Breathing Into the Present

I am very pleased to offer you this meditation. It provides an opportunity, a guided opportunity, to experience the timeless moment, and its deep peace. With some practice, and eventually without guidance, you will become comfortable in experiencing and finding this state.

Below is the audio. Play it here or right-click on the link, Breathing Into the Present MP3, and choose "Save Target as..."

Let us begin:

Be sure you will be uninterrupted for this bit of time we will be together. After you have practiced this and become very comfortable with the directions, try it alone, try it without my guidance. Get yourself very comfortable with "being in the 'now'."

You will be able to find this place whenever you wish. It is always present. It is just that our attention is placed on the past or the future.

Be sure your cell-phones are turned off, your door is shut and that everyone in your home knows that at this time you need to be left alone and that you will be available when your practice is over.

Close your eyes and imagine that in front of you is the future. That is often the way we see it, isn't it. Behind you is the past. That too is often how we imagine the past. But where you are, where you are seated is the present, the now.

Take a full, easy, deep breath. Inhale slowly and think to yourself: "I am breathing into the future."

Now exhale, slowly and think to yourself: "I am breathing out the past."

Continue your long, slow breaths, saying to yourself: "Breathing into the future – breathing out of the past." Pulling yourself into the future with your breath and pushing yourself out of the past.

Let yourself do this for awhile. Be sure that you don't over breathe (and become dizzy.)" You are pulling yourself into the future with your breath and pushing yourself out of the past. Just get yourself the sensation of breathing into the future, breathing out of the past.

Imagine being pulled and pushed, pulled and pushed and continue to notice that wave motion (sensation) repeating to yourself; pulled into the future, pushed out of the past.

Be very attentive. You are pulling yourself into the future with your breath and pushing yourself out of the past.

As you breathe, feeling the wave of time moving through you, you begin to notice a place where the past and the future meet. Notice the breath; notice that place just before you exhale, just after you inhale, that place, that zenith, that point of "no time," where the past meets the future in the present moment, in the now.

Nothing needs to be done. Your slow rhythmical breathing takes care of the past, takes care of the future, but your attention, your focus, allows you to rest here in the present moment… allows you to realize this present moment must always be here.

You are calmly focusing on this space between time, noticing its ebb, noticing its flow but feeling the strong pull and push passing through you. Feeling no longer caught in the past; in the future, but rather being attracted to this "now," this timeless, space-less, peace.

Gently breathe, gently rest with nothing to do, nothing to change… noticing how expanded the space is becoming – that space between your in breath and your out breath… deeply relaxed, very comfortable, with your mind clear and alert, steadily focusing in this moment, in this peace, in this now.

Stay here, for as long as you wish.

As you become comfortable with this practice, I encourage you to open your eyes. Open your eyes and attempt to keep that same peaceful state, that same present awareness of the now. When you feel it (the peace) moving away, your attention is being caught by something in the world, close your eyes again. Focus on your breathing; pulling in the future, pushing out the past, beginning once again to notice the "now," the present, the peace.

Eventually, you will be able to keep your eyes open and steadily fix on this feeling of peace as you move through your day, as you live your life.

Open your eyes, take a deep breath, I would even invite a stretch, a nice gentle stretch and move on with your day.

Just as a reminder, practice this exercise until you truly feel comfortable that you don't need the guidance and always assume that you will eventually be able to find the "now" with your eyes open. So practice opening your eyes once you get into that state of the present moment. Open your eyes and extend your practice with all sorts of sensory stimulation going on.

Enjoy this very simple easy way to learn to be in the "now", to be in the present moment, to find peace – the peace that is ever present in your mind – in the mind.

Ellen takes you through the free meditation with these two audio files. One is the formal version, and one is the constant. Right click on the link and choose "Save Target as..." to save the file to your computer:
Formal Inclusion Meditation mp3
Constant Inclusion Meditation mp3

Related Videos: The following videos on Ellen's video blog at www.beingspiritual.com are related to meditation:

Questions, ideas or suggestions? Feel free to email me at ellen@ellensutherland.com. I look forward to hearing from you.