Tara Brach - Meditation: Breath by Breath - Relaxing with Our Life (19:04 min.)

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

The breath can be a powerful portal to presence. This meditation guides us in relaxing with the breath, including the breath in a body scan, and then allowing the breath to serve as an anchor when the mind gets lost in thoughts. As we settle with the breath as a home base, we find we can then open to the changing waves of experience with increasing balance, clarity and ease. 

Welcome, friends, to the Tara Brock podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Each week, I share teachings and guided meditations to help us awaken our hearts and bring healing to our world. You can learn more or support this offering by visiting tarabrock.com, where you can also join our email list. Now, let's explore together the many ways we can live from the love and presence that's our deepest essence. Namaste. The guidelines for a sitting posture are to sit upright and sit tall

in a way to really support being alert, being awake. And then the other guideline is to be at ease. So in that tallness, to see if you can let whatever can relax, relax. So this is to be alert and relaxed. Feel your body breathing. You might become aware of the breath at the heart, feeling the presence that's here, awake, aware, and asking yourself, what is my deepest intention for practice right now? This is an inquiry of what really matters to you. is it to relax, to open your heart, to be more present for your life, to have deep realization of really your nature,

sensing what matters and sensing your sincerity, your care, be aware of your breathing and intentionally extend the breath so the in-breath is long and full, filling the lungs, and the out-breath is slow and conscious. You can feel the sensations of the breath as it leaves the nostrils. Again, a long, deep in-breath, filling the chest and the lungs, you might sense to the count of four or five, and matching the out-breath, exhaling slowly to the count of four or five,

continuing in this way, long, deep in breath. and a slow conscious out breath, inhaling deeply and a smooth out breath. Releasing, letting go, iceful in-breath and slow out-breath, and again, letting go with the out-breath, releasing, relaxing outward, and then letting the breath resume in its natural rhythm, not controlling the breath, just witnessing, feeling the sensations of the breath, the in-flow and the outflow with a relaxed attention, increasing presence by relaxing wherever there's tension in your body. You can let the breath help you, breathing in and feeling that area of the body directly. Breathing out and sensing, you can relax

and release piteness or tension. You might feel the region of the eyes. And sense the possibility of softening the eyes, letting the brow be smooth, relaxing as you breathe in, letting go and relaxing as you breathe out. Let the jaw be relaxed. Let the tongue spread to fill the lower palate.

Relaxing down to the root of the tongue. So you can feel all the sensation, in the face relaxed. Breathing in and breathing out. Allow the shoulders to fall away from the neck. Let the awareness fill the shoulders. You can feel from the inside out the life that's there. And breathing in as if you can

more fully contact the sensations with the in-breath and breathing out, sensing you can relax and soften and release some. some, feeling the breath in the shoulders, breathing in and breathing out, letting your awareness fill your hands. You might soften your hands, feel them from the inside, breathing in, receiving the breath and the hands, contacting sensation, breathing out, letting go, softening, relaxing open with the in breath, releasing, letting go with the out breath, let there be an openness to the chest, and feel

the breath at the heart, breathing in and gently contacting the heart, the aliveness and sensations there. And breathing out, sensing a natural releasing and letting go. When you breathe out, sensing the space you're breathing into and the spaciousness that's here, relaxing open with the in-breath, contacting life, and releasing and letting go with the out-breath. Letting this next breath now be received in a softening belly, this breath and now this one,

so that breathing in you can contact and feel the sensations in the belly and breathing out, releasing, sensing the spaciousness that's here. letting everything float in awareness, dealing the breath received deep into the pelvic region, breathing in and opening and contacting the aliveness there. And with the out breath, the releasing, a letting go, sense of space, letting the aliveness float in spaciousness. Aware of the legs, the length, volume, the weight,

and the feet places. of contact and pressure, the tingling inside, so you can feel your breath all the way deep in the feet, breathing in and contacting that aliveness, and breathing out, letting go, relaxing outward. And then widening the attention now to feel this whole body as a field of sensation, Breathing in and feeling the aliveness directly, opening to contact the life that's here. Simultaneously, this whole energy body. And with the out breath, sensing the space it's in, the awareness that everything floats in,

letting go, breathing in and feeling sensation and aliveness. breathing out, sensing spaciousness, openness. Letting this life breath be a portal to presence, to the aliveness of presence, the spaciousness of presence. Breath by breath, right here, right now. When the mind wanders and gets distracted as it habitually well, the practice is without any judgment, to notice, oh, thinking, thinking, that virtual reality that we've gone into.

And then gently shepherd the attention back to this next inflow or outflow of the breath. Take your time, relaxing back into the movement of the breath. And if something strong arises that calls your attention, and strong, unpleasant sensations, squeezing, twisting, burning, aching. You can find that if you breathe with what's happening, offer it a kind attention, notice what happens to it. If it gets stronger or weaker, changes. When it's no longer calling your attention, gently resting with the breath, again. It's natural that the mind wanders and it doesn't matter how many times you have to

come back. Each time actually deepens the pathway of homecoming. You're learning how to notice when the mind's been off somewhere else and with kindness, with interest, invite the attention And right here, this in-breath or out-breath, relaxing as much as you can with the movement of the breath and with whatever's happening in your body or your heart, breathing with it, letting it be here, making room for this precious life. Breath by breath.