Just Breathe
Watching the breath is not something we need to reserve for our meditation alone, it’s with us wherever we go, an anchor for our focus, a place to rest our mind, ever present until it’s not.
So as long as we’re alive, our breath is with us.
It’s an object of constant focus that we can come back to again and again.
And of course it’s a useful obstacle within our meditation, and that helps develop some familiarity of resting with the breath, but it’s also there throughout our day, and very often in coming back to the breath, we reestablish that quality of mind, that feeling of being more present.
So as much as possible, whether we’re engaged in strong physical exercise or whether we’re simply sitting down relaxing, every now and again just checking in with the breath, noticing what it’s doing and noticing how it feels, not thinking about it but simply being present with the sensation.
So just taking a moment to get comfortable, eyes open, a nice soft focus.
And when you’re ready, just starting with a big, deep breath, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
And with the next out breath, just gently closing the eyes.
In closing the eyes, just becoming more aware of the different senses, feeling the weight of the body pressing down, the contact between the body and the seat or the floor beneath you, feeling the weight of the hands and the arms just resting on the legs or in your lap.
Just taking a moment to notice the different sounds around you, just allowing the sounds to come and go.
And as you sit there, inevitably the mind will wander, but just bringing the attention back to the body, and just starting to notice how the body feels right now, and more particularly, how the breath and the body feel, so that rising and falling sensation, noticing where in the body you feel that movement.
Remember, every time the mind wanders off, realizing it’s wandered and just coming back to the movement of the breath.
And then slowly becoming more aware again of the body, that feeling of contact, of weight, becoming more aware of the space around you, the sounds, any smells, just taking a moment, and then when you feel ready, just gently opening the eyes again.
So long as we’re alive, our breath is with us.
