Hello and welcome to Mindfulness Plus.

Once a month I like to offer a little bit longer of a guided meditation to give you some time

and space to really sink in and go deep.

Something my teacher always used to say when we meditated is the longer we practice, the deeper we practice.

So I'm going to offer a little bit longer of a guided meditation, which is a continuation of last week's show about being in the present moment.

But more specifically, this is the practice of presence and really learning to open up to the fullness of what the moment is. Take a moment to let the body settle into the posture,

gathering awareness in the physical body.

Letting the dust from your day or from your night of sleeping and dreaming just start to settle. and remember that you don't have to try and get settled try and rest you can just

give yourself over to the natural rhythms of your own body of nature.

As rhythmically as the tide ebbs and flows, the body expands and contracts through the breath.

And you can just return to this rhythm. And you can just return to this rhythm. Thank you. Bring your awareness to the nostrils.

Good.

Bring your awareness to the nostrils, the sensation of breathing in and breathing out through the nose.

And just practice for a moment tightly focusing your awareness on these sensations.

Breathing in through the nose, breathing out through the nose.

And just noticing the changing sensations as you do this,

letting everything else in the entire world just fade into the background. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you get pulled away from your focus on the sensations around the nostrils inside of the nostrils,

just notice that and come back, refocus, redouble your efforts, really bearing down on this small area of sensation. Thank you. And for a moment as you do this, staying with the tight focus on the sensations of breathing through the nose,

I want you to notice that within your narrowed focus, there's a quality of total openness. Awareness is open to whatever

sensation is flowing. No matter how tightly you focus, there's a quality of awareness that remains totally open.

Within your scope of focus, the nostrils, you can just be open to whatever sensation

is flowing in this moment.

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