Tara Brach - Meditation: A Healing Breath

Episode Date: February 28, 2014

2014-02-26 - Guided Meditation: A Healing Breath

And you might close your eyes and make whatever subtle adjustments, help you to feel a real sense of balance, some ease in the sitting posture. And as you come into stillness, you might take a few full breaths, inhaling deeply and filling the lungs. And then a slow out breath, a very conscious slow out breath,

so you can feel the sensations of releasing the breath. And again, inhaling deeply. so you're filling the lungs, the chest. And then explore that slow exhale, slow enough so you can really feel that sensation of releasing, letting go, letting go. And once again, inhaling deeply, slow out breath, and then just allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm,

but sense the possibility of relaxing with the breath. as if you could feel your whole body, just expanding, inflating like a balloon with the in-breath, loosening, opening, and with the out-breath settling, relaxing. With the kind of listening attention, you might bring your awareness to your heart. You sense the state of your heart right now,

the felt sense at the heart, whatever mood you might detect, letting the awareness gently skin down the body to soften and release any habitual tension or tightness. You might soften the eyes a little, just feel the brow smooth, let the jaw be unhinged, can help to feel a slight smile in the mouth, the inside of the mouth smiling, the lips a slight smile. I'm feeling the shoulders from the inside. I'm just loosening and something. softening there. See if you can relax enough to start feeling the movement or aliveness and the

sensations inside the shoulders. Let the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way. Place the awareness right inside the hands to softening a little and feeling the life that's there. Perhaps the tingling or vibrating. Let there be an openness to the chest. Just feeling from the inside out, the heart, it's kind of an inquiry. What does my heart feel like right now? Really? What's the sensations? Is there a sense of pressure or squeeze or flow or openness?

Without any judgment, just notice. Loosing and softening down to the belly. See if you can let this next breath be received in a softening belly. this breath and now this one and again see your hands are still soft the belly is soft and feel deep into the torso a sense of aliveness movement of sensation just as a cups filled with water this whole body can be filled with awareness scanning down the legs see if you can feel the legs from the inside out right down into the feet feeling the places of pressure, contact with the floor, warmth, and feeling from the inside out, the vibrating

and tingling in the feet just as you might with the hands. And then in a comprehensive way, sensing the whole body now as a field of sensation, just noticing this whole dance of aliveness and not opposing anything. fully letting this life live through you. See if you can keep relaxing with it, allowing, feeling in the midst of this field of sensation, the experience of the breath, just letting it happen. There's nothing to control or do. You might sense with the in-breath, just as a balloon inflates this kind of opening, yielding, even in a cellular way that this whole whole body, this whole field is opening, softening, yielding, and with the out breath, a settling.

So if you could almost sense a stillness that you're resting in, with the in-breath, that inflating, opening, expanding, yielding, the whole body, with the out-breath, just that settling back into that stillness, resting. So there's a relaxing with the inflow. Relaxing open, relaxing with the outflow, just resting, sensing the space and stillness that's here. And when the mind quite naturally drifts as it does, not a problem just to notice it, just to appreciate the waking up that's noticing and to gently relax back again into this

flow. The breath comes in, relaxing open, even in a cellular way, yielding, receiving, and with the out breath, settling into that vastness and stillness that's right here. If you find one part of the body is experiencing unpleasantness or something that's distracting you, you can bring this healing breath right to that place. Just breathe into an area of contraction and just sense with the in-breath that you're opening to receive, loosening, softening. And with the out-breath, the kind of settling that lets whatever's there float in awareness.

Similarly, if there's a strong emotional current, just feeling where it expresses in the body, and breathing with it in this way brings a very deep and healing presence. Ask yourself if it's possible to just relax or let go just a little bit more right now. And for the last part of the sitting will bring this healing breath to the heart area. Just feel that sense of breathing into the heart and the chest,

contacting and opening, yielding. and with the out breath just a resting back, letting whatever's there float in tender presence, the in-breath, directly contacts what's there,

let there be a yielding and of opening, softening. With the out-breath, it's just sensing into the space and the stillness that it all floats in. I might close by offering

some wish or blessing to your own heart and then sensing the heart the heart space that in a very deep way wishes others, wishes life well.