AWARENESS OF BREATH meditation You can practice this meditation sitting on a chair or a meditation cushion,
With your back straight,
Head up,
Releasing your shoulders and placing your hands in the lap or on your knees.
You may close your eyes or lower your gaze.
Taking a couple of breaths,
Breathing in and breathing out.
There is no need to manipulate your breath,
Just breathe normally as you do right now.
You might find a spot in your body where you can observe your breath the best.
Maybe in the mouth,
In the nostrils or in the chest or in your belly.
Finding your spot and bringing awareness there.
Observing the in-breath and the out-breath.
Observing the in-breath for the whole duration of the in-breath.
And observing the out-breath for the whole duration of the out-breath.
After some time you may realize that your mind is not in the present moment anymore.
It has wandered somewhere,
Maybe to the past and you are evaluating what happened yesterday or you may be planning for the future.
That's fine,
No worries about that,
But as soon as you realize that,
Try gently but firmly coming back to the present moment by observing the breath.
Using your breath as an anchor to stay in the present moment.
Where is your mind right now?
After some time as we are sitting here,
You may observe some physical sensations,
Maybe unpleasant,
Maybe tension or pain or urge to move and change your body posture.
And you realize that you have options what to do.
We can sit still without any movement,
Bringing attention to the particular part of our body where we feel the pain or tension.
Trying to bring fresh air by breathing in that particular part of our body.
And by breathing out,
Imagining that by every breath we are breathing out portion of that tension or pain.
Or if the bodily sensations are strong and unpleasant,
We don't need to suffer,
We may change our posture.
Let's just do it mindfully.
Observe the thoughts in our head as we decide to adjust our posture.
Observe the movement and then sit still and bring the awareness back to the breath.
Every time there will be some pain or tension arising,
We know that we have options what to do.
And we can choose if to sit still or adjust our posture.
Where is our mind right now?
And as our practice is going to its end,
Taking a couple more breaths.
And when you will be ready,
You may slowly open your eyes.
