Observe the physical sensation of your breath entering and leaving your body to cultivate mindful presence.

English

Nalu, in the Hawaiian language, means wave. It can also mean mindful observation. In this 28-part series, we follow our protagonist, Nalu, as they observe and notice how the waves and flows happening around them can be observed as waves and flows within. 

During the series, Nalu progresses through mindfulness, body awareness, relationship, and gratitude practices. Day three continues to focus on the breath by sensing the touch of breathing. 

Crystalphone music was created by and licensed by Mika Mimura Erickson.

Nalu | Mind The Flow, Day 3 Of 28 - Touch Of The Breath

Hello and welcome to day three of Nalu Mind the Flow. Thank you for joining today. On the previous two days of Nalu's journey, Nalu had first started to experience the breath by placing their hands on their abdomen and noticing the breathing go in and out. And on the second day, Nalu was listening to the sound of the breath to hear how it sounded as it moved into the body and went out from the body. So on this third day of the journey, Nalu decides they want to focus in a little bit more on the breath and noticing the breath. And another quality of the breath that they noticed in the previous days was that there seemed to be a touch of the breath on the body as it entered the nostrils or entered the mouth. And sort of a touch of the breath as it exhaled out through the nostrils or out through the mouth. So for the third day of the journey, Nalu decides to notice the touch of the breathing and notice the point where the breathing is entering the body and leaving the body. And they begin to notice that the breathing seems to be happening all by itself and seems to be breathing them. And so noticing as the breath moves them, what does it feel like as it touches the body and what does it feel like as it leaves the body again on the exhale. And Nalu decides just to notice this. They might have their eyes opened or their eyes closed. That's less important, but what's more important is that as the breathing comes in and as the breathing goes out, they're noticing the breath and just observing as it happens and watching how it feels as the breath moves in and out. And sometimes during the process, Nalu notices that there might not be a sensation at all of that breath touching the body. And that's okay too. What they do is they just stand by and wait and see and notice if maybe in a little while a sensation will occur. Even as the mind might be thinking about something else or being distracted by an outside information or input, that's totally okay too. And Nalu decides to bring the attention back to just the area there where the breath is coming into the body. And then on the exhale, noticing the area where the breath is leaving the body, whether that's through the mouth or through the nose or a combination of both. And sometimes the breathing changes its nature, maybe subtly or maybe greatly while the breathing is happening. And this is a very natural process. Sometimes the breath decides to take a nice deep breath and let go of an exhale. Or sometimes the breathing might produce a sigh. And all of these occurrences are natural occurrences that Nalu notices as they're watching that sensation and that feeling of the breath just touching as it moves into the body and touching as it moves out from the body as well. And while we might begin to notice the mind wander out to some other kinds of thinking or thought producing, it's a very natural occurrence that happens with the mind. And then as Nalu does, we just bring the attention back to noticing the breathing coming in and going out of the body. And we notice as the time goes on that sometimes the quality of the breathing is changing. It may be speeding up or slowing down. It may be becoming more deep or more shallow. And as we notice those sensations, watching that change happen as a natural occurrence is exactly what we're trying to do. We're here just to observe and notice and watch. And Nalu realizes now after sensing their breathing through their abdomen and then sensing the sound of their breathing and now sensing the touch of their breathing, that all of these ways are natural ways to be observing the breath and watching. And as they come back to full awareness and back to the room, they start to begin to get more curious and more energized about about the breath and what's happening.