Take a moment to find a comfortable posture that allows you to feel awake.
The eyes can be closed or opened with a gentle gaze.
Allow yourself to step out of the preoccupations of the mind and instead bring in the intention to just be in your own company.
If your mind wanders at any time,
Patiently bring it back to the grounding points of the practice.
Draw the awareness to the breath.
Without changing the breath in any way,
Notice where you can feel it in the body.
Bring the awareness to rest on either the general feeling of the breath or one place where you can feel the breath the most.
Trace the movements of the expansion and contraction,
Imbuing this presence with a quality of patience,
Kindness,
Or any other word that feels more comfortable for you.
Begin to open the awareness now to the rest of the body,
Noticing where the awareness goes first.
It may be a very general awareness of the whole body,
Or one sensation that feels prominent,
Or move from one part of the body to another.
Take a moment to allow for this curiosity and spaciousness.
Now settle the awareness on one sensation in the body that feels the most supportive.
It could be a place of stillness where the body feels held or an area of movement that changes with the breath.
Be with these sensations as they carry themselves from one moment to the next.
Anytime that the mind or mood wanders,
Meet those peaks and valleys with a friendly acknowledgement and then bring them back to that place that feels steady,
Guiding the attention in a way that is just as firm as it is kind.
Taking the next few moments to be a companion to whatever arises in the experience of your presence,
Again and again,
Inviting yourself back to that place that feels grounded and stable,
Again and again,
Allowing the awareness to take its seat.
Slowly begin to bring a more wakeful breath into the body.
If it feels good,
You can bring some small movements into the fingers.
And when you feel ready,
Gently blink the eyes open.
When I say,
What am I?
Thank you.
