A shared practice
Breathing Anchor, 20 Minutes
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Created bySean Fargo
From Sean's breathing collection — recorded in his own voice.
In Sean Fargo’s own voice18 min
Read along — the full script
This mindfulness practice is your breathing anchor practice, where you root your awareness into the present moment like an anchor that roots a ship to one place. This will help you to dissolve anxiety, decrease stress, and allow the body to heal and relax in a peaceful state. So to begin, adopt as comfortable a position as possible.
It's often best to be sitting for this practice, but you can do it in any posture, standing or lying down. So my guidance will assume that you're sitting, but please adapt the instructions to whatever posture you've chosen. So finding a position that feels relaxed and alert at the same time.
It can be helpful to sit with your back upright. Finding a position that feels dignified and alert and also relaxed. Softening any unnecessary tension around the muscles in the body and the face. And allow your body to settle, to rest down into gravity.
Feeling your body supported by the floor underneath you. And gently close your eyes if that's comfortable for you, just to lessen external distractions. And gradually allow your awareness to gather around the sensations of the breath in the body.
So feeling your inhale and feeling the exhale with your belly, your chest, your nostrils. Where do you feel the breath most strongly? So be curious about your actual experience right now, letting go of what you think should be happening and being with your experience without judgment.
And now very gently rest your awareness within your whole torso and body. Can you feel your belly swelling on the in breath? And can you feel your belly subsiding on the out breath? Can you feel any movement or sensations with the breath in the sides of the body?
And what about the back of your body? Can you feel movement or sensations with each breath? So gradually inhabit your body a little bit more deeply with a sense of kind curiosity towards whatever you're experiencing as you breathe.
And simply acknowledging whatever's happening without a sense of right or wrong, just noticing sensations. And now see if you can cultivate a precise awareness of the sensations and the movement of the breath in the body as they're happening. And gaining precision with your awareness.
Of the sensations and the movement of the breath. Moment by moment. And being careful not to strain too much, but simply observing or feeling. Allow your awareness to be utterly receptive. As your awareness rests upon the natural movement of the breath in the body.
Allow the breath to be saturated with kindness. As your breath kindly cradles the body, filling the body, soothing any stress or pain. Saturating the breath with kindness as it comforts the body. And now opening your awareness to any thoughts or emotions that may have strong currents for you.
Just becoming aware of them and the energies they bring to the body. And remember that mindfulness isn't about having a blank mind. It's very normal to think. Mindfulness is the training where you cultivate awareness of what's actually happening physically, emotionally, and also mentally.
So you can gradually change your perspective and feel that you have more choice in how you relate to your experience. So as you bring more awareness to your thoughts and emotions, can you look at them rather than from them? And can you be aware of what you're thinking and feeling without blocking them out or getting overwhelmed by them?
Can you simply observe them without reacting to them? And as you develop perspective on your thoughts and emotions, can you let go of being so caught up in them? And just letting them go after you acknowledge them. And noticing how your thoughts and emotions continually change one moment to the next, exactly the same way that your breath is always changing.
Your thoughts and emotions are not quite as fixed or solid as you sometimes think. So we're using awareness of the movement and sensations of the breath in your body as an anchor for the mind over and over again. And follow the breath all the way in and all the way out.
Each time your awareness wanders, as it does, just simply notice and return to the breathing anchor time after time after time, breath by breath. Making sure you're very kind and patient with yourself. Even if you have to start again a hundred times, it's okay.
This is what the training is all about. Each time you notice your mind has wandered is actually a magical moment of awareness, a moment where you've woken up, a moment of choice. And so when you catch yourself having wandered off, you're actually succeeding in the practice, just as you're succeeding when you manage to stay with the breath.
And what's happening now? Are you feeling your breath? Are you thinking? Just noticing where your mind is and guiding your awareness back to the sensations of the breath and the body with a sense of kindness. And now gently begin to bring this breathing anchor practice to a close.
Slowly opening your eyes whenever you're ready and becoming aware of the sounds around you, inside and perhaps outside the room. And feel your whole body gradually, gently begin to move, making sure you give yourself some time to make a smooth transition from this breathing anchor practice to whatever you're doing next. Thank you.
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