Just spend a little bit of time here,
Connecting with the ground.
Can hold us in our practice,
Feeling all the different sensations where the body meets the earth and allowing gravity to really support the body to release more and more fully into the ground,
Tuning into the qualities that the ground can offer us like stillness,
Stability,
Steadiness,
Spaciousness.
And in the grounding,
There's also an opportunity to connect with the physicality of the body.
Just tuning into the density,
The weightiness and the resistance where the body meets the ground,
The thingness of the body,
A thing that is here and also is alive for a short time on this earth and connecting as well with the uprightness or if you're laying down the whole front of the body,
Rising up into an opening to space,
Feeling the integrity of that,
Filling into space all around us,
Allowing the body to really take its place here as physical form and so much more than that,
A pulsing,
Glowing,
Soft,
Supple,
Ever-changing,
Dynamic ball of energy,
Cloud of sensations,
Instrument of feeling.
And then just seeing how much effort's needed here,
Applying just enough effort to support awareness and the breath to find each other,
Resting back in awareness and allowing the breath to emerge into awareness as a known experience that we can get curious about.
Air coming and going in this body right now,
Right here.
Getting curious about where you can feel the breath,
Maybe the first place it's most obvious,
Belly,
Chest,
Throat,
Nose,
Mouth,
Some place in between.
And noticing maybe somewhere else where you also feel the breath,
Maybe a little bit more subtly.
We can get curious here as well about how deeply the breath can be felt in the body.
Subtlety of sensations deep inside us as we breathe.
Sensing into how widely we feel the breath as well,
Breath of the breath.
Way out on the edges of the skin,
Side to side,
Front to back,
Head to toe.
And all the changing sensations in between,
Depth and breath across the whole of the body.
And then just checking in for a minute about how much effort you're making here.
And again,
There's an invitation to rest back.
If you feel like you're becoming a bit rigid,
Trying a bit too hard.
Allow the awareness to find the breath and the breath to find the awareness.
If you feel like maybe you've gone a bit dull or sluggish,
You could bring in a little wiggle,
Maybe take a few deeper breaths.
Straighten up the posture for a minute and then settle back in.
To a comfortable position,
Relaxed,
At ease,
Yet alert,
Awake,
Present.
Following the breath like a thread.
Noticing also the length of each breath,
Each breath having its own unique duration,
Relatively long or short.
You can really just allow it to be as it is.
Allowing the body to breathe itself.
And then finally noticing the texture or felt sense of the breath.
How it feels as it comes and goes.
Silky smooth,
Soft,
Easy.
Or maybe a bit jaggedy,
Sandy,
Coarse.
Or anything in between.
This might also include qualities like hydration or different particles we might sense in the air as we breathe.
Relative lightness or density of the air.
And its changing nature as it comes and goes,
Including the temperature.
And then just noticing if you do get distracted in any way here.
What can support a return to presence without judging ourselves?
In fact,
The distraction is probably an intelligent adaptation,
Some part of us that's kept us safe.
From boredom or fear,
The unknown.
So resources can help us here.
The ground is a wonderful resource we can return to again and again.
A sense of infinite space stretching in all directions from the body.
Physical touch.
Either on different parts of the body that might be calling out for attention.
Or just the softness of a blanket,
Cushion.
And then gently returning to the breathing body when you're ready,
Attending to what's here.
Bringing presence and availability to the breathing body as it is.
So I'll just stop with the guidance for a little while and let you explore on your own for the next four or five minutes.
Just continuing with this curiosity of breathing.
In a moment,
I will be ringing a bell to mark the end of this practice.
And the invitation is to just do whatever you know works for you to support you to emerge out of the practice.
