Mindful breathing.
This exercise cultivates three qualities of mind.
Relaxation,
Presence and awareness by bringing attention to the sensations of breathing in the present moment.
With an attitude of kindness and curiosity we develop a new relationship with sensations,
Feelings and thoughts.
So inviting ourselves now to adopt a comfortable upright posture,
The posture of mindfulness.
Sitting comfortably with the back straight,
Body still and at ease,
Stable like a mountain,
Feet parallel and resting flat on the floor,
Hands resting lightly on the knees,
The shoulders wide with a sense of openness and strength in the upper body,
Eyes open looking downwards with a soft gaze becoming more and more relaxed with each out breath but without your awareness sinking into drowsiness.
Taking a few deep breaths,
Exhaling completely on each out breath then breathing naturally with your mouth very slightly open.
Taking a moment to check in with how you're feeling.
There's not a right thing to feel or a wrong thing to feel,
Simply noticing.
And taking a moment to remember our intention for doing this exercise,
Cultivating relaxation,
Presence and awareness with an attitude of kindness and curiosity for the benefit of course of ourselves and others.
So bringing your attention now to the sensations of breathing.
Whether we notice it the most vividly,
Perhaps it might be in your chest or in your belly,
Placing your hands on the belly to help focus the attention if we like.
Noticing the movement of the air,
The rise and fall as we breathe in and breathe out.
Remember allowing the breathing to be just as it is without trying to change it in any way.
As we breathe in we simply know that we are breathing in and as we breathe out we simply know that we are breathing out.
Just being with your body breathing.
Just a light attention as light as a butterfly landing on a flower so it's very light but also deliberate and precise.
Not blocking out any sounds or sights or thoughts just allowing them to come if they come.
When the mind wanders that's fine it's totally normal.
Noticing we are distracted and returning the attention to the sensations of the breath.
That is the practice over and over and over again.
When we get lost in thoughts we realise and relax if that feels right coming back to the breath again and again.
Let's continue for a short while in silence now.
Now if you're finding that you're really quite distracted today with these restless thoughts counting each breath can be a really good way to give us a firmer anchor in the present moment.
One way to count is to count silently at the end of each in breath.
One between breathing in and breathing out then maintaining attention on the entire breath then two between the second in breath and the out breath counting just up to ten and then counting up to ten again if needed and if you get lost or find yourself at a higher number don't worry just start again at one.
As we count the object of our practice is still the movements of breathing.
The counting is just helping that focus a little.
We're not trying to block anything out we are allowing those thoughts to arise and when we get completely distracted by them when we're asking did I get to four or five or eight or we find ourselves counting to 17 we just reset to zero and start again.
Remember being kind to ourselves.
There's no goal no aiming for any particular number the count is simply a skillful way to anchor our attention and notice when we get distracted.
You might like to continue to practice with a count for the next few minutes or just let go of the counting and keep focusing concentrating on your movement of breath.
And then just for the last minute just release any focus on your breath remaining relaxed and present aware of whatever arises now in your awareness so we're simply being for the last minute.
Noticing how we feel after this short practice and taking a moment to appreciate this time that you've spent taking care of you and then slowly before the bell just notice again how you feel and then on the sound of the bells start moving and allowing these qualities of relaxation presence and awareness to integrate into the rest of your day.
You
