Tara Brach - Meditation: A Healing Breath (2015-10-28)

Episode Date: October 30, 2015

Meditation: A Healing Breath (2015-10-28) - This meditation introduces a simple breathing practice that brings relaxation and inner ease.

Greetings. I'm Tara Brock and I'd like to welcome you to these podcasts. While the talks and meditations are offered freely, we'd very much appreciate your support. To make a donation or learn more about my schedule, please visit tarabrock.com and our IMCW.org. Thank you. As you come into stillness, take some moments to let your attention come to the heart area, asking yourself this simple inquiry of what really brings me here, what brings me to practice, and listen in for your deepest intention, what feels most sincere, what feels like truth to you, what is it that matters to the degree that you can touch into that sincerity of feeling what you care about,

whether it's more presence, more realization of your own true nature, open-heartedness, maybe touching peace. When you sense what matters in that connecting with your intention, you become more available. You're more at home, taking some moments to scan through the body. And just notice if there's... Areas of particular tightness, tension, places that are ready to soften or let go. Pay particular attention as you scan down to the area of the brow. Let the brow be smooth, the eyes soft, the jaw unhinged.

You might bring a slight smile to the mouth. See if you can sense the inside of the mouth smiling, feeling the volume of the tongue, relaxing the root of the tongue. You might let the shoulders fall away from the neck, relaxing back and down. See if you can soften a bit. Sense whatever tightness might be in the shoulders as floating in awareness.

See if you can notice a little bit of untangling movement, sensation inside the shoulder. Let the hands rest in an effortless, easy way. Effortless, easy and still. And then softening inside the hands. Feeling from the inside out so you can sense the tingling and vibrating, the pulsing that's there. Let there be an openness to the chest.

See if you can notice sensations, liveliness in the heart area. scanning down the abdominal area, loosening and softening the belly. Notice the experience of having this next in breath be received deep in the torso, let it be received in a softening belly, this breath, and then this one, and again, noticing the experience of relaxing through the whole pelvic region, receptive and at ease, feeling the volume and length of the legs, feeling the feet from the inside, the tingling and vibrating there. Still aware of the feet, also feel the hands soft and awake,

widening the lens of attention to feel this whole body, vibrating, alive. See if you can sense this body as a field of sensation. Discovering within this field of sensations the particular sensations of the breath, sensing the in-flow and outflow, that river of breath at the nostrils. And let the breath deepen so that you extend the in-breath, nice, slow, deep in-breath, and extend the out-breath, slow release. And continue in this way so that the in-breath and the out-breath are matched.

Same time, a slow, long in-breath, and a slow, slow, long out breath with no pause in between. Long, slow in breath and a long, slow out breath. Continuous breath breathing right in again when the breath is ended and then out again, no pause, paying attention to matching the length of the in-breath and out-breath. With the in-breath sensing that you can loosen the abdominal area to fill the torso deeply, filling the abdominal area and the lungs. And then that slow out breath, relaxing with the inflow, hand soft, slight smile at the mouth, relaxing with the outflow, soft, slow, letting go. If or when you notice the mind has wandered, just gently shepherd it back.

resting in this next in-breath, extending it nice, long, full in-breath, long, slow, out-breath, noticing how much the body can relax with the breath, yielding and opening to receive with the in-breath, softening, releasing with the out-breath, continuing to make sure the in-breath and the out-breath are extended and matched, equal duration. Also checking to make sure the body's relaxed, the face is at ease, slight smile, shoulders relax back and down, hands soft, noticing where your attention is. And if the mind's drifted, gently arriving again in this life breath,

full deep in breath, slow out breath. You might notice if it's possible to relax just a little more with the inflow and outflow of the breath, yielding, opening to receive the slow, long, deep in breath and releasing, settling, letting go with the long, slow out breath. For the remainder of the meditation, allowing your breath to resume in its natural rhythm, letting the breath be just as it is, and letting your intention be to simply wake up the senses aware of the sounds that are appearing, disappearing, close in sounds, the space in the room, more distant sounds, listening to and feeling the whole play of sensations in your body,

a relaxed attentiveness, simply noticing sensations, feelings, sounds, letting life be just as it is, letting your only intention be to not do, not control. You notice you've drifted in thoughts. Just simply note that and relax back again into this living play of sensation, sound, into the immediacy of the senses, listening to the sounds and being the silence that's listening, perceiving this whole dance of aliveness and sensation, being that alert, inner stillness, that which is aware, relaxing back,

letting everything flow in and out of stillness. The meditation that we did this evening, the first part with the breath is very explicitly designed to access a real experience of peacefulness, of quietness, of ease. So if you are agitated or want something that's calming, just matching the in-breath and the out-breath like that, is particularly helpful. So you might enjoy that.

You can do it lying in bed, your eyes closed. Very, very helpful.