Alright,
Welcome to this simple breath meditation practice.
So get yourself ready.
Sitting up in a comfortable position,
Whether in a chair,
Ground your feet on the floor if you're in a chair.
Try to sit up tall,
You know,
Working for that dignified spine,
So not slouching,
But sitting up tall and proud and dignified.
Or maybe you're sitting in more of a traditional meditation seat,
That's fine.
Or maybe you want to take this lying down just as a good way to start and develop this practice and that's perfectly fine.
So let's just start by finding our breath.
So let's just empty the breath all the way out and let it go and really try to get empty so you can really feel that emptiness and take a big breath into your belly,
Bigger breath into your belly,
Let it go out the mouth nice and easy.
Just keep breathing like this,
Really big inhales,
You can really feel that significant aspect of the breath in and out.
Keep going in,
Slow the breath down but deepen the breath,
Really big,
Broad,
Wide,
Belly breath and then filling to the top and letting it go.
We're just going to take these next couple minutes just to kind of continually deepen that breath.
Just become aware of the flow of the breath.
Instead of thinking about your breathing,
How about you just be curious of it and curiosity is so nice because you can just really step back and just observe and just observe the sensations of the breath,
That's all.
But really in the beginning here,
To help slow things down,
Which is like these first two meditation practices we're going to work with here,
We need to take those bigger inhales really big and deep but also exercise the exhale in a nice,
Slow,
Easy,
Mindful way.
Let's go a little bit deeper into the breath here,
So let's bring a hand onto your belly or maybe both hands onto your belly or right hand on your belly,
Left hand on your chest if you like and let's just use the hands to feel more of that breath flowing in and out and just being mindful there,
Just focusing on the simple flow of the breath,
The sensations that are being created,
Just again,
Staying in the space of curiosity.
We're just going to go for another minute here and just keeping that breath nice and big and deep,
Maybe taking your breath in and out of the nose as we breathe deep.
By deepening this breath and slowing the breath down and become more aware of the breath,
We naturally begin to slow our neurological processes down,
We begin to naturally slow the biology down,
The heart rate,
The blood pressure,
We begin to naturally,
Cognitively slow down the mind,
A few more deep breaths and one more deep breath like that and just let the breath rest in its natural state.
It doesn't have to be as big as the first few minutes that we just experienced the breath but I just want you to be aware of the breath,
So using the breath as the meditation tool,
As the focusing tool.
Let's just stay with the flow of the breath as it just inflates and expands the belly and also deflates and contracts the belly.
If you're only breathing into your chest at this point,
Really try to invite the breath down and ask the breath to go deep into the belly.
It's natural to breathe this way.
It's okay if you're not breathing this way right now but just be with the breath as it is,
Where it is and just be aware without judgment of that simple flow of breath.
Just by focusing in this way,
You're going to be able to see all the little cleverness of the mind trying to pull you somewhere into the future or drag you into the past.
Just notice that you're thinking or maybe even just label it as like that's thinking and then come back to the awareness,
The simple awareness of your breath as it fills and spills.
Be with the mind and the body as it is,
Like the mind is made to be distracted.
It always has a sense of alertness to it but we don't have to attach to the mind,
We don't need to attach to those thinkings,
Almost like you're kind of dangling a carrot before us and it's up to us if we have the choice of to come back to the focus on just the experience of the breath or grab that carrot and get taken along into some story of the mind but just come back to the breath instead.
Be curious of the subtleties of each passing breath.
Being aware emotionally as well,
Like are you beating yourself up when you kind of fall short of the mark here and get attached to a thought or swept up in an emotion?
Just let that go too,
The emotions.
Come back to the breath and what's helpful just to kind of let go and maybe to wake up more of the experience of the breath is just take a few hard breaths.
So inhale through the nose and out the nose.
Kind of shaking it all off again,
Inhale through the nose,
Hard breath.
Feel that big swell of breath in your body and let that go.
One more and just come back to that simple observation of your breath as it is.
This is the practice,
That's it,
Nothing fancy but lots to focus on,
Lots to work on here.
Every time you kind of catch yourself in a thought or become attached to an emotion and you come back to the breath,
It's a little victory,
It's a little moment of oh hey I'm waking up to my thoughts,
I'm waking up to my emotions and I'm bringing myself back in to the only time it ever is here and now by just being with the sensations of your breath.
Letting go of the expectations that might be coming along with part of your practice in the sense of like I should feel more peaceful right now or I should be experiencing this or I was hoping today that my meditation would yield this,
Let it all go.
No expectations,
No attachment,
Being with things as they are,
Inside and outside.
Inside just following the breath as it is,
Outside letting the world around you be as it is,
Those little sounds or maybe someone speaking,
Maybe the cold air,
The warm sun,
Just leave it alone and just keep following your breath,
In and out,
Soft and smooth,
Just being aware,
Just observing,
Being with things as they are,
It doesn't matter if you need to come back a thousand times to one breath,
That's the practice,
It's not about getting it right or being perfect,
It's about showing up,
Doing the best you can with where you are as the day is,
How you are physically and mentally and emotionally in this day,
In this moment,
And just trying again and again and again to get back to this moment by being aware of your breath,
And just stay for one more minute,
Just keep following the breath in your belly.
Take a moment and just thank yourself for taking the time today to honor your practice and honor your commitment to this course,
And thank you for practicing and we'll see you back here again tomorrow,
Have a fantastic day,
Way to show up.
