Hello there.
Welcome to a beginner series on meditation.
I'm Stacy.
I'm excited to have you here.
I'm excited to share with you meditation and just the basics.
I know that when I first started practicing meditation,
I never thought for a second I'd be able to sit still.
And for most of us,
It is really hard.
But like a yoga practice,
Meditation practice is just that.
It is a practice.
The more that you practice,
The easier it becomes.
We never want to look at a meditation as rating it as right or wrong or good or bad.
It just simply is.
And I think that's really important when we think about meditation or we think about yoga to not categorize it as good or bad and just simply allow it to be what it is.
So for the first meditation that I'd like to share with you in this series,
We're going to talk about the breath awareness as sort of the foundation of meditation practice.
To begin meditation,
I recommend that you have a quiet space that's going to be the most likely to not be interrupted.
So if that means putting a little note on the door of the room that you're sitting in or waiting until people are at school or at work to find that quiet,
I highly recommend that we will have our own internal interruptions.
But we want to try to eliminate the external as we're starting.
The longer we practice meditation,
I actually kind of like to have those everyday noises and interruptions come about in a natural way,
Because it shows me that the practice is working because I don't react or respond to those.
But for our basic foundational breath awareness,
Maybe this is the first time that you've ever tried meditation,
I encourage you to try to create the space that's going to offer you the least amount of interruptions.
Find a comfortable seat or you can do this laying down.
Laying down has some benefits,
You completely relax,
But you also might drift off asleep.
This meditation will only be about eight minutes.
And so hopefully you don't fall asleep in eight minutes.
So I would recommend sitting up or laying down.
And when we sit up,
I recommend having a straight spine,
A comfortable seat,
You don't have to sit cross legged,
You don't need to burn incense and have all those,
You know,
Tools that we think we need that are complimentary.
But you can just be sitting in the office chair,
I'm sitting on a stool,
It can be anywhere.
So find that comfortable seat,
Take a moment or two to get any of the wiggles out.
Perfect.
And then just rest your hands on your knees.
Feel the texture of the clothing on your legs,
Just starting to tune in to what's going on right now.
Now close your eyes,
Just let them drift downward.
If it's uncomfortable to close your eyes,
You can just look at the floor,
Find something to stare at.
But really learning to practice finding comfort with closed eyes is a great starting point.
Just take three normal breaths,
Just inhaling through your nose,
Exhaling through your mouth,
Don't need to manipulate the breath at all.
Just finding normal breath.
Now focus your mind on the sensation of the breath coming into the body.
You might notice there's a little whisper of air that crosses over the upper lip,
There is a coolness to the air.
And as you empty the breath,
And the lips become closed,
You feel across the upper lip a warmth.
Take a bigger breath in through the nose,
Feeling the cool air.
And then empty the breath through the nose,
Feeling the warm air.
Do that again.
Feel the warmth,
Feel the tickle,
Feel the sensation.
Now if your mind wanders,
It will.
Try not to resist the wandering,
But just gently and lovingly bring your attention back to your breath with no judgment.
No thoughts of I can't or I'm not.
Just find that sensation again.
Breathing in the warm,
Feeling.
Okay,
So now start to tune into that temperature.
The inhale might be come a little different as you notice there's a tickle.
Maybe the room has warmed up.
Maybe you smell something,
Coffee or a scent that's in your room.
What the heck is that?
Perhaps the lotion that you applied.
And then on that out breath,
It's warmer.
There's a tiny little tickle as it enters down the upper lip across your lips.
And then the inhale,
It's a different temperature,
A little warm,
A little cool.
Maybe there's a freshness.
And then as you exhale,
It's warmer.
There's a whisper.
There's a sensation.
Now shifting our attention to the temperature of the breath,
Bring your awareness down to your lungs and to your belly.
And as you inhale,
Watch as your chest rises.
And on your exhale,
Watch as your chest falls.
It's simple.
It's subtle.
It's real.
It's present.
Feel the chest rise.
No longer thinking about temperature or tickle across the upper lip.
We're focusing on the movement of the lungs.
Inhale.
Let your chest rise.
Exhale.
Watch as your chest falls.
See how the belly draws in.
Do that again.
Breathe in.
Belly inflates.
Chest rises.
Take the breath to the throat.
And then empty the breath.
And just follow that rhythm of ebb and flow.
Just like how when you're standing at the shore of a lake,
Shore of an ocean,
The in-breath and the out-breath.
Watch just like the water as it goes away and comes in.
It goes away and it comes in.
Feel that.
Now,
Shift your attention to the breath rising in the body all the way up to the collarbone.
And then on the exhale,
Push the air all the way down to the space that's sitting on the chair.
Feel that.
And do that again.
Let the breath rise all the way up to the collarbone.
Up to the collarbone,
Maybe to the throat.
And then watch as the breath falls down all the way down to the heaviness of your hips.
Let it rise.
Let it fall.
Let it rise.
And let it fall.
Take just a couple breaths here.
Come back to the upper lip.
Breathe in through the nose.
Notice the whisper.
Notice the sensation.
Notice the temperature.
And on your exhale,
Notice warmth.
Breathe into your chest.
Watch it rise.
And watch it fall.
Breathe into the throat,
The collarbone.
Go high up the body.
Breathe down into the part of the body that is sitting on the stool or the chair.
Come back to the upper lip.
Inhale.
Feel the warmth.
Exhale.
Watch the chest rise.
Inhale.
Feel the chest fall.
Exhale.
Breathe into the throat.
Feel the body become full.
And then exhale.
Feel the body settle.
Do that one more time.
Come back to the upper lip.
Feel the sensation,
The tickle.
Feel the warmth.
Feel the chest rise,
The body inflate,
And the body empty.
Bring the breath high all the way up to the collarbone,
The throat.
Fill up and then empty.
Breathe all the way down.
Take a few breaths.
And there we have the first meditation in a series of three.
Simple breath awareness meditation can be done anywhere,
Anytime.
In a parking lot,
At your desk,
Hidden behind a closed door,
In the bathroom if that's the only break you get.
And then just ask yourself before you return to your normal activity,
How do I feel?
Thank you for joining me for breath awareness meditation and pop back on for part two.
Take care.
Have a great day.
