Resting Attention With The Breath

Zeus and Sirius Okay,

So settling into your mind,

Your posture,

And finding a posture that's upright enough for you to pay attention to your experience,

But also so that there's a sense of ease in the body.

And then as much as you can,

Letting all the cares and concerns,

Plans,

Stresses of the outside world,

Just let those melt into the background.

We can attend to that stuff later.

And for now,

Bringing your present moment attention into this neighborhood where we are.

And then inviting your attention into this building.

And inviting your attention into this room,

And into the circle of your colleagues,

Allies.

And then resting your attention with an anchor in your body.

For many of us,

The breath is convenient,

Helpful.

For others,

It may be sound,

Maybe the contact between your feet and the floor,

Or the sensations in your hands.

If you're working with the breath and embracing the inhale as it is,

Choppy,

Short,

Smooth,

Allowing it to be as it is on the inhale.

And on the exhale,

There may be a sense of softening,

Letting go around any stress or holding or expectation.

Attention inevitably will wander away.

And rather than beating ourselves up about that,

Just noticing with kindness and a really good sense of humor,

Knowing what's happening.

And then if it feels helpful,

Letting it go and inviting your attention here.

This breath,

This body,

This moment.

And then if you're working with the breath for the last few moments,

You might experiment with me by expanding out your awareness and including the whole body and noticing how the breath moves through the whole body.

Whole body breathing in,

Whole body breathing out.

Whole body full of awareness.

Whole body wide awake,

Whole body at ease.

And then you might even let go of the anchor of the breath and just rest with an open awareness of things as they are.