Mindfulness Of Breath And Sound

All right,

So find your posture and choose a posture that you can stay still in for nine minutes more.

And then if it helps the mind to not be distracted,

Close the eyes,

Especially if you have a screen in front of you.

Close the eyes or just lower them three quarters of the way down and unfocus them.

And then let's just pick the breath for today rather than having a lot of choices to deal with.

Let's pick the breath,

Pick the breath,

But if the breath does not feel like a safe object for your awareness,

Then you can shift to sound,

But I'm going to give instructions for the breath.

So begin to notice the breath as it's flowing in and out of the body,

The actual physical sensation of breathing.

And maybe it's easiest for you to notice that as the air flows in and out of the nostrils.

Or maybe an easier place for you is to sense the chest rising and falling or the belly filling and emptying.

So I guess there is a choice here,

So pick one of those three.

And then just with the kindest invitation,

Like your very best friend said,

I'd love to take you out to lunch.

Just with the kindest invitation,

Invite the attention to that physical place in the body where the breath is easiest to attend to.

And then just pay attention as the breath flows in and out.

And unless the mind happens to be very,

Very steady today,

It's going to wander and no problem.

Just when you notice that,

Just come back to the breath.

If the mind is very steady today,

Then that's wonderful.

And if the mind isn't particularly steady,

That's also wonderful.

It's all in the noticing,

Just noticing and then making the choice to come back to the breath.

And one element of posture that can help with that is a smile.

So doing this with a light heart.