Coming to a pause now for a brief 10 minute mindfulness practice.
You may stand or you may sit,
Laying down,
Whatever posture feels most comfortable for you.
Settling yourself in and gently closing your eyes,
Collecting your attention inside the body now.
Taking a few deep breaths into the lungs.
And as you exhale,
Letting go slowly,
Gently.
And on this next in breath,
Breathing into any areas of tension or tightness that might be alive for you in your body.
And as you exhale,
Seeing if you can let them go.
Enjoying some of the tightness to go out with the out breath.
Softening and relaxing in to this moment.
Inviting you now to bring your attention to where you notice the breath as you just allow it to cycle in its own natural rhythm.
This might be the belly area or the chest area.
Might be the sensation in the upper lip or in the nostrils.
Wherever you most notice the breath,
Just dropping in and observing how the body naturally breathes itself.
Allowing thoughts,
Sensations,
Sounds,
Stother stimuli in the environment outside and in to move into the background.
Bringing into the foreground,
Collecting the attention here on the breathing.
Noticing each in breath and out breath.
Like waves of the ocean that naturally rise and fall one after the other in their own wise and gracious rhythm.
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go,
No one to be.
Just breathe.
You might notice the beginning of the breath,
The end of the breath,
The pause in natural space between the in breath and the out breath.
See if you can notice.
And if you find the mind has wandered off into thoughts of what will come after in the future,
Perhaps thoughts of the past.
Perfectly fine,
No big deal.
This is what the mind does.
And when you catch it,
Just notice that.
Oh,
Thinking.
And then without judging yourself,
Just kindly coming back into the breath as your anchor of attention in this moment.
And this is the practice of coming back is what matters most.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Not trying to create any experience,
Not forcing anything.
Just resting and relaxing with the breath.
Noticing how it naturally flows in the body and out of the body.
Always present,
Always right here.
Coming back to the breath.
Again and again.
Nervous.
Noticing where the attention is.
I'm guiding it to the breath,
Time and time again.
Perfectly fine,
Not a problem.
Each time you come back into this moment,
You are training,
You are building your capacity to be more present and more conscious and awake in your life.
And in this last few seconds,
Expanding the breath into the body as a whole,
Taking a few deep breaths,
Breathing into the whole body now,
Feeling centered in the present moment.
And you might gesture a bow to yourself to thank yourself for taking this pause,
This short 10 minutes out of your busy day to connect with yourself,
With that deeper part of yourself that knows.
