2.
Connecting with the breath Begin by finding a comfortable posture and by bringing your awareness to the breath.
Take a few moments to let yourself arrive and allow the breath to draw you gently into internal awareness.
Allow the gaze to soften,
The eyes to close.
Inhale and exhale naturally through the nose.
Bring your full attention to the sensations of the breath.
Allow the breath to be exactly as it is,
There is no need to change it in any way.
Feel the air moving over your nostrils as it begins its journey into the body.
Can you sense the movement of air,
A change in temperature,
An increase in pressure?
Focus on these minute sensations and allow your curiosity to draw you into your own experience.
Next,
The breath travels up into the nose before changing direction and moving down the airways into the lungs.
Follow the breath until you can feel exactly where the air changes direction.
For a few breaths,
Just allow this point to be the focus of your awareness.
What do you feel?
As the air falls down into the body,
Experience the lungs expanding,
Filling and then releasing.
On each subsequent complete breath,
Travel all the way in and all the way out.
Pay attention to the four phases of the breath.
Inhalation,
Pause,
Exhalation,
Pause.
See if you can notice all four.
Take five breaths here.
Focus on each of the four parts in turn and notice how they differ.
Notice too how each whole breath is unique and slightly different from the one before.
Follow the individual rhythm of each breath.
For the next breath,
We're going to follow the exhalation up from the lungs into the nose and out through the nostrils.
Noticing how the breath connects our internal and external worlds.
We draw the breath from the external environment into our internal environment,
The body.
And then it returns in the opposite direction back into the external world.
And that is why the breath is such a wonderful focus of contemplation and mindfulness practice.
Because it leads us directly into our internal experience.
It is ever present and ever available.
With five final breaths,
We're gradually going to return to wakefulness and bring our practice to a close.
And just before you open your eyes,
Just take stock.
Is your breathing different to your breathing at the beginning of the practice?
If so,
How has it changed?
And then in your very own time,
Allow the eyes to open.
That was number two,
Connecting with the breath.
Thank yourself for finding time for this practice.
And don't forget to record your reflections in your mindfulness journal.
