Susan

Hilo, HI

Practice body awareness and use your breath as an anchor to cultivate a gentle, non-judgmental presence.

Health & Happiness

Presence

Mindfulness Meditation

Buddhism

Mindfulness

Traditions

English

This meditation is designed to settle us into our innate openness and receptivity. This soothing practice begins by scanning through the body and moving into concentrated breath awareness. This is followed by a journey through body and mind, where we reopen to the vast, dance of aliveness in each moment. Let yourself become at ease in life's flow as you drift into rememberance of your own goodness and the beauty that life has to offer in each single breath. 

Opening To Life Through Body And Breath

 Hello and welcome. This meditation is a 40 minute breath and body awareness practice. And so to begin this practice I'll invite you to find a comfortable seat in a chair or on a cushion in some place where the body can both be awake and simultaneously at ease. And so finding that space will begin and end this meditation with the sound of three bells allowing the sound of the bells to draw us here into presence, following the sounds until you can't hear them anymore. And as the sound of the bells fades, finding your attention resting here with your body in space. If you'd like as we arrive in this meditation practice, allowing the eyes to soften and close. If this feels safe to you and if not then just softening the gaze and looking maybe three or four feet down on the floor in front of you. And it can be helpful as we begin a meditation practice to allow not just the body but also the mind to arrive right here. And so in this way granting yourself permission to just rest being here acknowledging that you've given yourself this gift of time, this act of self-care. And so in this way there's nothing else to do, nothing we need to be or control. Letting go of everything that came before this moment and letting go of what's still to come after. And arriving right here in your own body in this moment, the only real moment of being alive out of the story of our lives and into the actual experience of living. And so we'll begin this practice by feeling the soles of the feet resting either on the floor or making contact with another part of the body if sitting on a cushion. And just noticing what's here in this part of the body and the soles of your left and right foot. And feeling the legs as they make contact with each other or the seat, the pressure of the calves or the thighs touching the chair or the cushion, the pressure of the buttocks resting in your seat. Just beginning to notice what's here in your own body in this seated posture. Feeling into the aliveness in the hands. Perhaps the hands are resting on the thighs or clasp together. Maybe noticing a sense of warmth, moisture. Maybe even pulsing or tingling. And perhaps there's not much sensation in this part of the body at all. And even making space for that experience without any sense of judgment, labeling as good bad, right or wrong. The invitation throughout this whole practice is to just be open to whatever's here, to the shifting and changing sensations in your body in this moment. And as we bring attention into the belly, it can often become easier to begin feeling the movement of breath here. The subtle expansion and contraction and even the lowest parts of the belly. And with attention resting here, maybe we notice senses of digestion, hunger. Just coming to know whatever's here in your belly right now. Moving our attention will come into the chest, into the heart space. Another place in the body where feeling the sensations of breath and breathing might be a little easier. Sensing the ribs as they widen on the inhales and draw in on the exhales. The slight lifting of the collarbones and falling back towards the earth. And as we rest attention here in the space of the chest and the heart, maybe just touching into the experience of your own heart here in this moment. Noticing whether there's a sense of openness or softness. Maybe we notice instead a sense of tightening or feeling closed. And remembering that regardless of what we find, this practice is just the invitation to know what's here right now. And not judging ourselves or our experiences, but just knowing this is how I am, this is how this is right here and right now. Welcoming ourselves to feel and be exactly as we are. And as we rest here in that space of ourselves, that space of safety, noticing that we need not be anything else. That regardless of what we find in each breath and each moment, we are perfectly okay with no need of change. And now bringing awareness into the space of the head and the face. Perhaps feeling the weight of the tongue in the mouth, the sense of moisture that's here. It's possible as well to notice the movement of air in the nostrils. The sense of cool air on the inflows and warmth on the exhales. Noticing as well if there's any tension in the brow or the forehead, remnants of so much energy from thinking. Just allowing the space in the eyebrows, the forehead to soften, making the brow smooth. And taking this flexible awareness, we'll expand out from the crown of the head through the face and neck, shoulders, the left and right arm, including the torso back in front, the left and right legs all the way to the soles of the feet. Reconnecting with the feeling of your whole body in space. Feeling again yourself in this seated posture and the sensations that accompany being here, being alive in this moment. Welcoming each moment with newness, with curiosity, with a genuine sense of interest in what's here. And if you find at any point in this practice that you've become lost in some train of thinking, congratulating yourself for that moment of noticing, of finding yourself and returning in that moment to presence. Working the muscle of mindfulness and with gentleness and curiosity, coming back to this moment of aliveness. And it can be skillful as we return to presence to come back with a narrowed awareness, feeling the sensations of your body breathing, the breath serving as our anchor to present, our ever-present passenger, the breath moving in and out of the body. And in this way, finding the space in your own body where the breath feels most prominent to you. This could be the nostrils, the shoulders, the chest, the ribs, the belly. As we bring attention to the breath, just finding that space where you can feel the inflow and outflow with a sense of ease wherever it's most readily available. And for these next few breaths, just letting your attention rest right there. Feeling this breath. And now this one. Noticing the quality of your breathing. Are your breaths short or long? Is the breath smooth or broken? Shallow or deep? Feeling your body here breathing, each moment a new inflow and outflow. And as the mind drifts as it will invariably do away from the sensations of breathing, we work that muscle of mindfulness each time returning with gentleness, with genuine interest back to the sensations of breathing, back to aliveness, presence here in your own being. Each moment a new breath, a new experience of being alive. Though we have breathed thousands of breaths in our lifetime and though we may think that we know what each breath feels like, this practice is a real and genuine opportunity to experience each breath. Noticing subtly the differences between each one. How no two breaths are actually the same. How no two moments of aliveness contain the same experience. And so in this way we can become curious, joyously investigating each new moment, each new breath. you you Each time we become carried away into thoughts, returning to the body, to the breath, to this rhythm of breathing. you If you find as you continue to rest that some sensory experience in the body draws your attention away from the feelings of breathing, some experience of pain, discomfort. The invitation just for this practice is to be with those sensations just a little bit longer. Noticing how our immediate response is to pull away, to push those sensations or feelings away or to move in order to end the experience. And seeing if instead just for a moment longer we can notice what's here. Whether it's tightness, heat, pressure, tingling. And of course if you find that whatever you're experiencing becomes overwhelming and difficult to be with, then being present also means being aware of our own needs. And so if you make the choice to move, acknowledging this as an act of self-care and being conscious and present to the sensations in the body as you move or shift and finding your body in that place of ease and rest again returning with gentleness back into the breath, into your inflows and outflows. Perhaps noticing the spaces between breaths or the rhythm of the whole body breathing. Peeling this full cycle of breath, inhaling into the nose, the shoulders, the chest and belly and exhaling from the belly, the chest, the shoulders and the nostrils, the space between breaths. What can we know about this breath right here, right now? If you find that the mind is becoming tense or tight, creating anxiety or wanting this moment to be over to move on to the next thing, seeing if we can be open to even this experience, to the energy of this sensation of thinking, letting go of the reactivity and just being with this, ah this too, I can be with this too. And just as the breath comes and goes, so do these experiences of thoughts and sensations, emotions, regardless of what arises in the space of awareness, we can experience the nature of all things to show up, linger for a moment and pass away without any of our own doing, controlling, reacting, becoming the observers, the noticers of this constant arrival and departure of breath, of thoughts, sensations, emotions, without grabbing and gripping at things we label as good or pushing away at that which feels uncomfortable, inhaling and exhaling, resting in this space of non-judgmental awareness, allowing ourselves and our experiences to be just as they are, each time we become lost in thought, re-relaxing into this non-judgmental presence, feeling your body here in this moment, breathing more right than wrong, allowing each breath to be just as it is, carrying with it this vital life force energy for our bodies, the energy that we give back with each exhale, respiring in unison with all the other living creatures of this earth, breathing in the respiration matter of plants, trees, flowers, breathing out and giving back the gift of life, constantly connected to this world around us through the inflow and outflow of breath, so simple, so meaningful, and each breath giving and receiving life. And in these last few moments of practice, I'll invite you to take that narrowed awareness experiencing your inhales and exhales and allow it to again encompass your whole body in space from the crown of the head through your wakeful spine into the hands, the legs, the soles of the feet, feeling all the aliveness right here in your own body, your body sitting and breathing, feeling, even allowing thoughts to arise in the space of the mind and without attaching to them just pass away like clouds in the vast space of the sky coming and going, mind generating thoughts as it's designed to do and then the same way we let the breath come and go sensations arise and pass away letting thoughts bubble up and fade away. Feeling your whole body all at once, sensations at the surface of the skin, internal sensations like your own heart beating, the inflow and outflow of breath of life, open and receiving this moment exactly as it is with a gentle presence, a gentle joy, and perhaps in these last few breaths feeling the slight curling up at the corners of the mouth in the space of a smile, feeling this smile in the space of the heart, not covering up but just making space for whatever's here, welcoming and receiving. you Thank you so much for taking this time, a gift of self-love and self-care. May you be well, happy, and free. Namaste.