Welcome.
This is a guided meditation on mindfulness of breath.
We're going to start by noticing the next three breaths just as they are.
There's no need to alter how we're breathing or think too much about it.
Just noticing what it feels like in our bodies when we breathe.
Noticing where we feel the breath.
So that might be just below your nostrils,
In your throat,
Maybe in your chest or your diaphragm.
We can notice what the breath feels like.
Is it cool?
Warm?
Is there lengthening or stretching?
Are there any emotions or thoughts?
About the breath or paying attention to breathing?
Sometimes we notice that when we're paying attention to the breath,
Our minds become busy with thought and we feel like we have to pay attention to something else,
Like there's more important things to do than just breathe.
And if that's coming up for you,
Just notice those thoughts and any sensations.
Oftentimes when we follow our breath,
We'll notice that our attention drifts from our breath.
Again,
Following along with any thoughts or physical sensations or other things.
And if we notice this happening,
We can try and count breath.
Saying one on the inhale,
One on the exhale,
All the way up to 10.
I'd like you to pay attention to how your breath feels in your diaphragm.
We're often told about something called diaphragmatic breathing.
And I'd like to give us an opportunity to explore what that really feels like right now.
It's interesting to note that the breath doesn't actually fill your diaphragm.
So your lungs actually end around your seventh rib.
And your diaphragm is a group of muscles that kind of surround your abdomen.
And so when we breathe diaphragmatically,
What we're actually doing is expanding and contracting the muscles in our abdomen.
And it feels like we're filling our diaphragms up like balloons.
So see if you can notice the muscles that start just in the middle of your ribs.
And they go all the way down to the bottom of your abdomen.
And so when you breathe in,
You may notice a lengthening of those muscles.
And a sense of spaciousness that's created in your abdomen when you breathe.
And then when you breathe out,
See if you can notice the contraction of your diaphragm muscles.
And see if you can follow it right to the very end of your out breath.
When you're doing that,
You might even notice that there's a space that follows the out breath just before taking your next in breath.
And you also notice that breathing is actually effortless in this way.
Your in breath starts automatically following your out breath.
Now I'd like you to imagine what it feels like to breathe into your armpits.
It probably sounds a bit weird but just go with it.
You might notice that your chest opens up a little bit more when you bring your attention to your armpits and how the breath might go in that direction.
You might notice that you have a little bit more room to breathe.
Let your lungs start to expand into your side ribs a little bit.
Maybe it just feels like you're taking in more breath and it's a little more effortless.
Now that we've spent a fair amount of time on the front side of our bodies,
See if you can notice what it feels like when you breathe into your back body.
That whole space from your shoulders right down to your lower back.
See if you can notice what movement is created when you breathe into your back body.
And as we move to these different areas with our attention,
You might notice that again we seem to be creating some space for our breath and in some cases it might be a space that you've never noticed before.
And now see if you can shift to your whole body and sense your breath and your whole body breathing.
See if you can feel the breath as it fills all the way down into your toes and then exits the body all the way from your toes all the way out of your mouth or nose.
There's no need to control the breath if you can't feel it in your toes that's okay.
Just notice where you can feel it.
Notice how it feels to breathe into your entire body.
And now we'll end as we began noticing the next three breaths just as they are and noticing what's different now and what's the same.
