Resting the Attention on the Breath

This gentle meditation invites your attention to rest on the sensations of breathing in the body. There are long silences to let you relax into the practice.

Transcript

Greetings!

This meditation is resting the attention on the breath.

Get into an upright,

Dignified,

Yet relaxed posture.

Settle into it.

Make any adjustments that you need to.

And gently allow the eyes to close.

Or if you prefer,

You can leave them half open and unfocused.

Locate the sensations of breathing in the body wherever they seem most vivid for you.

Might be in the belly.

Might be in the chest.

Might be the throat.

The nose.

Even under the nostrils.

Wherever it's easiest to locate the sensations of breathing and where they seem most vivid.

Invite your attention to rest there.

Form an intention to let your attention rest on those sensations of breathing.

We're just giving the attention a place to rest.

We're not trying to force it to rest there.

We're not trying to force it to be there.

We're not forcing anything.

We're simply providing a spot for the attention to come to rest on the sensations of breathing.

All other sensations and perceptions are still included.

There's no need to make an effort to exclude them.

And there's no need to make an effort to keep the attention centered on the sensations of breathing.

We're simply gently inviting it to rest there.

And whenever we notice that the attention has become distracted,

That it's wandered off in another direction,

As soon as we notice that,

That is our moment of mindfulness when we reestablish our intention and our invitation to allow the attention to rest on the sensations of breathing.

So we very gently repeat that invitation.

And we allow the attention to come to its resting place on the breath.

It is inevitable that we find the attention getting carried away.

It may get distracted and carried away on a train of thought.

Or it may get carried away by a sound or some other sensation or perception.

This happens all the time.

And it doesn't mean that our meditation is failing.

Whenever we notice such a distraction happening,

We are mindful in that very moment of noticing.

And we just gently invite the attention to come back to rest on the sensations of breathing.

It's a gentle invitation.

Nothing more and nothing less.

We're simply providing a resting place.

We may notice an active mind with a lot of thoughts.

Or perhaps not.

Either way says nothing about the quality of our meditation.

We can allow the mind to be what it is and to do what it wants.

We're just inviting the attention to rest on the breath.

And whenever we notice that it's moving elsewhere,

We invite it again gently to return to the sensations of breathing.

We notice that breathing is happening.

The body is breathing without any help from us.

The body knows how to breathe on its own.

We don't need to provide any input.

And those sensations of breathing simply give us a convenient place to invite the attention to rest.

We may notice the attention wandering just a few times.

Or it may be dozens or hundreds of times that we notice it wandering in one meditation session.

That's perfectly fine.

It says nothing at all about the quality of our meditation.

Every moment of noticing is a mindful moment.

And every time we notice that our attention is gone elsewhere,

We gently invite it to come back to rest on the breath.

And whenever we notice that it's moving elsewhere,

We invite it again gently to return to the sensations of breathing.

And whenever we notice that it's moving elsewhere,

We invite it again gently to come back to rest on the breath.

Whenever we notice that a train of thought or something else has carried away the attention,

We just invite it to come back to rest on the breath.

Just as the body breathes automatically on its own,

So the mind thinks automatically on its own.

We just let it do what it does,

And we continue to repeat the invitation for our attention to rest on the sensations of breathing.

And whenever we notice that it's moving elsewhere,

We invite it again gently to come back to rest on the breath.

And whenever we notice that it's moving elsewhere,

We invite it again gently to come back to rest on the breath.

We may find we need to keep repeating the invitation,

Or we may find that the attention learns to love the state of resting on the breath,

And it develops a tendency to stay there more and more.

Either way,

There's no judgment,

No frustration,

And if we notice frustration,

There's no judgment about that either.

This is a very gentle practice.

At the same time as we're learning to be mindful,

We're learning to be gentle and nonjudgmental with ourselves.

So whenever we notice that our attention has wandered,

We can congratulate ourselves,

Because that is a moment of mindfulness right there.

And then we gently reestablish the invitation for the attention to come to rest on the breath.

The body knows how to inhale.

The body knows how to exhale.

The body inhales.

The body exhales.

Now bring a little movement into your fingers and toes,

Roll your shoulders,

Rotate your neck,

And allow the eyes gently to open and the room to return.

Thank you for meditating with me.

I'm Steve Diamond.

You can find me online at MoreThanMindful.

Com.

Reviews

Good breath meditation with plenty of silent time.

Very simple and very relaxing I ended up after it sleeping again, which I needed to do

Beautiful, simple and grounding Just what needed this morning feeling centered and restful

nice calm voce, great pacing, minimal progressive orientation great job

Straight to the point. No distractions. Plenty of room to breath. Used it as I walked to a meeting. Thank you!

Great instruction and guidance.

Good. Simple. Easy to follow.

Relaxing and very easy to follow. Perfect for a beginner.

Very clear and helpful instructions. Enough space to really be able to concentrate on the breath. Thankfully no background music.

Great afternoon meditation for relaxation and mindfulness.

Thank you Steve.

Simple and relaxing. The guidance really helped me during a time of being easily distracted. Thank you

He DOES sound like John Goodman...
I like this meditation, simple and effective.

He sounds a little like John Goodman. Nice and quiet.

Great meditation voice
Right combo of words and silence

Good exercise for bringing attention back to your breathing when your mind starts to wander. Liked the reminder that noticing your mind has wandered is mindfulness...that it's not a bad thing.

Thank you for the centering & relaxing meditation.:)

I'm getting better at it everytime!

This helped me to see simplicity of meditation. I like the gentle and warm voice. The pauses between the text are helpful to find a good concentration. Thank you

Excellent! Nice spaces of silence interspersed with encouragement and reassurance. Very uplifting. Thank you!