Tara Brach - Meditation: Homecoming to Our Life Breath (16:06 min.)

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

Perhaps the most universal place to collect and deepen attention is the breath.  This meditation begins with an intentional breath that calms the nervous system, and then opens to a clear, intimate presence with our natural breathing. With breath as our home base, we practice returning again and again when the mind becomes distracted. As presence grows, we can let the breath be in the foreground, and include whatever waves of life come and go.  This brings a quiet mind, and a peaceful, happy heart.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Feeling your feet connected to the floor, feeling your body sitting here, become aware of the fact of breathing. You know, very consciously extending the breath, so the in-breath is long and slow and deep.

And then the out-breath also is long, and slow, releasing slowly the breath, letting go, letting go. And again, a nice long in-breath, you might slowly count to six and a slow-out breath, letting go, counting to six again so the breaths are matched. Breathing in and breathing out, slowly releasing so you can feel the sensations of the breath as your exhale. Continue at your own pace with this matched in-bread and out-breath. For the sensations as the breath comes in and aware of the out-breath, letting go. Being sure to fully fill the lungs and then fully emptying the lungs.

Now allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm, and just become the witness to the body, let the body breathe itself. You might sense the possibility of relaxing with the movement of the breath, relaxed witnessing, letting this life breath be a kind of home base, resting the attention here. You might find yourself drawn to resting with the sensations of the inflow, outflow at the nostrils. Or maybe you're more aware of the movement of the chest, the rising and the falling of the chest. You can rest the attention there.

Or it might be the inflating and settling at the belly. You might find your home base as a sense of the whole body breathing, even in a cellular way that expanding and relaxing helps to have a home base as a way to collect the attention, It's a way to settle the mind, a place to come back to when we've been off in the trance of thinking. Just this breath and now this one.

And for whatever reason the breath is a difficult place for you to attend, you can instead pay attention to the sensations in your body, perhaps the tingling in the hands or the feeling of your whole body sitting here. Having a home base that's right here and now, This body and breath is always in the present moment. You feel that you're directing or controlling the breath. You might imagine and sense that you're listening to the breath. The body breathes itself and there's a witnessing

of listening to and feeling the movement of the breath. Moment to moment if it's hard to connect with the breath. You can experiment by gently putting your hand, on your belly, just feeling the movement of the belly, the gentle movement of the belly with the inflow and the outflow. Or you can bring your awareness right inside where you feel sensations the most prominently relaxing as a boat might gently ride and roll with the changing waves. At some point you'll notice the attention's drifted.

You've gone off into the future, the past. Not a problem. That's just a natural waking up, just to value that moment of noticing. And then gently relax back into the movement of the breath. Feeling this very next in-flow or outflow, rising breath, falling breath. Let the attention be an intimate attention. an interest in what the sensations actually feel like, a quality of care for this life breath.

Again, moment to moment. And if some other strong wave of experience arises, some strong sensations in the body, pleasant or unpleasant, feeling or emotion, it could be anxiety or excitement, sadness, anger, something strong arises to let the breath the breath recede from the foreground and open the attention to include that wave of experience. Let it move through you.

Feel it as sensations in the body. It helps breathe with it when it no longer calls your attention. Gently resting again in your home base. If there's any question as to where to attend, you can relax back again and again into this gentle movement of the breath. Each time you notice the drifting mind and gently relax back, you're deepening your capacity of homecoming, again sensing the movement of the breath.

So you're listening to and feeling this life breath in an intimate way, this breath, and now this one, the breath in the foreground, and yet also letting the senses be awake, to the sounds that are here, to the whole play of sensation through the body, whatever emotions or feelings are in the area of the heart, breathing with the life that's here, relaxing with the life that's here. From the poet Wu-Man, 10,000 flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer,

in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.