Finding your way to a comfortable meditation posture,
Give yourself some time and space to settle in here.
If it feels comfortable,
You can close your eyes,
Or you might just soften your gaze down a few feet out in front of you.
When you're ready,
Take a nice,
Slow,
Deep breath in through the nose and exhale that breath away.
Another nice,
Slow,
Deep breath in and out.
This time,
Breathe in as slow as you can through the nose,
Filling all the way up,
And hold that breath at the top,
Just noticing how it feels.
At first,
It might feel good to oxygenate in this way,
But once that breath begins to get uncomfortable,
Just simply exhale it away.
Notice how good it feels to let go of something that's no longer serving you.
And from here,
Simply allow your breathing to return to its natural rhythm,
Either in through the nose and out through the nose,
Or in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Here,
You can let it be like you're listening for the breath,
Rather than actively breathing the breath,
Inviting a totally effortless quality into practice right now.
And as that natural rhythm of breath flows,
Take a moment to notice the feeling of the feet against the floor,
Maybe a feeling of the feet from the inside out.
And let this be direct contact,
Feeling into this part of the body,
Not having to think about it,
Not the mind doing an impression of the feet,
Just really feeling the feet right now.
And with that same quality of direct contact and embodied awareness,
Allow your awareness to begin to climb through the ankles,
To notice the calves and the shins,
Passing through the knees,
The upper legs,
The quads and the hamstrings,
These huge muscles,
Tendons,
Bones that spend so much time holding you up,
Which are now getting a well-deserved break.
And noticing the hips and the sits bones.
And as your awareness continues to climb,
See if you can feel the torso in three dimensions,
The lower back and the abdomen,
The ribs and the side bodies.
Climbing along the spine,
As you feel the shoulder blades and the chest,
The heart space from the inside out,
Through the collarbones,
The base of the neck,
Feeling the shoulders from the inside out.
And allowing your awareness to fall down through the upper arms,
The biceps and the triceps,
Past the elbows and the forearms,
Allowing your awareness to fill the hands to each individual fingertip.
And for a moment,
Just notice the feeling of the hands from the inside out.
Here you might notice tingling or vibration,
Energetic shifts,
Temperature,
This whole field of sensation within the hands that's ever-present,
Always here and always changing.
Moment to moment,
It shifts and moves and flows,
Which is always present,
We can always feel and contact.
It's not often we slow down enough to really notice,
Just for a moment,
The feeling of the hands from the inside out.
Bend from the hands,
Allowing your awareness to climb back up the length and volume of the arms,
Past the shoulders,
As you feel the neck and the throat,
The lower jaw and the base of the skull,
The mouth,
The gums,
The teeth,
The tongue.
Upper cheekbones,
Back of the head,
The ears,
The nose,
The eyes relaxing in the sockets.
Feeling the temples in the forehead,
Your awareness climbing all the way up to meet at the crown of the head.
And then taking a nice slow deep breath in through the nose,
As you exhale it away,
Allow your awareness to flow down and move through the entire body,
As if your attention and awareness were spread evenly throughout your entire physical body right now.
Seeing if you can feel the body not as separate pieces,
But as one unified whole,
Sinking into a feeling of the entire body.
And rather than locating the breath in any particular part of the body,
Can you feel your body breathing as a one?
The entire process of breathing throughout the body,
Not just the nose or the lungs or the stomach,
But maybe the shoulders rising and falling.
The breath pushing the sits bones deeper into your seat,
And then softening the way the breath manifests on the back or through the arms.
Here,
Just sinking into a feeling of whole body breathing.
And if it feels good to follow this feeling of whole body breathing silently,
Go ahead and do that.
Or there's the option to count the breath,
Silently thinking one on an inhale,
Two on an exhale,
Three on an inhale,
Four on an exhale,
All the way up to five inhale,
Four exhale,
Three and two.
Back to one and beginning again.
So either following the breath silently or counting the breath,
Just a matter of personal preference.
But whatever you choose,
You're just letting this feeling of whole body breathing be in the foreground of your attention.
And whenever you notice that that feeling the breath has faded to the background,
Been replaced by some distraction,
Just letting go without judgment or frustration.
And simply find your way back to the feeling of whole body breathing.
Sounds,
Emotions,
Thoughts,
Sensations,
They're all allowed to be here.
Letting them exist in the background,
The feeling of whole body breathing in the foreground.
And whenever you notice that has switched,
Just find your way back.
Not a problem.
This is what happens to all meditators every time they sit.
On your next exhale,
You can let go of any effort or focus or technique.
Let go even in the idea of trying to meditate and just allow yourself to be free and at ease.
Allow your breath to start to draw slightly deeper.
Open to the senses and the space around you.
Movement can begin to reemerge however slowly.
And when it feels comfortable for you,
You can blink your eyes open and re-enter the stream of your day.
