In this meditation,
We're going to explore the three points of contact in which you can begin to observe your natural breathing.
So let's begin by breathing in and out through the nose.
Gentle,
Natural breaths.
As you breathe,
Start to pay attention to the way the breath feels as you inhale and as you exhale.
You can observe the very subtle sensations at the circular areas of the nostrils,
The way the breath brushes up against those areas.
You can feel the breath as it travels through the nasal cavity.
You might be able to observe how the breath is slightly cooler on the inhale and warmer on the exhale.
And perhaps you can sense the way the breath feels as it gently brushes up against the triangular region right below the nose and right above the upper lip.
These sensations are very,
Very subtle and so it allows us to deepen our focus and concentration when we can notice these very gentle,
Subtle sensations.
And now we're going to shift our focus to the chest.
So bringing your awareness into the chest area and start to observe what you feel as you breathe in and out.
You'll notice the gentle rise and fall of the chest with each inhale and exhale.
You'll notice the movement of your ribcage as you breathe.
You might even notice a very subtle sensation of aliveness or energy around the heart.
Again,
This is an area in which you can start to deepen your awareness.
How does the breath feel at the level of the chest?
And now we're going to deepen our breath a little bit more as we engage the diaphragm and the belly.
So in the next few breaths,
Deepen your inhale so that your belly expands out and on the exhale,
Collapse the belly inward.
So in this awareness,
You're paying attention to the movement of the belly up and down.
You might imagine a balloon inside your belly and when you breathe into the balloon,
It expands.
And so when you inhale,
Your belly expands out and when you exhale,
The belly collapses.
So really you're using your core,
You're using your abdominal muscles to push and pull to drag that air in deep in that breath on the inhale and then push all of the air out on the exhale.
You can feel your abdominal muscles being engaged.
You can feel that deepening of the breath to the lower parts of the lungs.
And so this is where we can begin to explore the sensation of breath in your meditation practice at the level of the nose,
At the level of the chest,
And at the level of the belly.
Feel free to navigate through these different areas.
Allow the mind and your focus to really pay attention to whatever is arising,
Whatever you are noticing,
And really allow that breath to be the anchor in your meditation practice.
