Resting With Breath: A Guided Practice For Gentle Presence

Welcome. Today we're going to be practicing gentle awareness of our natural experience.

We're not trying to get anywhere or do anything special or trying to feel a certain way.

We're simply going to be bringing this gentle awareness to whatever arises in the body

with our breathing or any predominant emotions that may be coming up for us.

Simply bringing this gentle awareness to whatever comes up, allowing it to be here,

breathing through it all.

As we begin, just take a moment to settle in, as we explore what it means to rest in this simple awareness.

It's raining here today in Berkeley. Rain was not on the forecast for today as of this morning,

but here it is, noticing where our awareness is, noticing what we're aware of in this moment.

Some of us may be aware of physical sensations, sounds, tastes, stories or thoughts, thoughts of the past or the future,

sensing into breathing, noticing what emotions are present, or as we breathe.

What energies we're carrying in our bodies is gentle awareness of what we can feel right now.

Breathing with this experience, however it is, inviting a simple sense of care

with this experience, imbued in this gentle awareness.

Some of us may choose to be aware of something simple, like inhale and exhale each breath.

Some of us may bring gentle awareness to emotion that's very present for us, noticing the energies of that emotion.

Some of us may notice more and more layers of this experience, layers of emotion, sensations, and more embodied fullness.

Noticing new things about this unfolding experience, breathing with this experience, breathing with the body, inviting spacious,

caring, carrying awareness to this unfolding experience.

Maybe bring the same gentle awareness to ourselves and to others for the rest of our lives.

Whenever we're ready, slowly reorienting back to the space around us and to each other.

So this practice is very simple, sometimes deceptively simple, with gentle awareness of this unfolding experience.

Sometimes if things feel complicated, busy, chaotic, sometimes we can use the mantra simple, simple, simple awareness.

Inviting us to come home to ourselves, to our breathing, to our heart.

Remember that we can relate to anything, with this gentle awareness of how it's actually unfolding here right now.

So that we can remember balance, present, some of our deeper values, where we can heal ourselves.