Awakening Through Body & Breath (MBSR)

This meditation is an invitation to awaken to the flow of life. Contains a brief body scan and an emphasis on the breath as a way to fully come into presence.

Transcript

The following is a 30 minute meditation on the body and the breath.

So before we begin,

Go ahead and find a comfortable seat either in a chair or on your meditation cushion and mat.

And come into an alert and relaxed posture.

And we'll begin and end this meditation with the traditional sound of three bells.

The sound of three bells.

As the sound of the bells dissolve.

Let's begin by bringing your awareness into your body,

Into this alert and relaxed posture.

Expanding your awareness from the top of your head all the way down to the bottoms of your feet.

And just take a moment to notice being right here,

Sitting,

Breathing.

And it's typical for the human mind that as we become relaxed and settle in,

We often notice the mind is quite busy.

And if this is happening for you,

Just notice this and continue to bring your awareness back into the body.

Noticing being right here,

Sitting.

Alert and relaxed.

And now that you've gathered your attention to the body,

Noticing being right here.

Let's now shift awareness,

Bringing it right down into the feet.

And if you're sitting in a chair,

You can notice the contact your feet make with the floor.

Or if you're sitting on your meditation cushion,

You may notice how the sides of your feet make contact with the mat.

And seeing if you can just be present with whatever sensations are here for you right now.

Perhaps you notice pressure.

Or perhaps there's a certain temperature.

Whatever's here.

Just being with it,

Without judgment,

Without commentary.

And now shifting awareness from the feet.

And take a moment to bring your awareness into your legs.

From your hip joints all the way down to your feet.

Taking a moment to notice the right and the left leg.

Perhaps you notice the sensation if your legs are touching one another.

Or perhaps the texture of your clothing as it makes contact with this lower portion of your body.

Whatever's here.

Just making this mind-body connection.

But letting the body lead.

It's not really necessary for the mind to make commentary.

In fact,

We're moving below,

Beneath commentary.

Right into the raw sensations.

And now shifting your awareness again.

Moving from the legs into the pelvic region.

This area of your body between your hip joints.

Including your buttocks,

Your pelvis,

The organs of reproduction and elimination.

It's part of the body that we often hold a lot of tension unnecessarily.

Noticing whatever's present right now for you.

It's not uncommon to notice sensations in the body and in particular in the pelvic region.

Tingling,

Vibrating,

Tightness.

Or perhaps a looseness,

A relaxation.

Again,

We're not trying to control our body or make it be in any certain way.

Instead,

We're simply noticing.

And now shifting our awareness again and moving up into the lower half of our torso.

This portion of the body from the navel down to the pelvis,

Around the sides and this lower portion of our spinal column.

Here you might detect the sensation of breathing.

The breath as the belly moves in and out.

Expands and relaxes.

Perhaps you notice some sensations associated with digestion.

Letting be whatever's here.

Simply be.

And now shifting awareness again,

Moving from this lower half of our torso to the upper half.

Our heart and lungs are held.

The mid and upper back.

All the way to our shoulders.

Perhaps detecting the sensation of breathing in this part of the body.

Noticing the rise and fall of the chest.

The expansion and tightness of the rib cage as the breath moves into the body.

And the relaxation on the out breath.

Perhaps taking a moment to bring awareness specifically into the heart region.

Just notice.

Is there a softness here?

An openness?

Is your heart particularly tight?

Contracted?

And see if you can let it just be.

Without making judgment or needing it to be a different way.

Just saying yes to whatever the state of the heart is right now.

And taking a moment now to shift awareness into your shoulders.

It's not uncommon to carry a lot of tension in this part of the body.

And noticing as we're midway through this particular meditation,

What sensations are currently present in your shoulders?

Is there any tension detected right now?

Now moving from the shoulders and bringing awareness down both the right and the left arm all the way into the hands.

And taking a moment to bring all of your awareness into your hands.

Your fingertips.

The palms of your hands.

The backs of your hands.

All the way to your wrists.

This is a part of our body that has a lot of nerve endings so it's possible to detect tingling or vibrating.

A buzzing.

Perhaps you notice a particular temperature.

Maybe there is a difference between the left hand and the right hand.

Now shifting awareness from our hands and moving up the arms,

The forearms and the elbows.

To the upper portion of the right and the left arm.

All the way to your shoulders and back down again to your fingertips.

Holding in your awareness both of your arms.

And letting be whatever is here.

Just be.

Be a part of this moment.

Now allowing the sensations and awareness of the arms just to fade into the backdrop.

And shift awareness into your neck.

The front of the neck,

The sides,

The back of the neck.

Perhaps you detect the sensation of swallowing or the breath.

And moving awareness up the back of your head to the top of your head.

Down the sides of your head to include your ears,

The sensation of hearing.

And your entire face.

So breathing in and out and just noticing for a moment your head,

This part of the body that holds the brain.

Allows us to see,

To hear,

To smell,

To taste.

And just being with whatever sensations are arising right now.

Perhaps noticing the sensation of smell.

Or even if you have your eyes closed,

Perhaps noticing the sensation of light.

Being aware of the interior of your mouth,

Dryness or wetness.

The sensation of your tongue and your teeth.

All that can be known from the neck to the entire head.

And now because awareness is so flexible,

We can expand awareness out to include the head and the neck all the way down.

The shoulders and the arms.

The entire torso all the way down to the feet.

Noticing the experience of being here in this moment,

In this body.

And as you sit,

Being aware of the body,

Most likely you are also aware of the breath moving in and out.

So the invitation is to now shift awareness from the body in this sitting posture and come right into the breath cycle.

Noticing the air at the tip of the nose as the air becomes the breath.

Travels down the throat into the lungs.

With the help of the diaphragm the air is pushed back up and out.

Take a moment with as much curiosity as you have to just follow the breath cycle.

And if the mind begins to make commentary about the breath or having an opinion,

Wanting to be the breath a certain way,

You can just notice this.

And just come back to following the breath.

There's nothing you need to do other than shine the light of awareness right into the breath cycle.

And just follow it just as it is.

If it's a short breath,

Letting it be a short breath.

If it's a long breath,

Just noticing that it's a long breath.

This is the essence of letting life be as it is in this moment.

Beginning with the breath.

There's nothing that you need to do other than bring awareness to what's happening.

And if there is a particular mood state or feeling state that's arising,

It's possible just to notice this too.

It's not uncommon to feel sleepy or even the opposite,

Agitated as a meditation continues.

And instead of having to do anything,

We can just bring awareness to this as well.

And then come back to the breath.

And just as we can have awareness on the entire breath cycle,

We can also narrow awareness,

Bringing it right to the tip of the nose.

And just staying with this part of the breath cycle for a moment.

Noticing the air as it enters the nose and as it exits the nose.

Sometimes if we find ourselves getting a bit sleepy or feeling sluggish,

This is a wonderful part of the breath cycle to bring awareness to.

It can bring a sense of lightness.

Perhaps you detect the change of temperature from the in-breath to the out-breath.

And if you'd like to stay here,

That's fine.

Or if you'd like to explore the breath cycle in the belly,

I would invite you to shift your awareness now and bring your awareness into the belly.

Noticing how the belly expands on the in-breath.

A sense of tightness emerges.

Fullness.

And how the belly relaxes back on the out-breath as the air moves up and out.

If you're feeling particularly scattered or busy in your mind,

The belly is a wonderful place to bring awareness to in the breath cycle.

It can bring a sense of groundedness to this moment,

To your experience.

Just noticing the belly as it expands and contracts.

One breath to the next breath.

And just as it's possible to bring awareness to these different points in the breath cycle,

It's also possible to bring awareness to the gap that occurs at the end of each breath cycle before the next breath follows.

So if you'd like to,

Just bring your awareness to this pause or gap between each breath.

This can be a wonderful way to notice the impermanent nature of life through the breath cycle.

The fact that the breath comes and the breath goes.

A breath arises and a breath passes away.

And we can notice each breath just as we can be present for each moment.

And so for these last few moments,

I would invite you to just pick a point in the breath cycle or the breath cycle as a whole.

And just rest here for the last few minutes of this meditation.

Just being with what is.

Just in this moment.

In this moment.

And perhaps ending by saying thank you to yourself.

For practicing for 30 minutes.

Taking the time out of what's probably a busy day.

To be still and to be present to this life.

This moment.

That we can make any difference in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Such a beautiful meditation. Thank you so much for helping me focus on the present moment and connect to the body allowing me to notice where I’m holding stress—stomach, jaw, lower back. Thank you.

What a beautifully paced and oriented body scan with breath awareness 😍 I’m so glad I stumbled across your offerings here. This will be a new go-to for me. Thank you so much 🙏🙏🙏

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Awesome, thank you

Excellent! Very good guidance with enough pauses to experience the places of awareness. Thank you very much ❤️

Perfect, just the right amount of instruction and silence. This will be one I come back to. Thank you 🙏🏼

Thank you for helping me quite my monkey mind. I am at peace in this moment

Very good to centre and get peace

Solid practice. First half body scanning then focus on breath. Felt great.