Air - Part Two Of The Six Elements Meditation

Deepening our experience of the present moment by connecting to the element of Air through mindful awareness of the breath. A simple and effective meditation to feel truly connected to the now. Part two of six. Starts with a four-minute introduction.

Transcript

Okay,

So tonight's meditation is part two of the Six Elements Meditation.

So I'll just briefly mention two sort of underlying principles that go along with all the elements and then we'll make a start on the element there.

And the first is just my general approach to mindfulness which I describe by using four words awareness,

Acceptance,

Allowing and letting go.

Awareness,

Becoming more aware of the present moment and of yourselves depending which element we're doing we'll be particularly interested in becoming aware of one aspect and today will be the breath for the element there.

And then to accept what you become aware of especially I think when we do the thoughts and emotions,

The water and the fire,

It can be tempting to move away from certain thoughts or feelings,

Ones that we feel are negative or troublesome in some way.

So that step of acceptance to really accept what we become aware of and to stay with it and not to try and change it or move away from it or suppress it in some way or distract ourselves by something else.

So awareness,

Acceptance of what we become aware of and then a sense of allowing is a sort of reminder really that all these things we're becoming aware of are things that are already there and are already happening.

So with mindfulness and being present it's about being aware of things that are already there rather than creating something new or changing things.

So that idea of allowing whatever we have become aware of just to do its thing and that will play a part in the breath meditation as well.

So I'll talk a little bit more about that when we start with the breath.

And then letting go so that idea of release,

Letting go,

Letting be and moving into that sense of being rather than doing or changing.

Okay so that there the that's my approach to mindfulness,

Awareness,

Acceptance,

Allowing and letting go.

And then just the other bit briefly mention about the Six Elements Meditation and the use of the six elements in addition to the perhaps the usual mindfulness practice is it's a way to connect not just to yourself in the present moment as you find it for yourself but to connect something greater than yourself and to connect something that we all share.

So for example yesterday when we did the element of earth we started with mindfulness of the body,

Awareness of the physical sensations.

So then we connected that to the earth feeling how we can have that direct physical tangible sensation of the earth through our bodies and how we all shared that.

So we'll do something similar for the element of air.

So we'll make start with tonight's meditation which will be mindfulness of the breath.

So just to emphasize that point about it not just because we're all aware of the it's not just being mindfulness of the breath but also connecting it to the element of air in the sense of going beyond just myself my own experience of the breath in my body but connecting to the reality that what I'm breathing is the element of air which is all around me which is greater than myself and something we all share we're all breathing the same air we're all being given life by by the oxygen in the air.

And the breath I think particularly lends itself quite well to this idea of awareness acceptance allowing and letting go as well so we'll revisit those ideas as well with the breath.

So this is day two of this series of six elements meditation and we'll continue on from the element of earth and mindfulness of the body to the element of air and mindfulness of the breath.

So let's just spend a few moments just connecting with the body and reminding ourselves of the connection to the earth and then we'll move on and spend this meditation on the breath.

Allow yourself to be present within your body notice the sensations throughout your body feel all the parts of your body that are in connection in contact with something feel the weight of your body allow that weight to be supported to be held and feeling the weight in your body to be the gentle pull of gravity of the earth gently pulling attracting your body towards the earth feeling that connection feeling grounded to the earth and connected to the present moment through the body so as you do connect to the body you may naturally find yourself becoming more aware of the breath as the body becomes still and relaxed and the breath becomes the main activity the main source of movement and sensation in the body so to begin with we can go through the four steps of mindfulness with the breath and the first step is simply to become more aware of your breath I encourage you to make this awareness a very tangible physical thing by really being aware of the physical sensations in the body caused by the breath so really feeling the breath entering the body and really feeling what it's like as you breathe out so just checking it's a felt experience the awareness of the breath rather than just a conceptual or mental exercise and the other thing to note for this first step of awareness of the breath and something that we'll use for all the different elements is that although the breath is our topic for this meditation and it's what we're going to be most interested in I invite you to not focus or concentrate on the breath but allow your awareness to remain open and light and don't try and block out thoughts,

Emotions,

Sounds,

All the other aspects of the present moment allow them to be there just as they are inviting the breath to be at the centre or the foreground of your awareness and allowing everything else to happen around the breath just in the background so there's no feeling of competition for your attention no effort to focus on one thing to the exclusion of anything else keeping the awareness nice and open and exploring the physical sensations of the breath in the body as everything else happens around the breath the second step with the breath is to accept the breath just as you find it so not making any effort to change the breath in any way it doesn't matter how fast or slow deep or shallow your breath is in this moment being aware of the breath as it is and accepting the breath as you find it so the third step to allow the breath so we'll apply this particularly to the in-breath so for a while really consciously allowing the breath in to the body each time you take the in-breath and see if you can allow the breath in as freely and as fully as the breath wishes to enter the body so you're not restricting the in-breath in any way and just notice how it feels in the body to fully and freely allow the breath into the body so and the fourth step of letting go and applying that to the out-breath so continuing to allow the breath into the body now really feeling that release as we consciously fully and freely let go of the out-breath how does that feel in the body each time you let go of the breath so so now we can build on this experience of allowing the breath in and letting go as we breathe out of accepting the breath just as we find it and see if you can get a sense of the body being breathed by the breath so it doesn't feel like you are doing the breathing it doesn't feel like you have to make any effort to breathe but we're simply becoming aware of and allowing a natural spontaneous breath so come and go rise and fall within the body so feeling the body being breathed by the breath so if we can subtly shift our experience of the breath to this feeling of the body being breathed by the breath and that's how we can start to connect with the element of air so we can experience breathing as something that's far greater than just our body and our particular breath we're connecting to a greater movement and allowing our body to be part of the breath of the element of air so getting a sense of that wider space around the body the space stretching out to the horizon all around you and up to the sky above you getting a sense of the the atmosphere of the earth and your connection to the earth's atmosphere through the breath through this direct physical connection to the element of air as it breathes your body and as it breathes everybody's body we're all breathing the same element of air we're all breathing the same atmosphere of the earth i like to have the thought and the experience that there is one breath the breath of the earth the element of air the atmosphere of the earth is breathing one breath and each of our bodies is feeling that one breath rise and fall i'll leave a few minutes of silence without commentary just to give us time to explore the depth of this experience of the breath simply being present with the body with the breath allowing the breath to breathe the body and maybe connecting to that idea of the wider space around you the atmosphere of the earth the element of air and the one breath of the earth the element of air and the one breath of the earth breathing all our breaths so so so so so so the last few moments before we finish really settling in to the body into the breath into the present moment allowing everything else including your thoughts just to happen around the breath just in the background and see if you can experience the body being breathed by the element of air by the breath of the earth connecting us all together all breathing the one breath of the earth so so okay so bringing the meditation to an end there maybe taking in a few slightly deeper breaths bringing a bit of movement back into the body doing a bit of a stretch and just open your eyes when you're ready but no rest

Reviews

Thank you 🙏 Stephen. This mindfulness of the breath meditation was both relaxing and uplifting at the same time. My awareness allows me to hold space for both of those feelings at the same time. Again, thank you for your constant guidance.
😊✨💛💫