Begin by finding a stable posture that allows you to be alert yet relaxed.
If you're seated,
Find an upright but not rigid posture,
One that embodies wakefulness and readiness.
Slightly lengthen the back of the neck and tuck the chin.
Gently bring the shoulders back and down,
Opening the chest.
Let your hands rest wherever they're comfortable,
Palms up or down on the thighs or maybe one palm in the other in your lap.
Take one long deep in-breath through the nose.
Feeling the lungs expand in your chest,
Inhaling just a little more and slowly releasing the breath through your nose,
Letting your breath become natural.
Direct your awareness to the physical sensations of the whole body as you sit here.
Where is the awareness called to?
Perhaps you notice subtle sensations of pressure on the skin or where the body contacts the floor or the legs touch one another.
Notice any sensations of warmth,
Coolness,
Dryness or moisture.
Bring your attention to the sensations of the arms hanging from the shoulders,
Noticing the pull of gravity.
Investigate the sensations in the hands and the fingertips.
You might notice pulsing,
Tingling or warmth.
Now with your awareness,
Investigate where you feel the process of breathing in the body.
Do you notice it in the belly,
In the chest,
In the back or the nose?
Maybe you feel the rising of the belly as air comes into the body and the falling of the belly as air exits.
Or perhaps you notice the breath more at the nostrils.
The cooling sensation of air coming in through the tip of the nose,
Slight warming of the nostrils as air leaves the nose.
See where you feel the sensations of breathing most prominently and let the lens of your awareness focus on these sensations.
Bring your curiosity and sense of investigation to these simple sensations of breathing,
Unfolding moment by moment.
You you Soon enough you're reminded that the mind has a life of its own.
While we may set the intention to rest the awareness on the breath,
Soon it wanders to some thought,
Maybe some story about the future,
About the past,
About some virtual world.
Now this isn't anything to develop judgment about.
It's actually very important that we greet this occurrence with gentleness and without judgment.
We simply note to ourselves thinking and then we bring the awareness back to the breath once again,
Starting fresh with the simple sensations of breathing.
You you When you notice that you've been lost in thought,
As if you've woken up on some train that you don't recall boarding,
You're actually already back in the present moment.
Every time you notice that the mind has wandered and bring it back,
You are reinforcing the process of mindfulness.
You you In the final minutes of this session,
See if you can let your awareness sink a little deeper into investigating the sensations of breathing that are changing every moment.
Fine-tune your awareness to perceive each part of the inhalation and exhalation.
Allow these simple sensations unfolding right now to be enough.
You you you you Bell Bell Bell
