Tara Brach - Meditation: Breath by Breath – Inviting Relaxation and Ease

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

This meditation invites relaxation and ease. We begin with a long deep breathing that helps calm the body and mind. Then we release tensions that might be held in the body, and settle our attention in a receptive way with the breath. The intention is to discover the relaxed wakefulness that expresses our natural being.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. In the stillness, sense this body sitting here breathing. Allow the breath to become increasingly conscious as you inhale in a long, slow, deep way. You might count to five with the in-breath, and then matching the out-breath, slow, Slowly exhale, releasing, counting to five, inhale slowly and exhale slowly, continuing this long

deep in-breath and long deep out-breath. You might sense with the in-breath that you're opening to receive even in a cellular way and with the out-breath of settling and releasing and letting go, matching the length, opening to receive and then releasing, letting go. Continuing but bringing a very slight smile to the face. If you find the mind drifts and gently come back and begin again,

breathing in five counts and breathing out five counts. If that feels too long, then it's fine to shorten it. Now releasing any control of the breath, letting the breath resume in its natural rhythm, is noticing the quality of presence that's right here, that your senses be wide awake, aware of the sounds around you, aware of the sensations that move through the body,

and gently scanning the body and sense if there's anywhere that wants to let go a little bit right now, places of holding or tension, that just by bringing your awareness there they can begin to loosen or soften. You might sense in the shoulders if it's possible to let whatever tightness or tension might be there, let it float in awareness, letting the hands rest in a completely easy and effortless way. You might soften the hands and then soften again. and feel them from the inside out, perhaps noticing the tingling or vibrating there.

Let the chest be open and let this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one and again, hands soft, belly soft, aware of the touch points where your body contacts the chair, the floor, your cushion, sensations of warmth, their pressure, aware of your feet, the sensations inside the feet, and sensing this whole body simultaneously as a field of sensation. And perhaps you can sense the breath as the currents of sensation in this field, just receiving the breath, just as it is. It's as if you're listening to sound, listening to and feeling the natural movement of the breath,

letting your attention rest wherever the breath is easiest to feel or most predominant, perhaps at the nostrils, the inflow-outflow, maybe the rising and falling of the chest or the belly, or perhaps you can sense the whole body breathing, even in a cellular way. Letting this life breath be a kind of home base, relaxing with the breath, resting with the breath. And if the breath is difficult to connect with, just to feel sensations in the body, perhaps the hands or the feet, the point of meditations to know you're here, to sense the presence that's really our essence, breath by breath. You might notice the attention has drifted. And if that's the case, you can just appreciate this as a moment of waking up, noticing the difference between

the virtual reality of thinking and what's right here. These sounds, the aliveness of sensation in the body, the inflow and the outflow of the breath, gently landing a landing again with the breath, exploring what it means to really relax with the breath, rest with the breath. By breath, await and at ease. We close together by bringing a gentle presence right here to the heart and sensing the awareness that's right here, the heart space that's right here, and the goodness of practice. of homecoming and you might mentally whisper thank you or in some way sense appreciation

or gratitude towards your own being and towards this awakening of awareness. Thank you.