Welcome to first this, a short mindfulness practice and message for any time.

I'm Catherine Nikolai, and you can sit with me or lie down.

Whatever's comfortable, but please find a position that you can be mostly still in for a bit.

And once you're there, draw a deep breath in through your nose.

And sigh from your mouth.

Let's do one more for now, all the way in.

Out with sound.

Good.

Notice the place in your body where it is easiest to feel your breath.

It might be at your nostrils or in your throat or in your abdomen.

We are just looking for the path of least resistance right now, the easiest way

to connect to the feeling of breathing.

And for the next minute or so, we're just going to keep pointing your attention at what it

feels like.

As soon as you realize you've wandered, you just start again.

That isn't a sign, by the way, that you are doing this wrong or that you're not good at it.

It's just a way that your brain is used to being, and we're practicing a different way.

So patience, my friends. Thank you. Thank you. The I'm thinking today about all the people who are about to make a New Year's resolution to meditate every day in

2024. And listen, if that works for you, if that works for people, awesome. But sometimes it is a trap to approach a habit with the mindset of I have to do this thing

in this very specific way. As often it's not sustainable and after a couple days of not being able to do it we just

completely abandon it and you know i did this for years i made a rule for myself and then I turned that rule into a religion, and I lived

and died by it. For me, my rule was that I was going to practice yoga every day, and sometimes

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