Perhaps beginning today's practice by taking a couple of really conscious,
Deeper in-breaths and out-breaths.
Using these as an opportunity to indicate to your mind that it's time to pay attention,
Time to be focusing on what we choose to focus on and also an opportunity to indicate to your body that it's a time to rest,
To stop,
To allow the nervous system to drop into rest and digest.
So a couple of deep breaths and an invitation to yourself to slow down,
An opportunity to be grateful to yourself for giving yourself this time and allowing your breath to just come back to whatever feels like your normal breath today.
Allowing that breath to just settle and perhaps seeing if you can allow your attention to settle alongside your breath,
Whatever that means for you today.
That may be bringing your attention to the movement of your breath,
That may be bringing your attention to the process of breathing,
The in and the out,
Or it may be just a more subtle awareness that you are breathing and perhaps tuning into a sense of aliveness,
Of being here.
Whatever you choose to do with the breath,
However you choose to be with the breath,
Just leaning back into that.
Almost as if you've reached a favourite spot in your garden on a walk and you can just rest down and lean against it.
Nothing you need to do,
Nothing in particular you need to feel,
No particular experience that you have to have.
Simply breathing and being aware of whatever is here as you breathe.
An exercise in noticing.
So you may be drawn to notice sounds that you can hear,
Traffic or people,
Birdsong,
The fan of a computer.
Notice the sounds in your world right now.
Perhaps bringing that attention to your eyes and even with your eyes closed do you have a sense of light,
Shadow?
What do you notice even through closed eyes?
What do you smell?
Is there a smell particularly in the space where you are?
You may be able to instantly recognise something,
You may not,
But notice your mind's need to name something and see if you can just come back to the smell or the absence of noticeable smell.
Moving now to taste.
What can you taste right now?
Maybe nothing in particular,
There may be something that you recognise or something that doesn't really have a name.
Where in your mouth do you taste?
Notice judgement of pleasant or unpleasant.
This is just an opportunity to really bring all of our attention to right now in this moment and how we are experiencing it.
An opportunity to notice all of the things our mind does all of the time without us being aware.
The judgement,
The thoughts,
Following threads of stories,
Naming.
So if all of that is going on,
Or distraction,
You notice your mind keeps tugging you away to other things.
That is okay.
That's what we're here to do is to recognise that this is how our minds operate and to observe that rather than be in it.
And bringing your awareness now to sensation.
So inviting your awareness to be really inside your body and seeing whether you can really tune into the sensations associated with sitting wherever you're sitting,
Whatever you're sitting on.
What do you notice?
Notice the feeling of air perhaps on the surface of your skin.
Maybe you can feel the touch of your clothing.
Notice any really subtle sensations.
And noticing also stronger sensations,
Those associated with sitting on a chair or a floor.
Noticing the points where your body makes contact.
Your feet on the floor,
Your back on a chair.
And your mind will be distracted.
This is what our minds do.
So it may wander off,
Hear something,
Remind you of something you've been thinking about,
Question something,
Judge something.
All of it is completely normal.
And the purpose of this exercise is to notice that and just see if we can gently redirect our attention.
Gently redirect our attention back into the room.
Back to whatever you are experiencing right now.
Inside the body.
Perhaps noticing the pressure of your body resting on the surface that you're sitting on.
And maybe now noticing other sensations in your body.
So perhaps scanning through your body from the top of your head all the way to your feet.
Just noticing how all of the muscles,
Bones,
Joints,
How it all feels today,
Right now in this moment.
Noticing any discomfort or tension and not needing to get rid of that or change it.
By all means,
If you feel uncomfortable,
Move or shift if that's what you feel you need to do.
But don't avoid,
We're not here to avoid the tense shoulders,
The aching knee,
Maybe a slight headache.
What we're here to do is notice what now is like.
So perhaps with all of that awareness of what you're receiving through all of your senses returning to your breath.
Once again finding your breath wherever it's moving in your body.
Noticing if you can expand that awareness very slightly to take in your whole body.
Can you have a sense of breathing through your whole body?
Aware of all the sounds,
Smells,
Colours,
Shapes,
Tastes,
Sensations and all the while just breathing through all of it.
Because we can breathe through everything.
Our thoughts,
Our feelings,
Our experiences.
They happen to us around the breath.
So by coming back to the breath,
We can come back to something that we know.
Whether that be the process of breathing and the sensation of breathing or whether that be the muscle,
The movement of breathing.
Breath is here,
Constant.
As a reminder that whatever is going on around us in the world around us or even in our own universe ourselves in our heads,
In our bodies.
The breath is here as an anchor point to come back to and to set off from.
