Now find your breath.
Connect with your breath.
Become aware of it.
Become aware of the flow of your breath in and out of the lungs,
Perhaps for the first time today.
Try to observe your breath without changing it.
Notice the pace of your breathing.
Is it fast or is it slow?
Notice the depth of your breath.
Is it filling the lungs entirely or is it barely inflating them?
Notice the ease of your breathing.
Notice if one part of the breath is easier than the other.
Is it the inhale or the exhale?
Or are they the same?
Notice the length of your breath.
Notice the rhythm of the breath.
Is one part of the breath longer than the other?
Is it the inhale or the exhale?
Or are they about the same?
Notice the texture of the breath.
Does it feel jagged,
Jolting or fluid and smooth?
Again try not to change it.
Just observe.
Notice the shape of the breath.
Does it feel like a circle?
Does it feel like a line?
Perhaps an oval or perhaps a wave or maybe another shape.
How would you describe the shape of your breath?
Perhaps you can even perceive a direction.
Does your breath feel like it's flowing up and down?
Or does it feel more like an in and out,
An expansion and then a contraction?
Perhaps for some of us it might feel like it's flowing all around us.
Notice the temperature of the breath.
Do you feel the breath in the body?
Do you feel it in your abdomen?
Or are you more aware of the breath in the chest?
Or perhaps somewhere in between the ribs?
Or maybe all of those places?
You might even be more aware of the breath in the throat.
Or perhaps right at the edges of the nostrils.
Perhaps now I'm sounding these places out,
You might be aware of them in all of those places.
How does your body move in response to the breath?
Can you let go of any holding in the belly and let the belly move as you breathe?
Feel the belly swell and balloon as you inhale and then feel it recede and draw back as you exhale,
Back toward the spine.
Can you feel your ribs moving?
Flaring and expanding as you inhale and then gathering and centering as you exhale.
Can you feel your heart lift and open as you breathe in and relax and soften as you breathe out?
Can you feel now all of that happening simultaneously?
Keep your awareness focused on your breath.
Just for a few moments of silence,
Be with your breath,
Sensing the precious gift of your life,
Your life force.
