness right down into those points of contact with the ground again. And just feeling the body resting here. Feeling the pressure where the earth meets legs, Feet, Buttocks, Back, Head. And gently opening to those sensations, Pressure, Tingling, Warmth, Pulsing, Numbness. And with each breath here, There's an invitation to gently give the body permission to rest, To surrender maybe just a little bit further. Really allowing itself to be held, To feel supported. Sensing into the qualities of the ground through these points of contact and the sensations there. Qualities like stillness, Spaciousness, Steadiness, Heaviness, Density. You could even imagine that you're breathing these qualities up into the body through the points of contact. Any qualities that feel supportive to you just now, Breathing them up and into the whole of the body, Allowing them to permeate all of you. And then as you breathe out, Just giving anything back to the earth that you want to let go of, That you don't need to hold on to right now. Breathing in stillness, Surrendering restlessness. Breathing in spaciousness, Surrendering contraction, Tension, Narrowing. And then when you're ready, Just starting to expand the awareness to include the whole of the body breathing. If you're sitting up, Just aware of the body rising towards the sky. If you're laying down, Aware of the whole of the front of the body, Softening into space. Making space for all the different sensations, Thoughts, Emotions, Impulses, Urges that are here right now. Including anything that might not be welcome or wanted. What would it be like to just allow it to be here too? Making space for all of what's here as it is. Gently, As you feel ready, Just beginning to apply just enough effort to bring awareness and the breath together. You can imagine it's a bit like allowing the breath to emerge into awareness. To fill awareness with the breath. And to help us to get curious about the breath, I'm just going to name a few things we might notice. So firstly, Just noticing where you can feel the breath in the body, Its location. Belly, Chest, Throat, Lips, Nostrils. Noticing the temperature of air as it comes and goes. Now it's changing. Tuning into the depth to which you can feel sensations of breathing. And also the breath of the breath. How widely it can be felt. Possibly even as some tingling sensations way out on the edges of the body. Getting a 360 degree feel for the breath. As it comes and goes. Seeing what it's like to stay with each breath for the fullness of the inhalation. That pause in between, And then the fullness of the exhalation. And finally, We can be curious here about the texture of the breath as it comes and goes. How it feels. Its relative smoothness or coarseness. And then we're just going to get curious here as well about what happens when we lose contact with the breath. For whatever reason, It could be that we get distracted by the thinking mind. Lost in fantasy or rumination. Trying to solve a problem. It might be that we're going to vagueness, A little bit of shutdown, Fogginess, Even deep tiredness, Sleepiness, Dropping off. So the invitation here is to just notice if anything like that happens and then bring in a resource that can support you to return to presence and availability. So that could be the earth, The ground. Could be the breath. It could be actually opening the eyes and having a little bit of a look around, Even resting the eyes on something beautiful in your space. That brings a sense of support. It could be resting the hands on something soft. Or finding somewhere in the body that's pleasurable. Warmth, Softness, Expansion, Energy. So anytime you notice you've gone off or that you're about to go off, The invitation is to resource and then return to the breath when you feel ready. So I'll just give you a few minutes, Give you about five minutes here to explore that in your own meditation. Whatever's happening right now, There's an invitation to just broaden the awareness to include the whole body breathing. Feeling sensations coming and going across the whole of the body. This rich cloud of sensations. Ever changing. Opening to sound. The arising and passing of sound in space. Opening to the mind. The arising and passing of images, Memories, Thoughts, Emotions. Just like sensations, Just like sounds. Coming and going in awareness. So here the invitation is to rest back in a broad, Open awareness, Allowing all of that to be here as it is. Not needing to manage or control anything. Just trusting in awareness. You could even play with opening the eyes. Maintaining a very soft focus here. Simply resting, Just sitting.