Mindfulness Of Breathing

Guided Mindfulness of Breathing Practice suitable for beginners and more experienced practitioners. Recorded for Patients & Carers at the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre as part of the 4-week Introduction to Mindfulness Course.
This track contains ambient sounds in the background

Transcript

Starting off by sitting comfortably or lying down on a yoga mat or even on top of the blankets or doona on the bed.

And gently closing your eyes if that feels comfortable to you.

And bringing attention to the different sounds that you can hear.

So that might be sounds inside the room,

Sounds coming from other rooms,

Sounds outside.

So whatever the sounds are,

Whether you like them or not,

See if you can take just that half step back from them and just notice them as they come and go.

So we don't have to create some perfectly silent environment in order to practice.

We can just allow whatever sounds are there to be there.

And starting to shift attention to sensations in the body.

Noticing the points of contact with the chair or the floor or the bed if you're lying on the bed.

What we're interested in is these regular everyday sensations of contact.

So you might notice a pressure,

Perhaps a warmth or a coolness.

Might be a bit of a tingling.

Aches and pains perhaps.

So it's like we're listening in to sensations in the same way that we listen in to sounds.

You're bringing attention to these things.

And then starting to bring attention to the process of breathing.

Noticing the sensations that are associated with breathing.

Might be the rise and fall of the abdomen.

Might feel it in the ribs and the chest,

At the nostrils or the upper lip.

At the nostrils you might notice a slight coolness as you breathe in and a slight warmth as you breathe out.

So we don't need to speed the breath up or slow it down in any way.

We're just watching the breath as it comes and goes.

Being curious about breathing.

And as best as we can we're just gently resting attention on the breath.

And from time to time you will naturally get distracted.

A sound outside might catch your attention and you'll start thinking about it or thoughts will just arise by themselves.

And so thankfully we don't need to do anything with these thoughts.

We just need to gently go back to noticing the breath and how we experience it through the sensations in our body.

So thoughts are certainly not the enemy here,

Nor are distractions.

So both are completely fine and it's not a sign of doing the practice wrong if thoughts and distractions come,

Because they will.

We just patiently come back to noticing the breath as it comes and goes.

We can know if a breath is shallow or deep,

If it's fast or slow,

If it feels smooth or perhaps a bit jagged.

Just watching it moment by moment.

And it's important to remember that we're not trying to make anything happen or to stop something that's happening from happening.

So we're not trying to relax,

We're not trying to feel a particular way.

We're just watching things as they are,

As they emerge.

And as best as we can being curious about what's happening.

So moving a little closer to our experience.

All we're doing is following a particular process,

This moment to moment observation of experience and doing so in a kind and curious way.

And whatever results happen to come,

We just leave them to look after themselves.

We're trusting this more innate wisdom of our bodies and minds,

Letting them come to rest as best they can.

Perhaps bringing attention a little closer to that process of breathing.

Noticing the cycle of the breath.

The feeling of an in-breath.

The small pause at the top of an in-breath.

The exhalation.

And that small pause at the bottom of an exhalation before you inhale again.

And thankfully the body just knows how to breathe by itself.

We don't have to remind ourselves to breathe in or remind ourselves to breathe out.

And while we're watching the breath as it unfolds,

All sorts of other things can arise.

We might notice sensations in the body from time to time.

Some of them pleasant,

Some of them neutral,

Some of them unpleasant.

And sometimes the unpleasant sensations can be quite distracting.

So noticing an ache or a pain can sometimes trigger a cascade of thoughts about that pain.

And as soon as we notice that we're sort of going down that path,

We gently bring attention back.

And if we like,

We might choose to breathe with that discomfort.

So we're noticing the breathing and we're noticing the discomfort at the same time.

Almost as if we were keeping that discomfort company.

Bringing the freshness of breathing to it.

And sometimes with the discomfort,

You can slightly adjust your posture to relieve it.

And there's nothing wrong with moving during the practice.

But remembering when we do move and we're sitting or lying,

We might straighten up a bit if we're starting to slouch if we're sitting.

Just do so with careful attention on that movement process.

Sometimes it can be helpful to name the discomfort or lower back.

That's where that is.

Just a more concrete way of acknowledging it.

Different emotions or feeling states often come while we're sitting.

Some of those can be quite distracting.

We might have a thought about something that we should have done and that might trigger a range of feelings and body sensations.

Might be a worry about something that may or may not happen in the future.

And so as best as we can,

We're being kind towards those feeling states,

Those emotions as they come and go.

Just giving them a bit of room,

Breathing with them.

Seeing if even momentarily we can just touch in on the physical experience of them rather than all of the thoughts about them.

So again,

We're not stopping the thoughts.

We're just choosing to place our attention on the sensations for a moment or two before going back to the breath.

If we feel like those emotional states or even the physical discomfort is almost getting a bit too strong for us,

Then we're always free to open our eyes very softly momentarily.

Maybe look at a couple of different things that we can see in the room that we're in.

They're more external attention rather than internal.

We might,

If we choose to,

Gently close our eyes again and go back to the breath.

Another way to be with a stronger experience can be to incorporate a small movement as we notice the breath.

So that might be having your hands and gently opening your fingers out as you breathe in and gently closing them into a soft fist as you breathe out.

So breathing in,

The fingers unfurl.

Breathing out,

They close gently.

And we can do that for as long as we wish to.

This helps to provide us with another place to stand.

Gives us a bit more space.

Watching one breath unfold after another.

Gently returning attention when it wanders off.

Nothing to do,

Nothing to achieve.

No particular outcome.

Just watching the unfolding of our experience.

The sensations of breathing moment to moment.

Take a deep breath in and out in,

Bird's eye view.

So in this practice,

It can also be helpful to recognize that we're giving ourselves the gift of our own attention,

That sometimes we can be so caught up in meeting the needs of others,

And there's certainly a time and a place for that.

Doing these practices is a way of helping to meet our own needs,

As a way of taking care of ourselves.

Perhaps putting aside the judgment and self-criticism that's so easy to have happen.

Noticing breath by breath.

Noticing breath by breath.

Noticing breath by breath.

Noticing breath by breath.

Continuing to watch the process of breathing unfold.

Gently bringing attention back when it wanders off.

And if stronger,

More distracting sensations or thoughts and feelings arise.

And seeing if you can notice how they're experienced in the body,

Rather than getting caught up in the storyline of the thoughts.

And breathe with that experience.

Keeping it company in the same way that you might keep a friend company who didn't need you to do anything,

Just needed you to sit with them.

Right.

And so as we start to come to the end of the practice,

Perhaps taking some slightly deeper breaths,

Perhaps having a bit of a stretch in the yawn,

Just seeing what movements your body needs to make in this moment,

Very gently opening your eyes,

Just having a look around the room you're in,

Taking in the sights,

The colors and the shapes,

Noticing the sounds that you can hear.

And then when you're ready,

Finishing the practice.