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Use your breath as a compassionate anchor to relax the mind and settle into a state of non-judgmental awareness.

Breathing Meditation

Health & Happiness

Presence

Concentration

Buddhism

Traditions

English

A simple meditation on the breath to find relief in times of stress. May it bring you peace and clarity. Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California and the Insight Retreat Center in Santa Cruz, California. 

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

A simple meditation on the breath to find relief in times of stress. May it bring you peace and clarity. Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California and the Insight Retreat Center in Santa Cruz, California. 

Guided Meditation on the Breath

 So taking a alert posture, sitting a little bit straighter than you normally would perhaps. So there's a little bit of energy in your spine when you're sitting here. Even if you use the backrest, can you sit up a little bit straighter than you normally would? And then to gently close your eyes. And to start a period of meditation, it's often helpful to take a few long, slow, deep breaths. And as you breathe in, to use the inhalation as a time to connect to your body from the inside. And as you exhale, to relax, to let go of your thoughts and concerns for the next half an hour, to let go of tension in your body. Taking long, slow, deep breaths, letting the breath kind of massage you, massage your body, stretching and relaxing. And then letting your breath return to normal. And taking a few moments here to familiarize yourself with your breathing, getting to just recognize how your breath is right now. There's no right or wrong. It's the process of mindfulness, not about judging what you're aware of, but becoming more familiar, more intimate, to what your experience is. So in this case, connecting to your breathing, becoming familiar with your breathing. And then familiarizing yourself with your body. What is your body like now, today, at this time, in this place? Again, no judgment of how it is, no aversion or clinging to how it is, but a very simple, simple, simple process of getting to know your body. And then, as you're getting used to it, you're getting used to it. And then, as you're getting used to it, you're getting used to it. And then, perhaps, maybe not clinging to how it is, but a very simple recognition, perhaps a loving recognition of how your body is. Tired, energized, tense, relaxed, Places of tightness. Being mindful of how things are is really central part of the practice. But part of being mindful is also how we're aware. How we hold our experiences in awareness. And one understanding is that the practice is to hold all our experiences within our hearts. To hold everything with some kind of graciousness or generosity or compassion. Hold everything in a friendly way. And as you familiarize yourself with your body, your head and your torso, your arms, your legs, just what's going on there. If there's any easy place where it's possible to relax the body, perhaps the shoulders can be softened or perhaps the face or the belly can be relaxed. Feeling the place where your body connects with your cushion or your chair. Where the cushion or the chair or the floor receives your weight, is the outdoor space, Is it relaxed there? Are you relaxing into gravity and letting yourself be supported? Or are you holding yourself, bracing yourself in some way, holding yourself up? If possible, as you exhale, let the floor completely support you. Let your chair completely support you. And then also it can be nice to spend a few moments here, becoming familiar with how you're feeling, your emotional state. And again, the same kind of simple way, compassionate way, just hold it in awareness how it actually is, as if it's okay to be the way you are. Take a few moments to familiarize yourself, becoming mindful of how you're feeling. And whatever way you're feeling now, can you hold it in awareness for a few moments in the way that perhaps a friend, you'd like a friend to hold you if you're feeling some way. Just willing to listen, willing to be there, be present without judging, allowing you to be the way you are. And as you do this, as you exhale, perhaps you can relax into the simplicity of how you're feeling, allowing it to be as it is. And then taking a few moments now to familiarize yourself with how your mind is, your thinking, your thinking apparatus, your brain. Are there a lot of concerns and thoughts you have about conversations or plans? Or is there just a lot of energy and agitation in your thinking? Or is it relaxed and smooth? Allowing it to be as it is and just holding it in awareness which is larger than your brain, awareness which is larger than whatever you're aware of. It's okay for it to be the way it is, at least for right now. And then as if the brain, the body, the mind is just a little bit more relaxed and more relaxed, you're letting go of the thoughts and then as if the brain, the thinking mind is a muscle. As you exhale, relax the thinking muscle. It's okay. There's no need to think. Thinking can go be at rest. At least a little softening around the tendency to think. Softening can be as simple as an acceptance of how things actually are. And then within your whole wholeness of your being, within everything that you are, your whole present experience, in the center of it, become aware of your breathing. Take a few deep breaths. Take a few deep breaths. Take a few deep breaths. Take a few deep breaths. Take a few moments to find some way to sink into your breathing or relax into it or some way to connect fully to it, like you would connect to a good friend and really be present. In the midst of your experience, be aware of the breathing, your body's experience of breathing, breathing in and breathing out. Nothing to fight against, nothing to hold onto, nothing to judge. Just in the middle of your experience, breathing in and breathing out. And then the art, part of the art of breath meditation is sustaining the attention on the breath over time and not letting the mind wander away too easily into thoughts. And one little aid to making that possible is to be attentive or interested, curious of how your mindful breathing, how attention to the breathing, how receiving the breath and awareness, receiving the breath in the body, being with a body's experience of breathing, how that settles things. Be aware of how it changes things. Be aware of, kind of allow yourself to be affected, allow your body to be affected by the breath, breathing in and breathing out. Don't look for how that effect is gonna be. Just allow for that possibility by remaining present there, attentive there, receptive, breathing in and breathing out. If the mind wanders away, then begin again, being with the body's experience of breathing, feeling it, sensing it, allowing the breath to calm the body and mind. To calm the body and mind.