This is a meditation to help us get to know the breath.
Many meditations ask us to focus on the breath,
And so I'll be guiding us on how to do that.
And so we can begin by just allowing our eyes to fall gently closed,
Or with a soft gaze if that's more comfortable.
And just allowing ourselves to breathe naturally,
Transitioning into this new moment,
Settling into our body's rhythm.
And now we're going to bring our attention to our nostrils.
We can focus our attention on the breath in this spot,
Because it's really easy for our attention to fall right there.
It's right at our face,
Close to where our mind is.
And we can just allow ourselves to fully experience the breath moving in and out of our nostrils as we breathe.
And all we're really doing is just noticing,
Noticing what the experience is like,
Noticing the sensations,
Noticing the air flowing in and flowing out.
And you might feel some sort of dryness or moisture,
Maybe it tickles a little bit,
Maybe it's warm or cool,
Something else altogether.
Just noticing what's there,
Noticing the sensations and the experience as the air flows in and out of our nostrils,
As we breathe naturally in our own rhythm.
And now shifting our attention to the chest,
The expansion and contraction of our lungs as we breathe.
So if for some reason the nostrils are more challenging to focus the attention on the breath,
Then we can choose to focus on our lungs as we breathe in and out,
Expanding and contracting,
Expanding and contracting,
Again and again.
And just being aware of any and all sensations that you notice when you focus your attention on your lungs as you breathe.
What experience is being had there?
And now shifting our attention once again to our abdomen,
And this is the final point of focus that we can use to bring our attention to our breath.
This one is particularly good in lying down meditations,
But can be used anytime,
As we can just notice the rise and the fall of the belly as we breathe,
The air moving in and out.
And this can be a good place to focus on the breath,
Because it's further away from our minds where the thinking is,
It can be a little more grounding and get us out of our heads more easily.
And so these three focal points are places where we can focus our attention on the breath in any meditation.
And it's usually best to just choose one for each meditation and have that be your main anchor.
And whenever the mind wanders,
You can just bring it back to the breath,
Whether it's to the nostrils,
The chest,
Or the abdomen,
Or connecting to our bodies,
To our natural rhythm,
To our life force,
Back again and again,
As many times as we need to.
And whenever you're ready,
You can take one final breath in and out,
And this completes our meditation.
