First & Last Breath Guided Meditation

In some traditions, each of us is born with a predetermined number of breaths, begging the question: How do we wish to take those breaths? How do we wish to breathe into our lives? During the 40+ Death Cafes I have facilitated over the years, I would guide participants in this meditation to set the tone for the evening's contemplation. This practice invites us to reflect on all those precious breaths we take between that initial gasp of air all the way to our final last exhalation.

Transcript

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me.

This guided meditation is one that I have led in countless numbers of my death cafes.

We're going to be using the breath as a vehicle for looking at how we engage and breathe into our life.

So,

To begin,

I invite you to find a comfortable position.

You can do this meditation lying down or you can do this sitting up.

In whatever posture you find yourself,

Allow yourself to have some back support,

Some neck support so that the focus of the meditation isn't on the physical body and holding it up.

As you prepare for the meditation,

You might want to ensure that your cell phone is turned off or the notifications are turned off.

If you're listening to this over the computer,

Turn off email notifications,

Texting.

And as you settle into this space,

Look around you.

Take a moment to look around at the space around you to identify where you are.

You might even take a moment to name your location,

Bedroom,

Living room.

And looking at the space around you without any judgment,

Just notice the colors and shapes.

And you might even take a moment to silently repeat your name to yourself just to give you some grounding in this moment.

Now as you begin to settle,

You can either keep your eyes open or eyes closed.

If you do keep your eyes open,

I invite you to look at some nondescript area.

The lids can close halfway,

But rather than focusing,

Just allow the gaze to be soft.

And now we'll begin with the ring of the bell three times.

And as you allow your attention to settle,

Bring your awareness to the physical body and where you make contact with whatever surface you're resting on,

Whether it's a chair,

A cushion,

A mat,

A bed,

Or a floor.

As you experience yourself sitting or lying,

Feel into that experience,

Noticing the contact points.

Simply observe that.

Note the sensation.

You might be noticing pressure,

Weightedness.

And as you are sitting or lying,

Experience yourself sitting or lying.

In this moment,

There's nothing to do but be with this experience.

You can begin to expand your awareness to the entire body.

With curiosity and wonder,

Notice what is it like to sit here right now?

What's the body's experience?

If you find that your attention and thoughts gravitate to an emotion,

Impatience,

Irritation,

Or even calm,

Take a moment and ask yourself,

What is the physical experience of that sensation?

In other words,

How do I know I'm irritated,

Impatient,

Or calm?

What in my body tells me?

Without needing to lean forward and grasp,

Search intently for the sensation,

Just metaphorically sit back and watch as the sensations unfold.

A number of sensations,

Thoughts,

Sounds in the room,

Sounds outside the room,

Memories,

Future tripping,

All of this could enter into your thoughts.

And when you notice your attention gets pulled in a different direction,

Acknowledge it,

Take a very gentle mental note thinking,

And then bring your mind,

Your attention back to this experience of simply sitting.

Now with that same open and spacious awareness,

Allow your attention to settle on the breath in this moment.

In the same way,

We say to ourselves,

As I breathe in,

I experience and feel myself breathing in.

As I breathe out,

I experience myself,

I feel myself breathing out.

Allow your attention to rest on the physical correlates of breathing in and breathing out.

Observe with curiosity and wonder the sensations of breathing in and the sensations of breathing out.

Here there's nothing to do with our breath.

We don't have to lengthen it or deepen it,

Regulate the inhale or the exhale.

We simply breathe and notice this breath.

This next breath on the inhale could be a few seconds,

The exhale could be a few more seconds.

The inhale could be long,

The exhale could be short.

Without any judgment,

Elaboration,

Critique,

As we breathe in,

We experience ourselves breathing in.

As we breathe out,

We experience ourselves breathing out.

And this is the basis,

This is the foundation of our practice.

At any time throughout the remainder of this meditation,

You can always come back to this.

But if you'd like to go the next step,

We're going to activate our imagination.

I invite you to imagine traveling back in time,

Back,

Back,

To moments before your birth.

Things start to move,

But moments before your birth,

You're in a weightless,

Temperature-controlled environment.

You don't have to breathe on your own.

You don't have to regulate your heart.

You don't have to regulate your body temperature.

And while those systems are beginning,

You're held and cradled,

Again,

In a weightless environment.

And then you begin the birth process.

Whether you're delivered naturally or c-section,

I invite you to imagine now being pushed from,

Pulled from,

Taken from this weightless environment.

And regardless of the state of that environment,

It was still supportive in many ways.

You're taken from that environment,

And now you're pulled into this new world of lights,

Brightness,

Of gravity,

Of temperature,

Of coolness,

Coldness.

You're now being touched and handled by a few people.

And now you're about to do something on your own.

You are about to take your first breath.

I invite you to bring your attention to that.

What was that first several breaths like for you?

You didn't have to do this.

And now the diaphragm is moving.

The lungs are expanding.

The rib cage is expanding as the air passively fills your lungs.

This is a new experience.

What of this breathing are you aware of in this new world,

This new environment?

What sensations of the breath do you observe?

Watch the breath for the next few breaths through the eyes of this newborn infant,

Taking its first independent act.

Note all the sensations that you focus on.

Notice how breathing in you experience breathing in,

And how breathing out you experience breathing out.

What are your concerns in this moment?

What is your focus?

How present can you be to this one next breath,

This new thing?

Ah,

There's a breath.

It's happening again.

Now I'm going to invite you to take a deeper breath consciously,

Intentionally,

And let that go.

Let the image fade away.

As you scan your body once again,

Your physical experience,

And notice what is your experience now?

What's the energy level in your body like?

What sensations are present?

How are you orienting to this moment after just focusing and imagining your newborn breath?

And now we're going to move forward in time.

We're going to move forward,

Although we don't know exactly how far that will be,

But I invite you to imagine your deathbed.

I invite you to imagine moments before your death.

And now focus on the breath here.

While we may not know what the causes of our death may be,

While we may not know where we will be,

How old we will be.

For most of us,

The last independent act we will do is to take this next breath.

So moments before your death,

Experience yourself breathing.

Notice the sensations that you attend to now.

Where's the inhale?

How are you with releasing the exhale?

If this is not yet the final breath,

Note how you are when another inhale comes in.

So just with the next few breaths,

Experience your breath as if they will be your last.

Good to note.

And as you allow this image to slowly fade away,

Note the sensations in the body now.

Notice the energy within your body.

And as you feel the ripples of that,

A question can emerge.

And the question is,

How do I want to spend the time between that first breath and that last breath?

How do I want to attend to each breath in that journey?

How do I want to breathe into my life?

And as you feel yourself sitting,

Feel yourself breathing,

Drop that question or those questions into your breath.

Between my first and my last breath,

How do I want to breathe into my life?

With mindful awareness,

Observe what arises.

You may get some insights that present themselves in words or phrases.

Images might arise or very physical,

Somatic,

Visceral experiences.

Start judging them without immediately dismissing,

Discounting,

Or criticizing them.

Provide them space.

Breathe into them.

And we're about to end this guided portion of the meditation.

I invite you to take some time right after listening to this.

As you come back into your daily life to perhaps journal or write down anything that stands out today from this practice and throughout your day,

Allow this question to come to mind.

How do I want to breathe into this life?

In a moment,

You're going to hear the bells ring three times.

On the first bell,

Allow your attention to hear the sound and as it brings you back slowly to this space,

This time,

This moment.

On the second bell,

Take a deeper breath consciously,

Intentionally,

Moving fingers and toes.

And on the third bell,

Slowly allow your eyes to open without necessarily gazing directly at anything.

Let the gaze be soft.

Look around the room.

Then take a stretch and come back into your day.

Don't rest.

Reviews

Thank you for this Introspective meditation.
A good reminder of how precious each breath is.