Find the most comfortable position for you and gradually slow down your breathing.
You might find it useful to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Just a sense of being intentional,
Gentle,
Slow and relaxed.
Breathe into the belly,
Imagining there is a balloon just behind the belly button.
Just inflate this balloon gradually,
Allow the belly to expand.
You might find a slight pause at the fullest inhale before a slow,
Gradual,
Gentle exhale.
Notice just how slow the breath can become.
You might find it useful to count slowly as you breathe in and breathe out.
And just see if you can increase the length of time that it takes to inhale fully and then exhale fully.
Continue to breathe as slow and as deep as possible throughout this meditation.
Notice as the body begins to relax and soften,
The mind can become jumpy as though it's resisting this relaxation.
And don't be frustrated if you find that the mind is still chattering.
This is just the mind doing what it does out of habit.
Simply continue to focus on gentle,
Deep,
Slow breathing and allow the body to relax fully.
We'll continue to try and stay busy and remain locked in its usual doing mode.
But as you continue to breathe and be aware of the sensations of breathing and the sensations of the body relaxing,
You will naturally bring your awareness into being mode.
And once established in being,
The mind will quieten and fall silent.
If you find from time to time that despite your best effort to keep your attention on the sensations of breathing,
You still find that your mind has wandered,
Lost on trains of thought,
Do not be frustrated by this.
Simply return to the sensations of breathing.
Remain focused and attentive to the breath and the body and allow your entire system to just rest in this sense of being.
The mind will offer up many thoughts and images to try and tempt you into getting involved and re-engaging with this doing mode.
But simply disengage from the mind now.
Consider the mind to be irrelevant,
Unimportant.
There is no need for any further thinking now.
Just breathe.
Be aware of the sensations of breathing.
Be aware of the sensations of the body,
Gently relaxing,
Slowing down.
All of the situations and circumstances that usually play on the mind,
Just let go of these now.
They are not present here.
In this present moment,
There is only the sensations of the breath,
Slowly rising and falling in the body.
Can you slow the breath even further?
Can you expand that balloon in the stomach all the way and exhale all the way?
Slow,
Gentle,
Focus,
Being.
Notice that the body tends to hold itself quite tightly in certain areas.
So just bring your awareness to any tension in the felt experience of the body,
Any areas a little stiff or dense.
Often,
Residual worry and stress stores in the body.
It can feel as though the body is like a clenched fist.
Recognize that the releasing of a clenched fist is not an action,
It's not a doing.
It's actually the ceasing of a previous action,
A letting go.
So let go of the body.
Let it fall away into its natural state.
Release the body back to a pure sense of being.
Unbind the body from its usual habit of doing.
Consider the agitation and restlessness in the body to be like a kind of momentum that has built up over the course of the day.
Simply disengage from this momentum and the body naturally winds down.
The energy begins to subside naturally.
So simply focusing on the sensations of breathing and with a gentle,
Relaxed focus,
Just bring conscious awareness to any tightness,
Tension,
Agitation in the body and let go.
Release,
Release.
You might find the body seems to resist this.
Just as it begins to relax,
It might tighten back up again.
This is curious,
Strange.
Just notice that this happens and continue to relax.
This is a non-action,
The releasing of a previous habit.
Relaxation is the return to a natural state of being.
Simply cooperate with this natural state.
The body and mind ultimately wants to relax.
So simply cooperate with this natural intention towards relaxing into being.
Breathing as slow as possible now.
All the way in,
All the way out.
No thinking is required,
No action is required.
There is nothing to be done.
There is nowhere to go.
There is nobody you have to be.
There are no situations to be involved in.
The present moment is not a circumstance or a story.
It simply is what is.
And release yourself back to this natural state of being.
