Recorded by Adele Stewart,
MBSR teacher in Wununna,
May 2020.
So finding yourself a comfortable position,
Either sitting with a reasonably straight back,
Not too rigid though,
Not too slouched.
Or if your body tells you it needs it today,
Then feel free to find yourself a comfortable lying down position.
Perhaps spending a little bit of time sensing yourself,
Settling into your chosen posture.
Having that sense of being grounded.
Perhaps you might want to shift your sit bones out a little.
Really feeling that sense of solidity with the earth.
Maybe taking your attention firstly into the base of your body.
The bottom half of your body.
And then having a sense of your spine growing up straight and tall out of that base.
The head sitting gently on the shoulders.
The arms sloping downwards.
The hands resting perhaps in the lap.
Perhaps there's some areas of the body that might do with just a little bit of softening.
We often hold a lot of tension in the shoulders,
Between the eyebrows.
Where the head joins the neck at the back.
Sometimes even that sense of a subtle smile on the face can add some softening.
Perhaps even having a smile in the heart.
It's taking a moment to really meet ourselves as we are in this moment.
As best we can putting out the welcome mat for whatever is present right now.
The pleasant and the unpleasant.
Now perhaps noticing how the body is breathing.
No need to change the breath or manipulate it at all.
So noticing the breath in the body.
Perhaps having a sense of becoming really intimate with the breath.
No need to think about the breath or visualize it or analyze it.
Really noticing the felt sense of the breath in the body.
Rather than automatically going to where you perhaps usually notice the breath in meditation.
Using that sense of beginner's mind of really exploring the breath with a freshness.
Perhaps it might be a different part of the body that you notice the breath in than usual.
It might be more than one part.
Becoming intimate with the breath.
The felt sense of the breath.
And of course usually very quickly there will be distractions in the form of thoughts,
Sounds,
Other body sensations.
It's actually counterproductive to try and suppress these or block these.
Seeing them as just simply a part of the meditation.
Noting them with that gentle kind touch.
Shifting the attention back to noticing the breath.
Keeping that smile on the lips and in the heart.
And I'll lightly drop some questions in.
And for you,
Not to think about,
But just to allow to land and notice what comes up for you.
What do you enjoy more,
The inspiration or the expiration?
Which part of the breath cycle is most clear,
Most vivid?
What are some qualities of the breath right now?
Perhaps considering speed,
Regularity,
Depth,
Texture and tone.
If you notice that you've gone off into a thought train,
When you do notice,
Can you notice which part of the breath cycle you've been on?
Whether there's been any change in the quality of the breath with the thinking.
Keeping that beautiful kind curiosity.
The breath that threads all our present moments together.
The breath that you're breathing right now,
Subtly different to any breath you've breathed before,
Will breathe again.
Thank you.
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