Please make yourself as comfortable as possible,
Sitting on your chair,
Your stool or your cushion.
And remember that if you're sitting on a chair,
Coming away from the back of the chair as much as you can,
So that your body can be self-supporting.
Sitting in an upright position,
Head balanced on shoulders,
Arms and hands resting on your knees or in your lap,
In a posture that embodies a sense of alertness,
A sense of presence.
You can close your eyes or you can keep your eyes open,
Looking at a point just in front of you and keep your eyes soft.
Now take a moment to settle yourself and as you sit,
Just noticing the sensations of the breath,
Noticing the movement of air through your nostrils.
Or maybe you feel the breath on your upper lip,
You may feel a slight movement of the chest and shoulders.
Or perhaps you feel the movement of air best in how your abdomen moves on each in-breath and again on each out-breath.
Then focus on how the abdomen lifts a little upwards when you inhale and goes down again at the exhale.
Just bring your awareness to the cycle of your breath and wherever it is the most vivid,
Whether it be the movement of air through your nostrils,
Your chest or your shoulders,
Or your belly.
Noticing the full breath,
From the movement of the air coming in and filling the lungs and extending the abdomen slightly,
The movement of air going out,
And being aware of the pause,
The stopping point,
In between the in-breath and the out-breath,
And then again the pause between the out-breath and the next in-breath,
Not thinking about the breath,
But being with it as best you can,
Focusing your awareness,
A very full and gentle awareness on all sensations that arise as you breathe in,
The sensations of the abdomen falling away on the out-breath,
Perhaps noticing the pause between the in-breath and the out-breath,
For the next few breaths,
Perhaps focusing especially on the sensations as you breathe in,
Remaining open to all sensations there may be,
And then perhaps,
The next few breaths,
Focusing especially on the out-breath,
What sensations arise as the abdomen falls away as you breathe out,
Now putting them both together,
And align your awareness to be fully on the whole movement of the breath,
For the full duration of each in-breath and the full duration of each out-breath,
Using the breath as an anchor,
To bring you back to the present moment,
Each time that you find your mind has wandered onto thinking,
Planning,
Memories,
Whatever,
Whenever you find your mind has wandered,
Coming back to the present moment,
And perhaps congratulating yourself for having come back into the present moment,
Maybe noticing where your mind has gone,
And then very gently bringing your attention back to the breath,
And doing this as many times as it takes,
So if your mind wanders a hundred times,
Then it's just like the first time,
Simply bringing your mind back to your breathing,
And beginning again,
And using the silence now to practice on your own,
Just this breath coming in,
Just this breath going out,
Noticing each in-breath as a new beginning,
And each out-breath a letting go,
A letting be,
And simply remembering that we're not trying to get anywhere,
Not even trying to relax,
Not trying to get rid of thoughts from our mind,
Not trying to see thinking as the enemy,
But simply to rest in the stillness of being,
Here and now,
With whatever arises.
When our minds wander,
We simply as best we can become aware of it,
And gently bring our minds back to our breathing,
Not because we've made a mistake,
But because this is what we're doing,
Sitting,
And becoming aware of whatever comes up.
The mind will wander,
And what we are doing here is looking deeply into the patterns of the mind,
Allowing the mind to be just as it is,
Rather than trying to make it be a certain way.
And now expanding the focus of your awareness around your breathing,
To the body as a whole,
As it sits here in this posture,
Awareness of the sensations of breathing,
But also other sensations that may be rising in your body.
You may be aware of the sensations of touch under your feet,
Or hands,
On your knees,
Or in your lap,
Sensations of touch where your thighs and buttocks are on the chair,
Or stool,
Or cushion.
There may be other sensations arising in the body,
Holding them all in awareness,
Awareness of the space that your body takes up,
And the space around the body,
And the boundary between these two spaces,
The skin.
So it is as if your whole body was breathing,
Awareness now of your whole body as it sits here breathing,
A sense of openness to all sensations that are rising in the body,
Not wanting the body to be a certain way,
Not trying to achieve a special state,
Simply tuning in to how the body is right now,
This moment,
And this moment,
And this moment.
Now for the last few moments of this sitting,
Bringing your attention back to focus on your breathing in the abdomen,
In the belly,
Tuning in to all sensations on this in-breath and this out-breath,
And remembering that the breath is available to you at any moment of your day,
To allow you to feel grounded,
A sense of balance and awareness,
Of accepting yourself just as you are,
In each moment.
