Deep Stillness - 15 Minutes

In this meditation,

I'm going to ask you to follow your breathing and then to also try and connect with the empty breath which is the small still point which you might be able to notice just after you exhale and before you inhale so to begin with sit with a straight back with an alert posture but also relaxed if you can gently close your eyes and take a few deep in breaths through the nose and then breathing out through the mouth breathing in and breathing out in through the nose out through the mouth filling the lungs and letting go out and then just closing your mouth and breathing through the nose for the remainder of the session so feel the heaviness of your body noticing the points of connection between your feet and the floor and your legs and the chair and noticing how gravity just gently pulls you down towards the ground and then just take a few moments to listen out for any sounds that might be present in the room right now not trying to focus on any particular sound not trying to push away any sounds that might seem to be distracting just allowing hearing to unfold exactly as it is dropping your focus on hearing I now invite you just to start becoming aware of the sensations of the breath in your body noticing the feelings of expansion on the inhale and then contraction on the exhale or rising on the inhale and falling on the exhale for this particular practice it's best to focus on your breathing in the torso and specifically in the chest or at the belly area whichever feels most comfortable for you so so not trying to control your breath in any way just allowing the breath to unfold naturally so and as you breathe in and breathe out see if you can start to notice the empty breath or the still point that sits after the exhale and before you inhale so so so you might notice in this moment that everything seems to stop everything seems still so so so as you continue to follow your breathing try not to miss any empty breaths so after each exhale see if you can connect with the still point before you inhale again so so if it helps you can mentally say in on the in breath and out on the out breath but still really focusing on connecting with the empty breath a tiny moment where everything seems to stop between the exhale and the inhale so so and once you're regularly connecting with each still point with each empty breath see if you can maintain this feeling of stillness through the entirety of the next inhale and the next exhale so so each time you connect with the empty breath or the still point between the exhale and the inhale just really seeing if you can maintain this feeling of stillness as you continue to breathe in and breathe out so so once you've found the still point seeing if you can make that stillness last as you continue to breathe for some people there's a feeling of solidity or heaviness as you breathe this way or maybe a feeling of being grounded so and then just letting go of all effort completely allowing the mind to be free to do whatever it wants to do for a brief moment starting to notice the connection between your feet and the floor your legs and the chair once again noticing any smells or sounds that might be present in the room and then when you feel ready to just gently opening your eyes and coming back to the room great job for practicing today hopefully you touched into some feelings of peace and stillness and you can take them into the rest of your day have a great day