Coming into a sitting position,
Being comfortable,
Whether in a chair or on the floor,
Feeling your body nice and tall,
Yet at the same time very relaxed.
And bring in your attention to the breath,
And we're going to bring the awareness into the body.
So instead of thinking about the breath at the tip of the nose,
We're going to drop the awareness and experience the breath in the lower abdomen.
So as you breathe in,
You feel the belly expand,
Kind of like a balloon.
And as you breathe out,
It's as if all the air goes out of the balloon,
The belly contracts.
So we're just working with focus and concentration here.
Just dropping your awareness out of thoughts or feelings out of your head and just dropping all your attention to that lower abdominal area.
So as you inhale,
The belly expands,
You maybe feel some movement in the sides and lower back.
As you breathe out,
Just let everything go.
Just be with that rise and falling,
That expansion,
Contraction feeling in the lower abdomen.
Now,
If you're like practically everyone,
You'll note that your mind will start to wander.
Maybe after one breath or two breaths,
Your mind goes back to thoughts or feelings,
Gets scattered.
Very important here,
The practice of noting the mind wandering and then bringing it back to the lower abdomen for the next breath.
We're not here to judge the mind wandering.
We don't get frustrated with ourselves.
Noting the mind wandering and then non-judgmentally bringing it back to the breath is as important for the practice as just staying with the breath.
There's no way to do this practice incorrectly.
So if we can,
Just be with the expanding and contracting of the lower abdomen.
And when your mind inevitably wanders,
No need to get frustrated.
No need to judge yourself.
Just note that the mind has wandered.
You could be a little curious of where it has wandered to and then bring it back to the next breath.
So let's do that for about a minute,
Keeping silence and just be curious,
Non-judgmental as we move into this practice.
Another nice way to really stay connected and practice this focus and concentration is to bring some words into the practice.
So as you breathe in,
You could say in.
And as you breathe out,
Just noting out.
You could also,
As you breathe in,
Say deep,
Noting the deep inhalation,
Feeling the breathing body.
And as you breathe out,
Slow.
Just let that exhale be really slow.
So connect the breath with some nice words.
It could be about releasing and relaxing.
This mindfulness of breathing technique has been used for over 2,
000 years to train,
Focus,
Mindfulness.
And as you move forward with this practice,
Remembering that noting the mind wandering is just as important in this practice as if you stayed completely on the breath.
But when the mind wanders,
You note it.
Non-judgmentally and with curiosity,
You bring it back to the breath.
And even if you have to do that over and over again,
That's the practice.
You slowly begin to see,
As time goes on,
That you could bring this heightened sense of awareness into your day-to-day life.
Thanks for joining.
