So take a few moments to settle in,
To find your comfortable starting position,
To feel your awareness arrive in the body as fully as you can.
Feeling into those points of contact with the earth,
With the seat,
With the floor.
Feeling the ease,
The natural rhythm of the body breathing.
And today we're going to be really using the breath to anchor our awareness.
But as we work with the breath as an anchor,
It's still the felt sense of the body breathing.
So feeling how the breath sort of expands and opens the body,
With the release of the exhale,
Feeling how the body softens and settles back into those points of contact.
Letting it be a soft awareness of the breath.
So in these first few moments,
Really just taking some time to sort of sense into the rhythm of breath,
The naturalness,
The ease there.
You might see if you can notice the very beginning of the inhale as the breath enters into the body,
Through the nose,
Down into the lungs.
The very beginning of the exhale as you begin to let go.
The very end of the exhale as all the breath releases before a new breath begins.
So just allowing your awareness to rest at the breath.
If the mind is really active today,
It can be helpful to have a soft mental note.
So you could gently repeat breathing in with each inhale,
Breathing out with each exhale.
But it's about awareness,
Not a mental exercise.
Though that's useful,
It's still aware of each breath in,
Aware of each breath out.
Maybe even already you've noticed that thoughts,
Feelings,
Impressions will come and go through the field of your awareness as well.
That's completely natural.
That's what the mind does.
There's no reason to fight against it or expect that it won't happen.
When you notice that you have sort of been drawn away from the breath,
Awareness has moved to something else,
You can simply come back.
That was thinking,
That was remembering.
Now here's the breath.
Aware of the breath in,
Aware of the breath out.
The breath continues even when awareness moves away.
So there's a feeling of coming home to something steady,
Something you can count on,
Something that's always here.
So really feel that,
That we're coming home to ourselves in some way as we anchor to the breath.
Aware of each breath in,
Aware of each breath out.
You might watch for a little bit of judgment to creep in,
When you notice that the mind has drifted into thinking or whatever it is.
Sometimes there's a feeling that this shouldn't happen,
I should be able to stay with the breath.
But really awareness doesn't care so much what it's aware of.
So if instead for a moment when you're caught in thinking,
You turn toward it and are aware of thinking.
And then with choice come back to the inhale,
Come back to the exhale.
Then there's no struggle.
And often you can feel through this practice how the energy of the mind can shift.
You might be more mentally active in the beginning,
But as you return again and again to the anchor of the breath,
Sometimes the mind begins to slow.
There's a little more space between thoughts or feelings or impressions.
And in that space there's real presence.
Mind can feel yourself in a new way.
Aware of each inhale,
Aware of each exhale.
Coming back again and again,
No matter how many times awareness moves away.
Finding the gift of this breath.
You can continue with this for as long as you like or return to it as often as you like throughout the day.
The body will keep breathing itself.
You can tune in and become aware of it at any moment.
That's the beauty and the power of this practice.
So simple.
So potent.
So continue as long as you like and when you transition back to the rest of your day,
Keep it close.
Take time to notice the breath,
Even if it's just one or two breaths.
One or two breaths fully present.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
Namaste.
