Hello, my name is Jane O’Rourke, I’m a Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapist and a yoga and mindfulness teacher.
So let’s begin by getting a nice, comfortable posture, so where you can find your sit bones, so maybe putting a cushion underneath what you are sitting on, whether you are sitting on the floor, and sitting nice and tall if you are in a chair. So allowing the shoulders to slide down the back and keeping your neck nice and long. And then begin to soften the face, releasing any tension in the jaw, allowing the route of your tongue to relax, and allowing your hands to soften in your lap. And then begin to notice your contact with the floor, feeling the steadiness that is there for whenever we need it, and if you like on the next in breath drawing up that steadiness all the way through your body, and then on the out breath a releasing and letting go back down to the earth. So breathing in steadiness and breathing out and letting go, releasing any tension. Doing this a couple more times, filling the belly on the in breath and then a slow releasing and letting go on the out breath.
And now start to connect your attention to the breath where you are most feeling it in your body, so that could be in your belly, in your chest, or maybe at the tip of your nose. And your attention might wander off lots of times, our minds often keep us very busy and distracted, so just gently bring back the attention whenever this happens. And just focussing your attention on the physical sensations around the breath, so the rising and falling of the belly over the soft texture of the breath at the tip of your nose and all the while keeping a steady connection to the earth, keeping us anchored…
Keeping your attention on each flow of the breath, on the in breath and then on the out breath, noticing the little pause before you draw the breath and the little pause before you breath out. And noticing the cycle of the breath, perhaps give us a little extra gratitude for our life force, for the life we have been given. Our breath is our constant companion from the day we are born until the day we die, and just cultivating appreciation for this very simple thing, this very essential thing, our breath. It can be a wonderful practice to help us be in the moment and to give gratitude for our lives, and so before we leave this practice it might be that you want to draw attention to anything else that you are grateful for in your life alongside this breath. And just noticing how you feel as you bring attention to maybe some very small things in your life, or maybe some big things, some special people, or any aspect of your life that you are grateful for…
And just taking a few breaths here in this practice before we finish, a few extra moments to ground and settle… And stay here for as long as you wish, or gently opening your eyes and coming back into the room in your own time.
