Welcome,
We'll be doing a practice meditating on our own breath.
That will be our point of concentration.
Make sure you're comfortable and you're either sitting on the floor,
Maybe you're propped up a little with your legs crossed if that's comfortable so that your spine can be in its neutral curves.
Another possibility is you're sitting in a chair with your feet on the floor would be excellent position for this.
And again,
Your spine long so not necessarily leaning back on anything unless it is uncomfortable to do so and then maybe a bolster or pillows behind you to make yourself more comfortable.
And our third option is to lie on the floor on our backs,
Knees bent or straight is fine,
Could bolster your knees.
Maybe with your hands gently resting on your abdomen somewhere would be great but they don't have to be.
So pick one of those positions and then once you're comfortable we're going to decide what to do with our gaze.
So two options,
One is closing the eyes so you could try that and if you find that having your eyes closed makes it so thoughts flood in to your mental space and make it difficult to do the practice,
The other option would be to have your eyes just slightly open with a very gentle kind of soft gaze so not really focusing on anything but allowing some of the light of the room to come in and that might slow down your thoughts.
So those are your options,
Eyes closed or slightly opened.
And we're going to start this meditation by taking some purposeful breaths.
So whatever position you're in we're going to take some belly breaths.
So we're going to inhale,
Relax the belly,
Feel the breath come into the belly and then exhale we're going to pull the belly in and let all the air come out and take a full exhale.
Breathe out your nose if that's easy and if there's any problem with that just breathe out your mouth that's fine too.
So an inhale the belly expands a little and an exhale the belly contracts and please take a few of those breaths on your own.
One more breath in feeling the belly expand if your hands are on your belly you'll feel them move and then a purposeful contraction all the air comes out and then once all the air is out please let your breath go and we're going to place our attention into our abdominal area.
So that whole area where your hands maybe are touching notice your abdomen without doing anything special notice your breath moving in and out of your body and you might notice your hands moving a little bit away from each other or rising you'll feel your abdomen rising on the inhale and then probably pretty subtle but you'll feel them coming towards each other your abdomen gently contracting on the exhale or not expanding.
So naturally without doing anything notice your inhalation and notice your exhalation and that's what we'll be working on.
So we're relaxed and as we inhale you might want to say to yourself I'm inhaling and as you feel yourself exhale without controlling it just noticing the breath come out I'm exhaling and this breath will become more and more subtle as you relax.
So the breath is slower and more subtle and that's normal and there's no need to do anything about it.
Breath comes in naturally,
Breath goes out naturally.
You may feel yourself controlling your breath or maybe getting lost in thoughts and sort of losing this natural observation of the inhale and exhale and that's just fine just gently move your attention back to your breath moving in and out on its own without any need to control it.
Knowing that it's normal and natural to lose track of your breath and to have thoughts our goal here is simply to bring our mind gently back to the breath and notice what it does while we just sit or lie here.
We're going to do that on our own for a few minutes.
As the mind moves away from the breath we just gently bring it back no problem.
I'm breathing in,
I'm breathing out.
Now we're going to allow ourselves to take slightly deeper breaths again.
Feel yourself purposely breathe in and the belly expand and purposely breathe out and the belly contracts.
Inhaling and exhaling.
Allow a slight smile to come to your face as you feel yourself breathe in.
Fully experience that breath and then fully experience your exhale.
I'm breathing out.
Allow your mind to rest on these purposeful breaths in and out.
I'm breathing in,
I'm breathing out.
And one last full complete exhalation.
Let your breath go completely.
Bring your hands together in front of your heart if you're sitting or right hand over left with your right hand on your heart if you're lying down.
And we'll acknowledge the gift of this moment and our own breath.
Namaste.
