Awareness of Breath and Body Guided Meditation.
This guided meditation on the breath and body will help you learn to simply be and to look within yourself with mindfulness and equanimity.
Allow yourself to switch from the usual mode of doing to a mode of non-doing,
Of simply being.
Taking some time to find your seat,
Either in a straight back chair or on a cushion.
Making the adjustments that you need to make to be comfortable and supported.
As you're ready,
Allow your body to become still.
Bring your attention to the fact that you are breathing.
Notice where you feel the breath most vividly in your body.
Becoming aware of the movement of your breath as it comes into your body and as it leaves your body.
Not manipulating the breath in any way or trying to change it.
Simply being aware of it and feeling the breath as it is moment to moment.
You may observe the breath deep down in your belly.
Perhaps the feeling of the abdomen as it expands gently on the in-breath and falls back towards the spine on the out-breath.
Perhaps sensing and feeling the breath at the tip of the nostrils.
Being totally here in each moment with each breath.
Not trying to do anything.
Not trying to get any place.
Simply being with your breath.
Giving full care and attention to each in-breath and each out-breath as they flow one after the other like waves in the ocean.
Each different,
Each unique.
Coming and going in a never-ending cycle and flow.
As you sit in stillness attending to the breath,
You will find that from time to time your mind will wander off into thoughts.
When you notice that your attention is no longer here and no longer with your breathing.
Without judging yourself,
Bring your attention back to your breathing and ride the waves of your breath.
Fully conscious of the duration of each breath from moment to moment.
Every time you find your mind wandering off of the breath,
Gently bringing it back to the present.
Back to the moment to moment.
Observing of the flow of your breathing.
Using your breath as an anchor to focus your attention.
To bring you back to the present.
Whenever you notice that your mind is becoming absorbed or reactive,
Use the breath to help you tune into a state of relaxed awareness and stillness.
As you absorb your breathing,
You may find from time to time sensations in your body become present.
You become aware of these sensations.
Absorbing in the breath and aware of sensations in your body.
As you maintain awareness of your breathing,
See if it's possible to expand the field of your awareness so that it also includes a sense of your body as a whole as you sit here.
Feeling and sensing into your body from head to toe and becoming aware of all of the sensations in your body.
So now not only absorbed in the flow of the breath,
But the sense of your body as a whole.
Being here with whatever feelings and sensations come up in any moment without judging them,
Without reacting to them.
Just being fully here,
Fully aware of this alive breathing body.
And again,
Whenever you notice that the mind is wandering off,
Just bringing it back to your breathing and to your body as a whole.
Sitting here,
Not going anywhere,
Not doing anything.
Simply being,
Simply sitting,
Moment to moment,
Fully present,
Fully with the wholeness of yourself.
Re-establishing your awareness on the body as a whole and on the breath as it moves in and out of your body.
Coming back to a sense of fullness of each in breath and the fullness of each out breath.
If you find yourself at any point drawn into a stream of thinking and you notice that you're no longer observing the breath,
Use the breath and the sense of your body to anchor back to the present moment.
Nothing to get,
Nothing to get rid of,
Just as you are.
Being with your breathing from moment to moment,
Sitting in stillness,
Looking for nothing and being present to all,
Just as it is,
Just as it unfolds.
Just slowly approach your breath and say,
Yes for now.
.
.
.
As this practice comes to an end,
You might give yourself credit for having spent this time nourishing yourself in a deep way by dwelling in the state of non-doing,
In the state of being.
These moments are rare.
Thanking yourself for taking the time to intentionally pay attention to this breath in this body.
As you move back into the world,
Allow the benefits of this practice to expand into every aspect of your life.
.
