Welcome.
Find a position that is relaxing and comfortable for you,
Perhaps sitting slightly forward so your back comes away from the back of the chair,
And allowing your spine to follow its natural curves and be self-supporting.
And relaxing your shoulders by letting them fall back and down,
Just letting go of them a little if you can,
And closing your eyes if that's okay,
Or having an unfixed gaze out in front of you.
And starting by noticing the sensations of where your body is in contact with the surface beneath you,
Those points of touch or pressure,
And the sensations of your soles,
Of your feet on the floor beneath you.
Maybe even getting a sense of feeling grounded.
And now gathering your attention and letting it settle on the movement of the breath,
The constantly changing patterns of sensation as you breathe in and out.
Simply noticing where you feel the breath most vividly in the body.
This might be your nose,
The back of your throat,
In the chest area,
The lungs,
The belly,
Or somewhere else.
Just observing this natural flow for a few moments as you breathe in and out.
And now,
If you're not focusing there already,
Moving your attention to focus on the belly and the sensations of breath in the belly.
Noticing the stretching of the skin on the in-breath and a sense of gentle release on the out-breath.
We're not trying to change the breath in any way,
Just letting the breath breathe itself in a natural flow like it always does.
You may find it helpful to place your hand on the belly to feel the movement.
Just seeing if it's possible to feel the sensations of breathing all the way in through each in-breath and all the way out through each out-breath.
And you may notice that it's not easy to keep your mind focused on the breath.
And sooner or later,
Your mind might start to wander off into thoughts.
And so just being kind to yourself and just remembering that this is completely normal,
It's just the nature of our minds.
And so with a sense of warmth and kindness,
We can simply acknowledge that the mind has wandered off.
Just noticing the thoughts,
Not trying to push them away,
Just noticing them and letting them go in their own time.
And then just gently returning your awareness to following the sensations of breath in the belly.
No matter how much the mind wanders,
The breath is always there to return to,
An anchor to bring you back to the here and now.
And when you're ready,
Allowing your field of awareness to expand around the breath in the belly,
To take into account the whole body breathing,
Helping you to become aware of all the sensations throughout the whole of the body,
Wherever they are,
All the way out to the surface of the skin.
Noticing how the breath moves the body,
Feeling a lift and an opening as you breathe in,
And a gentle contracting and releasing as you breathe out.
Observing the sensations on the surface of the skin,
And perhaps getting a sense of the air moving across the skin.
And getting a sense of the whole body as you sit here.
The sensations of your sitting bones on the seat of the chair,
Sensations of your hands wrestling your thighs or on each other,
Sensations of your feet perhaps in contact with the floor,
Any sensations of touch,
Pressure,
Or warmth.
Awareness filling the whole body,
Bathing the body in awareness.
Perhaps noticing how sensations arise and then disappear or change into something else.
At a certain point,
You might like to change the focus of your attention,
Sometimes zooming the lens of attention in close to certain sensations in a particular part of the body,
Exploring them and coming up close,
And at other times zooming out to hold the whole body in a broad,
Spacious awareness.
When you are sitting for longer periods like this,
It is not unusual for intense sensations or discomfort to arise in your body.
And if this happens,
You can choose how best to respond.
You might want to shift your posture intentionally to become more comfortable,
Just being aware of the movements as you adjust and the after effects.
Or perhaps you might want to explore and investigate the area of intense sensations.
Do they move around the body?
Do they become more intense when you focus on them?
If at any point you feel overwhelmed,
You can always return to observing the sensations of your body as a whole,
Sitting here,
Breathing.
And now widening the attention again,
Becoming aware of the body as a whole,
And of the constantly shifting patterns of sensations within it,
Sensing the ebb and the flow of sensations as life flows through you.
And if strong sensations arise,
Just seeing if it's possible to gently hold them within the bigger pattern of sensations,
As if you're cradling all sensations of the body in a broad,
Spacious,
All-inclusive awareness.
And as we gently bring this practice to a close,
Just starting to gently move your awareness to the physical sensations of where your body is in contact with the chair or the surface beneath you,
Noticing the sensations of the feet in contact with the floor.
And if your eyes are closed,
Just gently starting to open them now as you bring this practice to an end.
Have a wonderfully mindful day.
