Welcome to this simple breath awareness meditation.
Before we get started,
Find yourself a comfortable position to be in for the next few minutes.
This could be seated,
Maybe you prefer to be lying down.
You could be sitting on a cushion on the floor,
Maybe you're sitting in a chair or on the couch.
Just somewhere where you're comfortable,
But if you are sitting,
Trying to sit nicely upright,
Allowing the shoulders to relax,
Allowing the gaze to soften,
Or maybe the eyes to close.
For a moment,
Just noticing the parts of you that are connecting you down to the ground,
Where your body touches the surfaces that you're resting on.
Allowing a sense of heaviness to come into those parts.
And then slowly bring your awareness to the fact that you are breathing.
There's air flowing in and out naturally,
Through your nose,
Maybe through your mouth.
See if you can just notice the sensations of breathing without trying to change the breath.
Starting with the place where the breath first touches.
So that could be the inside of the nostrils,
Maybe it's around the lips,
The back of the throat.
Just noticing where that air passes through into the body and out of the body.
Trying for a few moments to just stay with that sensation of breathing.
Noticing that thoughts will come up.
And whenever you notice that your attention is drifted onto thinking,
Feeling,
Slowly bringing your awareness just back to the sensations of the air flowing in and out through the nose or the mouth.
To those very subtle sensations in your body.
And then following your breath a little deeper into the body,
Into the chest area.
Noticing the sensations of breathing that are present within your chest.
Could be a gentle rising and falling of the chest.
Gentle expansion and contraction.
Maybe you include the ribcage,
Noticing how the ribcage moves as you breathe.
Still staying with just the natural rhythm of breathing,
Whatever feels comfortable to you.
But focusing the awareness simply on the sensations in the upper torso,
Sensations of breathing.
And again you may notice your mind wandering,
Thoughts coming up.
Try not to push them away but acknowledge that they're there.
And then slowly turn your attention back to your breathing,
Back to the sensations in the chest as you breathe.
And then again we're following the breath a little deeper down into the body.
As we're bringing out awareness into the belly area.
Noticing the sensations of breathing around the belly.
Again it could be gentle rising and falling of the belly.
Gentle expansion and contraction and softening.
With each inhalation and each exhalation.
Finding your steady rhythm of breath.
And then just staying with the sensations of breathing.
In the belly,
Around the waist,
Maybe even into the lower back.
What does it feel like to breathe into those areas of the body?
And when those thoughts arise that are trying to pull your awareness into other places.
Just gently guiding yourself back to your breath.
With the simplicity of each inhale and each exhale being your anchor.
And then from the belly expanding your awareness to include the chest.
To include the nose and the mouth,
The back of the throat.
An expansion of awareness of all the sensations present in the body as you breathe in and out.
Maybe you even include a sensation of each poor breathing with you.
Opening and closing of each breath,
The surface of your skin.
Staying just for a few more moments with the sensations of breathing.
Maybe contracting your awareness back down into a certain part where you can feel the breath most easily.
Where it feels easiest to keep your tension with your breath.
Not getting discouraged if more thoughts come up.
Simply acknowledging and returning your awareness back to your breath.
And you can stay here for as long as you want.
Simply keeping your focus on your breath.
Where you can slowly let go of that focus.
Bring your awareness back into the rest of the body.
Again noticing all the parts of you that are connecting you down into the ground.
The surface beneath you,
Your chair,
Your bed,
Your mat.
And maybe slowly introducing a little bit of movement into the fingers and toes.
Maybe you're rolling the heat gently,
Stretching the arms.
Reawaken yourself and only when you're ready,
Slowly opening the eyes again.
As our practice is now complete.
