In this meditation, mindfulness teacher Anne Muhlethaler introduces a practice of mindfulness of breath. It is particularly well suited to curious beginners and those coming to mindfulness having practiced other types of meditation. This recording is from one of the live online sessions Anne gives online several times per week.
In this practice, Anne guides us to establish a sense of connection and then relax on the sensations of the breath. Learning to be with our inhale and exhale, one breath cycle at a time, is an exercise in concentration as well as an intimate exploration of the breath itself.
Anne quotes one of her teachers who likes to say: ‘Breath is the language of the nervous system.’
Anne also teaches us that when our minds wander off, it’s okay – that’s what minds do. In this meditation we learn that the most important part of mindfulness practice is when we notice we’ve gone off somewhere and come back, gently and non-judgmentally, to our chosen anchor, which, in this case, is resting on the sensations of the breath.
Anne closes with a quote by writer Simone Weil:
‘Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.’