Right,
Let's put our bodies somewhere comfortable.
As we inhale next,
Let's allow our spine to straighten a little bit,
Become a little bit taller.
And as we exhale,
Let's soften a little bit.
See if we can find a balance between alert and relaxed.
Putting our feet on the ground and our arms and our hands resting somewhere comfortable and parking our body.
Seeing if we can allow it to be still for a little while.
Seeing how that feels.
And taking a few deeper breaths as we settle in.
And noticing how those few deeper breaths feel.
Noticing everything that's going on for us right now.
Noticing as we continue to breathe slightly more slowly,
Slightly more deeply.
How our body reacts.
Seeing if we can get a sense of our body as a whole.
Being still and breathing.
How we feel about that.
We might feel any number of ways about it.
A relief,
A bit of a chore,
Very difficult.
How do we feel about it?
Can we allow ourselves to be okay with however we feel about it?
Even if that's a bit uncomfortable.
I've got this bit of discomfort right now.
So checking in with our body.
How do we feel physically?
Seeing if we feel comfortable in the body or we have areas of tension or pain.
Again observing the reaction to our experience.
We like it,
We don't like it.
How do we feel emotionally?
Understanding what comes up for us then and how we feel about it.
Do we want it to be some other way?
And mentally,
How do we feel mentally?
And notice any reaction that comes up when we consider this aspect of us.
So returning our attention to our body and our breath.
Really starting to pay attention to our breath.
Giving it as much attention as best we can.
And if the mind starts to wander in a moment of quiet,
We can notice where it goes to and view that as useful data.
Rather than an irritation,
A problem,
We're learning something about the way our mind habitually works.
Where it wanders to when it's allowed to wander freely.
And is this somewhere we would choose to go?
It may be,
It may not.
All useful data.
So returning to the breath and feeling the breath in the nostrils in as much detail as we can.
Can we feel the air flowing in and out?
All the while being alert to the mental commentary as well as the physical sensations.
It may be uncomfortable to give our breath this much focus.
Are we able for a moment or two just to be uncomfortable or do we want to run off?
Taking the attention now to the breath in the throat.
And noticing,
Observing whatever there is to observe here.
Physical sensations and our mental reaction to it.
Taking our attention now to our chest and our ribs.
Observing the ribs move.
Is our breath still comfortable or are we pushing it in and out like bellows?
Just noticing all that.
It can be hard to breathe naturally when we're looking because the conscious mind wants to take over.
Can we allow the breath to breathe itself?
Can we sense the shoulders moving subtly as we breathe?
Can we sense the back,
The ribs at the back of the body moving slightly?
And there is no right and wrong answer because it's different for everybody.
It's all an inquiry.
How is this for me?
How do I feel about this for me?
Can we sense the movement of the diaphragm?
So that's a deep,
Largely unconscious bit of us.
A big muscle underneath the lungs that moves down as we inhale usually.
And it might be easier to get a sense of this with the movement of the belly.
If it helps you can put your hand on your belly.
See if you can get a more of a sense of the movement.
Are we able to very subtly take a bit more air into the lower lungs so that our hand moves ever so slightly more?
So this is an intervention that can help us relax because we tend to do this deeper breathing when we are relaxed,
Diaphragmatic breathing.
So to relax deliberately and again choose to breathe ever so slightly more into the lower lung can be very relaxing and help dissipate any stress.
But if we try and force it,
Try too hard then it can become antagonistic to our natural breath.
So we must be careful.
We can sense if our heart rate starts to increase and our breath is uncomfortable then we may not be breathing in a relaxed state.
We may be forcing it.
Let's remove our hand and again place it somewhere comfortable for the last few moments seeing if we can allow the breath to breathe itself.
We can rest on that wave of the breath.
Gently rocking us.
Soothing us.
And there is only the breath.
Expanding our awareness now to our whole body once more.
Into our lungs and our heart and our respiration as part of our whole body.
Before we leave checking in once more physically.
Do we feel different from when we started?
Emotionally?
Mentally?
So we'll start to bring movement back into the body slowly.
We can take a few deeper energising breaths and start to move our hands and feet and seeing how that feels and preparing to re-enter our regular mental state,
Our regular state of being and observing how that feels.
And maybe have a stretch if that's for you.
I'm returning.
Thank you for practising with me.
