Mindfulness of breathing,
Being with difficult experience.
Before I guide you through this practice,
I'm going to talk for a moment to introduce the theme of being with difficult,
Unwanted,
Unpleasant experience.
When we experience difficulty,
Feeling anxious,
Resentful,
Fearful,
Frustrated,
Angry,
Stuck,
Or hopeless,
Intuitively and when we are not aware,
We want to push the difficult feeling away.
Trouble is,
It makes it worse.
What we resist tends to persist.
Let's say we want to get from where we currently are,
From perhaps feeling anxious and fearful to feeling calm and confident.
Have you ever tried not to feel anxious when you're feeling anxious?
Our very effort not to have an experience keeps us tied to it.
Instead of making efforts not to fear the anxiety or fear,
We simply need to fear the anxiety,
Explore the feelings in the body,
Be curious about them with an attitude of openness,
Kindness,
Warmth,
Care and compassion.
It's the very attitude we would bring to a loved one or friend who's having a tough time.
It's like putting an arm around our loved one or friend without needing to change or fix anything,
Just being alongside our friend or loved one.
By bringing compassionate,
Kindly awareness to unpleasant,
Difficult and challenging experiences,
And this can include physical pain,
The experience changes,
Even if only slightly.
When we bring a certain amount of awareness to a situation,
We also bring a certain amount of calm to it.
Rather than trying to get rid of the anxiety or fear,
A sense of calm,
Release,
Ease comes to us simply through the act of being mindful,
Through bringing kindly awareness to what's here.
So let's practice being with difficult experience.
So beginning by finding a comfortable position,
Finding a posture that feels supportive to you with your eyes open or closed,
And noticing what happens when we pause.
And what's here when we pause.
Bringing a kind,
Open,
Curious attitude to our experience.
Feeling the point of contact with the ground,
Really allowing the ground to be a resource for us,
Allowing the earth to hold us,
Holding the whole body.
The earth is always here,
Present,
Solid,
Non-judgmental,
Relaxing into the earth,
Noticing any sensations in the legs,
The feet,
Hips,
Buttocks,
Pelvis.
Wherever you can most feel sensations in the body right now,
This may be different for each one of us.
Allowing the upper body to rise up,
Lifting the heart.
The head is poised on top of the shoulders.
The face is soft.
Soft forehead,
Soft eyes,
Soft lips.
And now taking the awareness deep inside the breath,
Sensing the gentlerism of the breath in the body.
The breath is already here,
Breathing itself.
We don't have to do anything other than noticing the breath in the body.
If the breath feels activating for you,
You can find another anchor to ground your awareness in the body,
Such as the feet or your hands,
Whatever feels right for you.
To find connection with the body,
The present moment.
Keeping the attention on the breath,
Noticing the air flowing in and flowing out.
Staying with the flow of the breath and attending to how that is.
Allowing the breath to calm the mind.
But if you're sitting with a strong thought,
Emotion or even physical sensation just now,
With a sense of overwhelm,
Anxiety or tiredness,
See whether you can turn towards that now.
Inviting your awareness to that part of the body,
The difficult thoughts perhaps and the emotions that come with them.
Just sensing for what's here.
What is here that needs attending to?
What does it feel like in the body?
Getting curious about what's here with compassionate acceptance.
Perhaps there's a tightness or a pressure in the chest or a knot in the belly.
What do you notice?
And if whatever is here right now becomes more available to us,
And if we can allow ourselves to be curious about it without pushing it away or feeling overwhelmed by it,
We can explore whether we can breathe with it,
Be alongside it.
Meeting that part of ourselves that is in pain just now,
That feels sad perhaps or frustrated or anxious,
Stressed or lonely,
With a lot of love,
Compassion,
Warmth,
Tenderness,
Knowing that it is held in love,
Held by the ground,
The earth.
If you find yourself overwhelmed or confused,
Then come back to the ground,
The solidity of the earth beneath the feet,
And relaxing into the natural rhythm of the breath or noticing sensations in the feet or hands.
And when you're ready,
Coming back to being with what's here right now,
Breathing with,
Breathing in,
Being aware of whatever feels difficult,
Constrained in pain,
And breathing out kindness,
Love,
Tenderness towards this part.
It's the same attitude that we would bring to a loved one who's having a challenging time.
Being alongside what's here,
Allowing the golden wind of compassion to touch you,
Touch what feels difficult,
Breathing with,
Gently relaxing into what's here,
Without pushing it away or getting overwhelmed by it,
Being with,
Being alongside,
Just as you would sit next to someone you care about,
Being with,
Being alongside,
Just as you would sit next to someone you care about,
And now gently letting go of the effort we've been making,
Noticing the whole body breathing,
Being aware of what's here now,
Bodily sensations,
Emotions,
Thoughts,
Perhaps noticing what's different now,
If anything,
At the end of this practice.
And now in your own time,
Gently bringing this practice to a close in whatever way feels right for you,
Perhaps moving the feet,
Hands,
Giving the body a little stretch,
Taking a deep breath,
Gently opening your eyes if you had them closed,
Now
