Hi and welcome to the Three Golden Circles Mini Mindfulness practice.
You can use this recording at different times of the day,
Multiple times a day or at different points in the week.
This practice is intended to help you break up the monotony of the day,
To help you check out of the external world and check in with yourself.
It can be so easy to get caught up in the fast pace of the work day and the constant rumination of the mind towards the future or the past.
So taking this practice as a small gift back to yourself of taking a couple of minutes out of your day to bring your awareness into the present moment and to slow down your breath and slow down the pace of your mind and your body.
So let's begin this practice by taking a comfortable seat and that might be in a chair or on the ground.
And if you're sitting in the chair,
Placing your feet side by side and touching the ground if possible.
And if you're sitting on the ground,
Maybe sitting cross-legged,
Whatever is comfortable for you.
Placing your hands gently in your lap and gently closing down the eyes so that we're not distracted by the outer world.
Then I take you a moment to relax the shoulders,
To relax the jaw,
Maybe opening up the mouth slightly or moving the jaw around,
Making sure our jaw is unclenched,
Relaxing our frown and squinting around the eyes,
Just allowing ourselves to be present in this moment with nothing else to do and nowhere else to be.
Just present with ourselves and our breath.
And now bringing your attention to the inhale and exhale of your breath.
Just becoming aware of how you naturally breathe,
Whether you intentionally hold your breath,
Whether your breath is tense or more relaxed.
Just bringing the intention to slow the breath down and elongate the breath.
So in your own time,
Taking nice long inhales through the nose and elongating your exhale again through the nose.
So consciously elongating and deepening the breath through the nose.
Just noticing if the body has gone back into tension or holding tension in any parts and just releasing the tension that may have built up and keeping your focus on the breath.
Just long inhales and exhales.
If you notice the mind starting to wander off into the past or into the future,
Just gently reminding your mind to come back into the present,
Into the now where nothing else exists apart from your body and your breath.
So just practicing present moment awareness by releasing tension in the body and keeping your focus on the breath.
So I'll give you a few moments here just to practice focusing on your breath and then we'll practice doing three deep breaths together to conclude this mini practice.
Just focusing on the breath now.
Keeping the mind present on the breath.
And then.
.
.
.
And going with the momentum of the breath awareness.
I invite you to do three deep breaths with me to conclude this practice.
So I'll count you in on the inhale.
We'll hold our breath and then an exhale.
Just inhale through the nose for a count of one,
Two,
Three.
Holding the breath and a nice deep exhale through the mouth.
And again inhaling for a count of one,
Two,
Three.
Holding the breath and a nice deep exhale through the mouth.
And one last deep breath.
Making sure the belly really expands as you inhale through the nose for a count of one,
Two,
Three.
Holding the breath and a deep exhale through the mouth.
Allowing those shoulders to drop.
And feeling more calm and at ease,
The mind more relaxed as we step into the rest of our day.
So I thank you for taking this practice with me.
You know that you can repeat this as many times as you need in the day.
Maybe after a stressful meeting at work or towards the end of your lunch break.
And maybe even towards the end of your work day before you head home.
So now gently bringing some movement back into your toes,
Your feet,
Your fingers and hands and peeling the eyes open when you're ready.
Thank you again for taking this practice with me today.
