Welcome to 20 minutes of mindfulness.
My name is Vimala Sara,
Aka Valerie Mason John.
And for the next 20 minutes we will be practicing the mindfulness of breathing.
So let's begin.
Settle the body.
Thus we train ourselves.
Breathing in,
We notice a short breath.
Breathing out,
We notice a long breath.
Simply noticing the length of your breathing without narrative,
Without story.
Just labeling short breath,
Long breath,
Medium breath,
Longish breath.
Don't know the length of breath.
Just simply labeling the breath.
And if you find your mind wandering,
Because it will wander,
This is the practice.
Simply come back to noticing the length of your breathing.
So for the next few minutes,
Two to three minutes,
We will sit in the silence.
Noticing the length of our breathing.
Ready to sit?
Too?
Okay,
Is it very quiet?
Ivas.
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Thus,
We train ourselves.
Breathing in,
We experience a relaxed breath.
Breathing out,
We experience a tense breath.
Simply noticing the quality of your breathing.
It may be a rough breath,
A smooth breath,
A ragged breath,
A jagged breath.
Just simply noticing the quality of your breathing without judgment,
Without narrative.
And if you notice your mind caught up in thinking,
Great!
That's the practice.
And you simply bring it back to the breath,
Labeling the quality of your breathing,
Labeling your direct experience.
So again,
For the next few minutes,
We will sit in silence and experience the quality of our breathing.
Thus,
We train ourselves.
Breathing in,
We experience a relaxed breath.
Breathing out,
We experience a tense breath.
Noticing the quality of our breathing.
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Thus,
We train ourselves.
Breathing in,
We experience the whole body breathing.
Simply experiencing the whole body breathing.
And if you're not ready to move on to this third stage,
That's perfectly fine.
Just stay with noticing the quality of your breathing.
But if you are ready,
See if you can experience the body breathing you.
See if you can experience the breathing from head to toe.
Experience the whole body breathing.
Thus,
We train ourselves.
Breathing in,
We experience the whole body breathing.
Breathing out,
We experience the whole body breathing.
And again,
Simply for the next few minutes,
We will dwell in the silence.
And if you find your mind caught up in thinking,
Great,
Well done.
You've noticed bring it back to the experience of the breathing or to the labeling of the quality of your breath or the length of your breath.
Sitting in silence,
Experience seeing the body breathing.
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Thus,
We train ourselves breathing in,
Allowing the touch of the breath to soothe the body.
And if you're not ready to move on to this stage,
That's perfectly fine.
So when we allow ourselves to be soothed by the touch of the breath,
We connect to the place where we experience the touch of the breathing.
It could be in the abdomen rising and falling,
In the chest rising and falling,
The sides of the torso expanding,
In the small of the back,
Or in your hands and arms.
You could experience it in the throat.
You may even experience the touch of the breathing on the upper lip.
Here you will experience the coolness of the breath as you breathe in,
And as you breathe out,
You will experience the warmth of the breath.
So you choose where you experience the touch of the breath and focus on that one place and allow the touch of the breathing to soothe the body,
To soothe the heart-mind.
Thus,
We train ourselves breathing in,
Allowing the touch of the breath to soothe the body,
Breathing out,
Allowing the touch of the breath to soothe the body,
To soothe the heart-mind,
And again we will dwell in the silence,
Connecting to the touch of the breath.
And if you find your thoughts chattering,
Judging,
Complaining,
Fine,
Just wave them goodbye and come back to the touch of your breathing,
Or to experiencing the whole body breathing,
Or to experiencing the quality of your breathing,
Or to simply experiencing the length of your breathing,
Just dwelling in the silence.
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So as we gently begin to expand our awareness back out into the room,
And if you enjoyed this meditation,
Check my book out,
Detox Your Heart,
Meditations for Emotional Trauma,
Or Eight Step Recovery,
Which has plenty of meditations,
Or check out my channel on Insight Timer,
Or on Liberation BIPOC.
Thank you for sitting with me.
Have a mindful day,
Being aware of your breathing.
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