Mindfulness Of The Breath (Anapanasati) With Intro

In this practice, William introduces the experience of a longer meditation and what to expect. He gives tips and techniques to help the practitioner maintain a kind and persistant perspective during the longer practice. The meditation its self begins with a mindfulness warm-up of checking in with the senses. William then follows a traditional practice of returning to the feeling of the breath, counting and then savoring the full expereince of the in-breath and out-breath.

Transcript

At the beginning,

When practicing meditation for this long,

It might feel a little bit cumbersome.

You might feel like it's lifting kind of a heavy weight.

Just know that that's going to be something that starts to disappear just after a couple days of practicing.

So before you know it,

It will feel like you had a 15 or 20 minute sit before,

You're listening to Headspace,

Or you've tried some other guided meditation that was shorter,

And it felt like you got distracted for a while,

Came back,

Felt relaxed,

Started to focus a little bit.

You'll get used to that experience of sitting for longer.

It'll start to feel the same.

And it's okay if you have long periods of time where you're distracted.

Your mind will probably get a little bit tired at the end as well.

But I'd like you to at least sit for the whole time because there's a lot of good information,

Even in your distracting thoughts.

Just learning about how your mind works.

So you don't need to be perfect,

Focused on the breath the whole time.

The focus at the start is really about learning about your mind,

Watching the distracting thoughts,

Understanding them,

Where they come from,

The echoes of your day,

What's really important to you,

What sticks into your mind,

What do you react to emotionally,

Etc,

Etc.

So it's all good information,

Even if you're not focused completely the whole time.

That being said,

I'd like you to continue throughout the meditation with a gentle persistence,

Returning to the sensation of breathing,

Noticing where your mind is and coming back.

So I'll say with about 70% effort,

Not 100% effort,

With about 70% effort,

I'd like you to notice where your mind is and gently return to the breathing,

Letting the breathing be the sensation of the breath eventually,

Be the most important thing in your world for the time of the meditation.

So whatever else is happening,

Unless it's an emergency,

Unless you're in like serious pain,

Letting the sensation of breathing be the most important thing.

So you get a text message letting go of it.

You remember that you forgot to take the laundry out of the dryer,

Letting go of it.

If you're going to send that email,

Fine,

It can wait.

Whatever it is that pops into your mind,

You know there's this urgency,

Oh,

I have to do this right now.

Letting go of that and coming back to the sensation of breathing,

Letting it be the most important thing during that time.

Okay,

Again,

That being said,

For the first 5 to 10 minutes,

If you forget something,

Whatever,

You can write it down,

Maybe have a journal or a pen and paper next to you.

That's totally fine.

Then after that time,

After you start to really get a warm up in,

I'd like you to keep returning to the sensation of breathing.

Notice where your mind goes.

Understand it a little bit.

Notice the impact that that thought has had on you,

Where it came from,

That's fine.

And then return to the breath.

And then as you go into the meditation more and more,

I'd like you to come back to the breath,

Come back to the breath with less and less time between moments of focus.

Another important point is you can do this.

Lots of people have done this.

The first couple of days are tough but it starts to get much easier after that.

You can totally do this.

You might think to yourself,

Oh,

I'm not a meditator and I'm distracted.

Whatever the excuse is,

It's okay.

Other people have been through this as well and people have found a way,

Make it important and find their way through to meditating this much.

You can totally do this.

You got it.

You are going to become a meditator.

You are going to learn how to integrate this into your life.

This is the time for you to make that change.

This is an opportunity for you to really change your life.

This will have a profound impact on who you are as a person.

It will have a profound impact on your relationships,

On getting what you want out of your life.

A hundred percent.

If you're able to do this,

A hundred percent money back guarantee.

Whatever it is,

I promise this will be helpful.

Beginning the meditation,

You can start with a warm up coming to your senses.

We can start with our eyes open.

It tends to be the most gross of our senses.

Becoming aware of sight.

Just the fact that you can see.

This is your first object of meditation.

Noticing your room that you're sitting in or if you're sitting outside,

Noticing what you can see outside.

Coming to your field of vision.

You can begin by noticing different colors.

Part of mindfulness is letting go of labels and concepts and just experiencing.

I'd like you to let go of labeling the different colors because honestly,

Every color is truly different and seeing if you can savor that.

Seeing if you can stay with the experience of the different colors that you can see.

When your mind floats off somewhere beyond your sense of sight to feeling,

To sound,

To thought,

Noticing that and then coming back to just seeing.

Again savoring sensation of sight.

Noticing different shapes.

Noticing light,

Angles of light,

Shadows.

And then starting to let your attention rest.

You can let your eyes go a bit downcast.

Noticing your peripheral vision.

The limitations to your sight.

You can't see behind you.

The sense is limited.

And then when it's comfortable for you,

You can close your eyes.

If that's not comfortable,

That's fine.

You can just keep your eyes a bit downcast.

And next I'd like you to come to your sense of hearing.

So this is your second meditation object.

Your sense of hearing.

So you may be able to notice different sounds coming from within the room that you're in.

You of course hear the sound of my voice.

You may be able to hear heat or a fan or air conditioning or sounds that are coming from outside of the room that you're in or if you're outside,

Sounds that are not just coming from nearby but far away.

And noticing if your mind tries to imagine what it is that you're hearing.

If it tries to tell a story about what it is that you're hearing or imagine.

Noticing that and then coming back to the present.

Coming back to what you can actually hear and savoring the sound.

Staying with that one object of attention.

Your sense of hearing.

You can even notice sounds that your own body is making or artifacts in your hearing.

So digestion,

Swallowing,

Breathing,

Any movement or ringing in your ears.

And allowing all of that to be part of the soundscape.

And then beginning to let go of the sound and coming to the body.

Your next object of meditation.

So to start,

I'd actually like you to notice any unpleasant feelings.

Those are often the ones that grab our attention first anyway.

Is there any pain in the body?

Is there tension in the body?

Are you uncomfortable the way that you're sitting?

And I might even use this as an opportunity to find a more comfortable seat.

So if your posture isn't very good,

Maybe finding a way to sit up straight.

If your legs are kind of uncomfortable,

You can shift around a bit to a position that might be more comfortable for longer sets.

And again,

This is going to be something that you're going to have to play with.

And then noticing kind of the position of the body.

What is the shape of your spine and your neck?

Where are your arms?

What are the shapes that your legs are taking?

Maybe even checking in with more internally how your emotions are.

What's going on in your life right now?

Just checking in with yourself.

Emotions are a felt experience.

Feel that in our body.

And in the vein of mindfulness,

I'd like you to allow whatever's there to be there.

If you're sad,

Okay.

That's where you are right now.

We're going to be curious about that.

If you're angry,

Okay.

We're going to let that be.

Not trying to change it,

Not trying to make things better,

Not trying to make things right,

Not trying to do what you should do.

Just allow it.

And being curious.

We're moving closer to experience instead of moving away from it.

And if you're feeling joy,

You're feeling peacefulness,

Great.

Allow it.

If you have feelings for somebody,

Thinking about somebody,

Okay,

Great.

Allowing that to be there.

And being curious.

Noticing where in your body that you feel emotions.

It might be around your heart,

It might be around your stomach,

Throat.

You feel that in the body.

So let's go through the body a bit more systematically.

Notice also a lot of neutral sensations.

So starting with the toes,

Feeling sensations in your toes.

It's not somewhere we usually notice feeling,

But be aware of sensation in your toes,

Tops of your feet,

Bottoms of your feet.

You might feel tingling,

You might feel pressure,

You might feel bones,

Hardness,

Softness,

Roughness of the tingling,

Of the fuzzy feeling.

Sensations in your ankles,

Shins,

And calves,

You might feel clothing,

Again temperature.

And as we go through,

You also might not feel much.

That's okay.

Just going through the process,

Being curious,

Noticing if you feel anything.

Sensations in your knees,

Left knee,

Right knee,

Okay.

Maybe there's a change in temperature.

Do you feel the stretch of clothing?

Sensations in your thighs and hamstrings.

Feeling your butt on a meditation cushion or chair,

Whatever it is that you're on.

Feeling sensations in the pelvic area and lower belly.

Now we start to move into sort of feeling external and internal sensations.

You might feel sensations on your skin,

Outside of your body.

You might feel the movement of your lower belly,

Feeling the clothing move as you breathe.

You might feel internal tension.

Again,

Tension allowed to be there.

If it automatically releases,

Great.

If not,

It's fine.

Our body is beginning to feel safe in the meditation.

Tension is often to protect ourselves in some way.

And eventually as you go through the meditation,

You'll release.

You'll start to feel more safe,

More at ease.

All sorts of things are going to release.

Feeling the movement of the body breathing,

Feeling the lower belly,

Feeling the stomach.

Just trying to feel the movement in your chest.

You might feel internal sensations that digest you.

You might feel the movement of the breathing,

Heartbeat,

Filling up your lungs with air.

And feeling the spine supporting your body.

Feeling clothing on your torso,

Temperature.

You might feel a smoothness of clothing,

Smoothness of your breath.

And again,

Feeling internal sensations,

Emotional sensations around the solar plexus,

Stomach,

Around the heart,

Throat.

You might feel other sensations in your shoulders,

Down your left arm,

Down your right arm,

Temperature,

Clothing,

Pressure.

Feeling sensations in your left hand,

Maybe tingling,

Temperature,

Pressure.

Feel sensations in your left thumb,

Forefinger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky.

And your right hand,

The same,

Thumb,

Fingers.

Feeling sensations in the throat,

Neck,

Jaw.

Even your teeth,

Gums,

And tongue,

Chin and lips,

Cheeks,

And your eyes,

Forehead,

All of your facial muscles,

Scalp,

And ears.

And really feeling the whole body,

Global awareness,

And allowing your body to relax,

To release into stillness.

Really allowing the sense of stillness to settle in,

And that stillness from letting go of doing anything.

And in that stillness,

Your body continues to move with the breath.

And I'd like you to allow that breath to be very free,

Letting it be an involuntary breath.

So that means letting go of any intentional breathing.

So you're not breathing in for account and breathing out for account,

Not trying to breathe deeply.

In fact,

Your breath might be very shallow.

And that's okay.

Trusting the body,

Letting the body do whatever it needs to do,

And being curious.

Just for a moment,

Watching your body breathe,

Noticing how the belly moves with the breath,

How does your chest move,

What are the sensations that are happening in your body as you breathe?

How do you even know that you're breathing?

Where do you feel the breath?

So starting with feeling the breath in the whole body,

And then beginning to rest your attention just in one place.

And generally I use around the nose,

Might not feel it first,

But eventually it will arrive and you'll feel the sensation there.

Feel the sensation around your upper lip,

Around your nostrils.

And it's easier for your mind to have a location that it goes back to,

So bringing your attention to the area around your nose.

Starting to feel the sensation of the in-breath and out-breath from that area.

Noticing the difference between the sensation of the in-breath and the sensation of out-breath in the area around your nose.

Continuing to let your body breathe naturally.

And at first this is a little bit like patting the head and rubbing the belly at the same time.

It's a little weird to let the body breathe naturally and pay attention closely to the sensation of breathing.

You'll get used to it and it will be easier and easier to allow your body to breathe and feel the sensation in the area around your nose.

So to help you to stay more focused,

You can also use counting.

And what you can do is feel the in-breath in the area around your nose,

Feel the out-breath,

And then count.

Feel the in-breath,

Feel the out-breath,

And then count.

Feel the in-breath,

Feel the out-breath one,

Feel the in-breath,

Feel the out-breath two.

Really allowing the body to create the pace,

Really feeling the sensation.

So that continues to be the main focus.

So the counting is secondary,

Just supportive.

The most important thing is you stay with the sensation of breathing in one area.

So that's what we keep bringing our attention back to.

So we're going all the way up to eight is usually a suggested number,

Somewhere between five and ten.

Letting the body set the pace and counting.

Then noticing when your mind floats away and then coming back.

So we'll do a few rounds of that.

We lose the counting for a while,

Coming back.

And noticing where your mind is and coming back to the sensation of breathing.

And also expecting a lot of distracting thoughts at the beginning.

And this is what the counting is to help with.

Starting to get a structure in there.

So we'll continue with the counting for a few minutes.

Okay.

Thank you.

And noticing where your mind is and coming back to feeling the sensation of breathing.

And you can continue counting if you'd like.

Once you feel like you're able to stay with the counting for a little while,

You know,

It might take you ten,

Fifteen minutes.

Once you feel like you're able to stay with the counting,

You can begin to let go of it.

You know,

Let go of that structure as you start to feel a continuity of paying attention to the sensation of breathing.

You have to stay with the breath for longer periods of time,

For,

You know,

Eight breaths in a row or something like that.

Then you can start to let go of the counting and just start savoring the sensation of breathing.

So really feeling that breath just in the area around the nose.

Feeling the in-breath all the way in.

Feeling the out-breath all the way out.

And that's not following the breath into the body and out of the body,

But staying in one place.

So in the same way that if you were a guard guarding a castle and you were standing at the door to the castle,

You'd watch as people came in and went out of the castle.

But you didn't follow the people into the castle or out of the castle.

You just stayed at your post and watched as people came in and went out.

In the same way,

Keeping your attention posted just in the area around the nose where you feel the breath.

Feeling as the breath comes all the way in.

And then feeling the breath all the way out.

Feeling the full sort of body of the breath just from that one place.

Or another analogy is keeping your attention on the sensation of breathing in the same way that if you were sawing a piece of wood,

Keep your attention just on the place where the teeth of the saw hit the wood.

You don't follow the handle back and forth,

Moving your head back and forth.

You just keep your attention right where the teeth of the saw are hitting.

In the same way,

We keep our attention on the sensation of breathing in the area around the nose,

Just that one spot.

Notice where the mind goes and then coming back to that one spot.

Savoring that sensation.

Keeping your continuous awareness,

Feeling the breath all the way in,

Feeling the breath all the way out from that one spot.

And we'll do this for a good ten minutes or so,

Each time noticing when your mind is away and then bringing your attention back.

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Reviews

Always learning 💫
Grateful for this practice William
🙏🙏🙏

Very nice lightly guided meditation. Simple and sweet. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏

I really enjoyed this. It's a great introduction into deeper meditation practice, building on my prior metta practice. Thank you!