Mindfulness of breathing practice.
Just allowing the body to come into stillness.
And as the body settles,
Inviting the mind to also settle into stillness.
Bringing body and mind to a place of rest.
And reminding ourselves that there's nothing that we have to do and there's nowhere we have to go.
Just really easing ourselves into stillness,
Quietness.
Arriving into this present moment,
Into this room with these signs,
This light.
These sensations in the body.
Having a sense that this is my present moment experience,
I have arrived into the present moment.
Allowing ourselves to land softly.
Moving awareness now from the external environment and drawing the attention inwards.
Becoming aware of the sensation of breathing.
Tuning into the swell in the chest area on the in breath.
And the fall of the chest on the out breath.
The expansion of the belly on the in breath.
And it's deflation on the out breath.
Really honing our attention to have a sense of how my breathing feels.
How does my body experience the in breath and the out breath?
So there's no need to control the breathing or force the breath,
Force the body to breathe in any particular way.
We just allow the breath to settle into its all natural rhythm.
Allowing the whole body to experience the movement of the breath.
The rhythm of the in breath and the out breath.
Noticing if the breath is shallow or deep.
If there's a smoothness or a roughness to the breath.
Becoming aware of the texture of the breath.
It might feel fast or slow.
It might feel deep or shallow.
There might be a clunkiness to the breathing and unevenness.
Or we might notice a slowing down of the breath.
Just resting the awareness lightly on the very subtle movements of the breath.
Enjoying the rhythmic rise and fall.
The receiving and the letting go.
Aware that with each in breath every cell in the body is being nourished.
Focusing attention now around the nostrils and the mouth area.
And seeing if we can really have a sense of the coolness of the air that enters through the nostrils.
And then the slightly warmer air that leaves through the nostrils.
We can follow the in breath for the full duration of the in breath.
Pausing at the end of the in breath in the tiny gap between the in breath and the out breath.
And then following the out breath for the full duration of the out breath.
And pausing again in that small space between the out breath and the in breath.
Allowing the awareness to stay with the sensations of breathing.
Enjoying these sensations.
Resting in the simplicity of just breathing.
If we notice that our mind has wandered,
Perhaps we got lost in thought or sleepiness,
Distraction.
We can just very gently guide the mind back with gentleness and kindness.
Back to this experience of breathing.
So without being harsh or disappointed with our practice we can just notice there's thinking.
And in that noticing we are building a capacity for awareness.
This is what minds do and we simply come back again and again training the mind to be with the breath.
And for the next few minutes we are going to see if we can just bring our attention to the sensation of breathing.
And it might be useful to count the breaths.
So when we breathe in and breathe out that's a count of one.
Then in and out two and so on.
So we can continue counting like this up to ten and then return to one.
So if the mind wanders we can just notice there's thinking and come back to the beginning to count again.
So counting the breaths might feel too structured or too busy.
So we can use a touch and go breathing where we can breathe into different parts of the body.
And breathe out bringing a quality of release.
So breathing into the shoulders and breathing out a quality of release.
Breathing into the muscles and the legs.
Breathing into the face,
The hands or the arms.
So choosing where to direct your own breath and allowing the whole body to release on the out breath.
So breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing out.
Breathing out.
So softening now the focus of our attention and expanding it to take in our whole environment.
So becoming aware of where we are,
Aware of sounds,
The light with all its changing quality.
These sensations in my body.
So having a sense of this breathing body.
Breathing in I am aware of my breath and my body.
And breathing out I rest in my breath and my body.
Doctor response it is about to open.
.
.
