Mindfulness Meditations guided by Una Keeley,
Professional MBSOR,
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Instructor.
10 minute awareness of breathing meditation.
Taking a moment now to settle into the seat that you've chosen to do this meditation.
So adjusting the posture so you feel upright and comfortable.
And just adjusting the feet into the position that feels right for you.
And then adjusting the hands into the position that feels right for you.
So you can have your hands,
Your palms facing upwards.
You can have them facing downwards or you can have them just together cupped one inside the other in your lap.
So beginning now to turn our attention towards breathing.
And perhaps asking the question,
How do I know breathing is happening in this moment?
What's rising in my awareness to show me that breathing is happening?
So becoming aware now of perhaps the sensations of breathing happening in the body.
And allowing ourselves to explore these sensations and where they're arising,
Where they're showing themselves.
So perhaps for you there's an awareness of the air coming in through the nostrils.
Perhaps there's an awareness of the temperature of the air coming in.
Maybe for you you're noticing some of the hair follicles inside the nostrils moving as the air moves in and then leaves the body.
Or perhaps maybe there's an awareness of the chest area,
Some movement in the chest area.
Maybe noticing shoulders moving a little bit or the chest area rising as the air comes in as we inhale.
And then falling and lowering and contracting as the air leaves the body.
So we're practicing witnessing breathing happening.
Just one breath at a time.
And as you do this you may notice that the mind has begun to wander.
Going off into perhaps fantasies,
Imaginations,
Maybe for you problem solving or perhaps going back into the past,
Into memories or maybe into the future,
Into anticipations.
Whenever we notice the mind has gone off wandering we just practice noticing it,
Acknowledging it,
Perhaps giving a little label like wandering,
Wandering,
Thinking,
Thinking,
Memories,
Memories.
Some kind of a little label that for you is a way of just acknowledging it and then gently guiding the attention back towards the breath and the sensation of breathing happening in the body and allowing this awareness of the sensation to be the anchor of your attention.
The mind may wander again and again and again and each time we notice,
Practice acknowledging,
Labeling and gently returning the attention back to this breath.
And again as we do this perhaps you may notice internal urges to begin controlling breathing,
Pushing it and forcing it in some way.
And again we just notice this has arisen,
Acknowledging it and then practicing allowing breathing to happen.
So we're taking up the stance of being a witness to breathing happening.
We're not making breathing happen,
The body knows how to breathe.
It was breathing fine ever before we brought our attention to it.
What we're doing here is we're practicing being with breathing,
Practicing witnessing breathing happen and allowing this to be the focus of our attention.
So practicing sensing just this breath.
Checking in on the body,
Seeing if a sense of tension has built.
So allowing the body to soften,
Allowing the shoulders to soften,
Allowing the belly area to soften.
Perhaps maybe the hands have begun to clench in some way or tighten up and again allowing them to soften.
Sensing sensing each breath,
Full in breath and full out breath.
Just this breath.
And just practicing being with breathing.
Letting breathing happen,
Just this breath.
And now beginning now to sense the feet and beginning now to give the toes a little bit of a wiggle.
Beginning now to sense the hands and giving the hands a little bit of a movement,
Wiggling the fingers and then the rest of the hands.
And when you're ready you can begin to move just gently the rest of the body.
You begin to open the eyes.
