Welcome to First This, a short mindfulness practice and message for any time.

I'm Catherine Nicolai, and I'm glad you made it.

Please sit or lay down, any posture, chair, or on the floor, whatever.

I promise this isn't the part that decides on your enlightenment.

Just be comfortable-ish and draw a deep breath in through your nose.

Let it out your mouth.

Again, inhale and sigh.

Good.

So just a nostril breath now.

And breathing at whatever depth and pace feels natural

and relaxed for you.

We'll spend the first few minutes conditioning for focus.

And just like you condition a muscle by using it, by practicing

the skill you're working on. So find a point of focus. It's probably your breath, but

equally good choice would be any sensation that you can feel in your body.

And then attending to that point of focus

with moment to moment, non-judgmental awareness.

Paying attention but not getting pulled into any opinion about it.

When you realize you're somewhere else you've wandered off,

that's actually a very useful thing because you get to practice coming back quickly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Begin again if you need to.

Narrowing your attention

to your attention to your breath, to what you can feel.

...