For your meditation practice today you can choose to either be seated or laying down.
Settle into a comfortable position,
Inviting your eyes to softly close,
Your body to start to relax.
Now all you need to do is to bring your awareness to your breath.
Use your breath as that doorway inwards.
Simply focus on the breath in and focus on the breath out.
Focus on the breath in then out.
And as you do so simply witness any thoughts,
Any emotions,
Any external distractions that arise and then return the focus back to your breath.
Breath in and out.
Now begin to also notice the very top of each inhalation,
That full breath in.
And begin to also notice there is a pause after each exhalation,
The empty breath.
So observe breath in,
Top of inhalation,
Breath out,
Pause at the end of the exhalation.
Breath in,
Top of inhalation,
Breath out,
Pause at the end of exhalation.
Just continue to notice and witness the four parts of your breath.
Now at first when your mind is directed to focus on this single point of the breath,
You can often feel like your mind is very busy.
You might even feel that the meditation is making your mind even busier.
But in reality you are just becoming more aware of how busy the mind actually can be.
There'll be a great temptation to follow the different thoughts as they arise.
But resist this and remain focused on this single point of your breath.
If you discover that your mind has really wandered into deep thought,
Just allow that to let go and return your awareness back to your breath.
Noticing breath in,
Top of inhalation,
Breath out,
Pause at the end of the exhalation.
I'm going to continue with this awareness on breathing.
But now I'm going to feel your breath into different areas of your body.
So at the start,
I'm going to feel your breath more into the upper lobes of your lungs,
What we call clavicle breathing,
Where you'll feel your shoulders and collarbones rise while your abdomen stays slightly contracted during inhalation.
It's the most shallow maximum effort for minimal air.
So we just want to feel this for a few breaths.
So breathing in to the upper lobes of the lungs,
Around the shoulders,
The collarbones expanding and then relaxing on the exhale.
Let's take two more breaths like that.
Shoulders,
Collarbone rise,
Abdomen stays contracted,
Exhale,
Shoulders,
Collarbones relax.
One more breath into that clavicle breathing.
Now we shift down to those lower lobes of the lungs for intercostal breathing.
It is done by the rib muscles expanding the rib cage,
But it's also not a complete full deep breath.
So you're going to feel as you breathe in,
The ribs expand out to the side and out to the back and then they narrow back in again on the exhalation.
Three breaths into costal breathing,
Ribs expanding,
Bring your awareness and your attention here,
Exhale gently contracting.
One more.
And now deep abdominal breathing brings air into the lowest part,
Down to the diaphragm and then down to expand your belly,
Slower and deeper,
It's more relaxing.
Deep abdominal breathing,
Breathing in,
Belly expanding,
Trying to keep the side ribs,
The collarbones relaxed and exhale belly gently contracting in.
There's three more of those deep abdominal breaths.
Now a full breath or a complete yogic breath that can be called is combining all three kinds of breathing,
The clavicle,
Intercostals and deep abdominal.
So as you breathe in,
Feel the belly rise,
Feel the intercostals,
The ribs expand,
The clavicles expand and then exhale gently and narrow,
Relax everything in.
Belly intercostals,
Clavicles expanding and relaxing as the air clears out completely.
Now you might like to place one or both hands on your upper abdomen where your diaphragm is located and just gets this sense of expanding and feeling that inhalation expand outwards and then exhale contracting in gently.
Continue to feel this full breath slowly abdomen expands,
Then the ribs,
Then the upper lungs,
Breathe out,
Belly contracts,
Ribs and clavicles relax.
Continue feeling the breath moving deeply,
Body expanding,
Then just see if you can slightly lengthen your exhale breath.
So you're breathing out a little bit longer on that exhalation.
It can be out of the nose or out of the mouth,
You can either think of sighing it out as that release or imagine like you're blowing out a candle softly pursed lips and that air just seeping out slowly to get that full release.
Breathing in,
Expanding,
Exhale can be out of the nose,
It can be softly out of the mouth or it can be a sigh out of the mouth,
Whatever you're drawn to doing to get this full relaxation and letting go on the exhalation and that letting go relaxes the muscles of your body,
Relaxes your mind.
Just continue working with this breath,
Noticing if the mind wanders gently guided back to breathing,
Feeling the body open and expand on the inhale,
An invitation to clear out completely on your exhale.
Breathing in and out slowly,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling.
Now I can keep that awareness on your breath.
Now I'm just going to do a slight shift and allow that inhalation now to be a little fuller and longer and that exhale can still clear out completely,
That attention is on breathing in fresh energy and breathing in this sense of awakening and bringing in alertness.
And then when you can feel that flowing through your body,
You can start to awaken and move a little.
You can wiggle fingers and toes,
You can stretch out your body in any way that you like.
Then you can gently open your eyes,
Arriving back into your day with this sense that you can continue to breathe deeply and fully and allow this sense of letting go through your meditation to keep your mind in a state of peace and calm.
We are not living inrendered you
