Hello and welcome to The Daily Insight.
My name is Vidyamala Birch and today's meditation is going to concentrate on cultivating deep embodied breath awareness.
If we're inside the body,
Aware of sensations in the body,
We can't be lost in thinking at exactly the same moment.
So coming inside the body deeply,
In particular being aware of the movements and sensations of breathing in the body,
It's a really good way to cut through habits of rumination,
Distraction and getting lost.
So to begin with,
Allowing the body to settle into the position that you've chosen.
You can do the practice sitting on a chair,
Sitting on a meditation stool or cushion or lying down on the floor or your bed.
It's completely up to you.
Whatever is going to be most comfortable and yet enable you to stay awake and alert.
So once you've chosen your position,
Then really giving your weight up to the surface that you're resting upon,
Sitting upon.
Seeing if you can give the whole weight of the body up to gravity and to rest down into the points of contact.
Allow yourself to be fully supported.
And now gradually gathering your awareness deeply inside the body,
Inside the belly,
Inside the abdomen and resting inside the movements and sensations of breathing in this whole soft front of the body.
The area between the pelvis at the bottom and the ribs at the top.
Feeling inside breathing,
Noticing the way the belly swells on the in-breath,
Subsides on the out-breath.
There's no need to alter your breathing,
Just allowing it to be natural to find its own rhythm.
Every time your mind wanders,
Noticing this and then inviting your awareness back inside the belly.
Again and again and again.
Seeing if you can feel the movements inside the body as well as on the surface of the body.
Now resting awareness in the buttocks,
Allowing them to rest fully on the bed or the chair.
And now inviting awareness up into the lower back,
The whole area between the buttocks at the bottom and the back of the waist at the top.
And what can you feel inside your lower back as you breathe?
Maybe there's some kind of broadening on the in-breath,
Subsiding on the out-breath.
Maybe the shape is changing on the in-breath and the out-breath.
But noticing the effect of breathing into the lower back,
Sometimes this can be calming and soothing.
If you've got any discomfort,
Being careful not to tense against it but to allow the breathing to soothe the hard edges of contraction,
Of tightness,
Of tension and to soften.
And now inviting awareness inside the whole upper back,
Back of the ribs,
The back of the lungs,
The shoulder blades,
The whole spine.
Allowing breathing to express itself fully in this area.
There's as much happening in the upper back as there is in the chest.
Normally we're not very aware of this but back breathing is naturally calming and soothing.
Now broadening to be aware of the whole back of the body.
The whole back being cradled and rocked by breathing,
Soothed by breathing.
And now coming through to the chest area,
The front of the body.
Movements of breathing in the ribs and the lungs,
The sternum rising and falling.
Feeling breathing inside the chest and on the surface of the chest.
And now broadening to be aware of the whole torso.
Noticing the way the whole volume of the torso expands on the in-breath in all directions,
Subsides on the out-breath in all directions.
Seeing if you can allow breathing to flow inside the whole torso.
And if your mind keeps wandering off.
And the practice is to keep catching it,
To notice this and then simply invite it back inside breathing in the body.
Maybe you have to do this a hundred times,
That's fine,
That is the training.
Using body awareness as an anchor for the mind again and again.
Allowing awareness to pour into the shoulders on either side.
Maybe feeling breathing inside the shoulders.
And then allowing awareness to pour down the arms.
The upper arms,
Feeling sensations in the upper arms.
The elbows,
The lower arms.
The wrists,
The hands,
The fingers,
Both arms all together.
How's breathing showing up in the arms?
Maybe there's a very subtle sense of broadening on the in-breath,
Subsiding on the out-breath inside the arms.
It's like there's a big movement in the torso and it's spilling,
Echoing down through the arms.
Coming back up through the arms,
Through the shoulders,
The collarbones.
And up into the neck,
The back,
The front sides of the neck.
Base of the skull,
The head.
We're lying down,
Checking that we're giving the weight of the head up fully.
The cushion,
The pillow.
If we're upright,
Checking alignment of the head.
That it's not tipping backwards or forwards or side to side,
But it's poised on top of the neck.
Allowing awareness to pour into the whole face.
Forehead,
Eyes,
Cheeks,
Lips,
Jaw,
Tongue.
Allowing the area at the base of the tongue,
The back of the mouth to be soft,
So the air can flow freely with each in-breath,
Each out-breath.
And now inviting awareness right down through the body to come to rest in the hips.
And if you're breathing inside the hips at all.
And then allowing our awareness to pour down into the legs,
The thighs,
Back,
Front sides,
Inside,
Surface,
The knees,
The lower legs,
Ankles,
The soles of the feet and the top of the feet and the tentacles.
Is breathing showing up at all inside the legs?
And now broadening awareness to be aware of the whole body.
Legs,
Torso,
Arms,
Neck,
Head,
Face.
The whole body being breathed.
Allowing the whole body to broaden a little bit in all directions on the in-breath and subside a little bit in all directions on the out-breath.
360 degree breathing.
Effortless,
Not doing anything,
The body knows how to breathe.
But we're resting our awareness right inside this fully embodied experience of breathing as an anchor for the mind.
Coming back inside breathing again and again,
Every time we notice that we've wandered.
And as we begin to bring the practice to a close,
We can move the body a little bit,
Perhaps stretch,
Seeing if we can keep breathing soft,
Open,
Responsive.
And as we come into bigger movements,
Being careful how we move,
Being careful not to strain the body and forming an intention to take this quality of embodied awareness with us as we engage with the rest of the day.
And I hope you have a great day.
