Focus on Exhale

Welcome back. In this episode, we are going to practice mixing our attention with the out breath. Let's begin. Close the eyes, come back to your seat. Notice any sensations present in the body, any feelings, any thoughts, any emotions.

Just noticing what's present for you now. Bring your attention to your legs, to the weight of your legs. Making contact with the floor. Bring your attention to your sit bones, making contact with your cushion. Notice your hands and the weight of your arms resting on the tops of your thighs.

Feel the straightness of your spine. Relax the tops of your shoulders. Relax your jaw, soften the eyes. Feel the subtle tilt of your head down. So there is an arch right at the nape of the neck.

And feel that tendril or thread from the top of the head going up to the sky. Your ascending movement as well as your descending movement, gravity. Working in opposite directions, creating a sense of stillness in your center. We'll do three rocking breaths to bring our attention into the lower body first. Inhale rocking the pelvis forward.

And exhale back to neutral. Again, inhale rock forward, exhale neutral, inhale rock forward, and exhale neutral. Find the sensation of your breath at your belly or your nostrils. Gentle, inhale, pause, and exhale, pause. Softening the flow of energy and breath through the body.

And gently open the eyes, soft gaze, open mind, steady body. And the exhale, merge your attention with the sensation of the exhale and allow the exhale to release into space. Dissipating your attention into the room with each exhale as your body remains grounded, centered, calm. Mind is like the sky, open, expansive, clear. Your breath is like the wind, calm and soft in the body.

Your body is stable and tall like a mountain. Tongue, soft in the mouth, jaw relaxed, making subtle contact with the upper palate. Book up a little bit higher, taking in more of the room, seeing the shapes, the colors, the light, hearing any sounds present. Raise your gaze a little bit higher, again soften the breath in the body, merging your attention with the exhale and releasing your awareness into space. Raise your gaze a little higher.

Close the eyes again and come back into the body. Seeing any difference there now that the attention has expanded outward, what's your experience of being in your body? Do you feel more space? Do you feel more equanimity? Do you feel more calm?

And again opening the eyes, soft gaze forward. Re-raising your gaze and a little higher, mixing your mind with the quality of the space. Thank you.