We can talk about being present,
Remaining present,
Recapturing presence.
It's useful to even have a sense of what presence is.
It might be something that we aspire to that's not a realistic goal.
True presence would be to simply be taking in all the information without needing to judge it or to categorize it.
Maybe that's a state that we can aspire to sometimes,
But not entirely useful moment-by-moment,
Day-to-day.
So when we talk about being present,
We're really talking about showing up one step or two steps more awake than we are.
Not being completely enmeshed in our thinking about what's going on in this moment,
And rather being aware of our thinking in this moment,
Being aware of our judgments,
Our preferences,
And allowing those to all be with us but not overtake us.
So that we can notice all our biases,
We can notice our likes and our dislikes,
We can notice what we think that other person is saying to us,
But we can also then open the lens a little wider,
Taking a little bit more information for the possibility of being and feeling and recognizing things differently than we normally do.
And this is where we look to capture or to arrive at,
To be with in meditation.
At the very least,
That place where we can separate for a moment from just being in the thought stream to being aware of it.
And we do this by taking our attention,
Putting it somewhere.
When we put our attention on the breath and we move it down into the abdomen,
We not only pull our attention away from our thinking,
But we also utilize the body to adjust the nervous system so that our body can start to calm,
Relax,
Open.
As we move a breath from the chest down into the belly,
Letting that belly expand,
We give the signal that we're safe in this moment,
Which allows us to close our eyes,
Go inside safely without worry of being bothered or without feeling unsafe.
And this allows us to pull away from all of that defensive posture that we generally do automatically while we're awake and alert.
So as we breathe,
We can also just start noticing.
Bring that noticing part of us to the breath,
Looking for information about the breath.
Information comes through the senses.
So what does this breath feel like?
What does it sound like?
If I could visualize it,
What would it look like?
Taking each breath in slowly to the belly,
Filling up the chest,
Releasing that breath out slowly but fully,
Keeping the attention on the breath and the sensations.
When you notice yourself,
You'll recognize you can only pay attention to one input at a time.
We often think we can take in multiple streams at the same time.
But really,
There's a point of focus that is on one.
And so you might,
In a moment,
Listen to the breath.
In another moment,
You're feeling deeply the contours of the breath.
And in another,
Visualizing,
Imagining what a breath looks like.
As long as we're keeping our attention on one of these aspects of the breath,
We can't also pay attention to thinking.
But that generally finds its way to taking our attention as well.
So here,
Notice that you can go from paying attention to the breath to paying attention to thinking and back to the breath.
Eventually,
Leaving thinking to the side,
Behind,
Wherever it needs to go.
Thinking is just another input.
Allow it to be just like the feeling of the breath or the sound of the breath.
There's the thinking.
Sometimes we can utilize the thinking by bringing in the breath with ideas.
In with the breath comes inspiration.
Comes a new moment of aliveness.
In comes the oxygen,
The chi.
All that gives us the opportunity for another moment.
Whatever we take in,
We take what is useful and nutritious,
Nourishing.
And then we let go of the rest.
All that would build up in our system and become toxic.
And we let that go with the out breath.
So allowing that breath to come in fully into the belly and into the chest.
Reach its limit and then breathing out.
And now allowing for that out breath to elongate as far as possible longer than the in breath.
At the end,
Pulling in and up the abdominal muscles and diaphragm.
Squeeze out anything at the end.
So that we can feel,
We can notice this idea of being ready for the next breath.
Feel that need,
Feel that basic impulse.
And then after the in breath,
Filling up all the way.
Reaching capacity all through the abdomen and chest and holding the breath.
For some seconds noticing the buildup,
The desire to let go.
And then releasing that out.
And then we can add on the,
After the end of the out breath,
To just hold the breath for some seconds.
Before you take that breath back in and really appreciate,
Receive that new nourishment.
That keeps us alive,
Keeps us here,
Keeps us vital.
And after the next out breath,
Just letting go.
Letting the body take back the breath.
Breathe naturally,
Breathe you.
Allow the awareness just to be noticing.
Without being connected,
Without being identified,
Without having any reason to hold onto any of the sensations,
The thoughts.
To just be putting the attention back on the breath.
Getting ready for three deeper,
Quicker breaths to bring us back.
Full breath in and just letting go.
Noticing the feelings,
Sensations in the body.
Feeling into the hands and the feet,
The fingers and the toes.
Gently opening the eyes,
Taking in space gently,
Softly.
Bringing this quiet sense of openness to the rest of the day.
