mindful day two: a "box" around the breathing in, breathing out delight

 

Breathing in and breathing out is

"close to"

Who we are as living beings

And it is also close to the “Feeling” area of our life
the chest
the ribs
the heart inside the lungs where the breathing takes place
the diaphragm below the lungs, where
lots of emotions hang out

so, a good next step in our mindfulness,
as even now,
we notice our in and out breathing

is to add a “box”
a container
to this middle of ourselves breathing in and breathing out

The box is this:
2 arms
2 legs
our spine

We can at any moment we are awake
“sense” the arms and legs and spine

And let’s start now:
(now always being just the right
time to become more present)

Let’s start with the right leg:
all five toes up to the hip joint
sense all of the leg you can
enjoy how big a part of us this is
enjoy how this foot and toe awareness begins
very much
to “ground” us

Now sense all the fingers of your right hand
now
as you read this
all the fingers of your right hand and then the rest of  your right
arm
all the way to the shoulder

all along
sense the breathing in and breathing out

(“hard?” , oh well, it’s just
our life we are paying more attention to,
with great advantages down the road
when we can cease and desist demands for
attention/ ATTENTION/ attention
from others)

breathing in

breathing out

right toes and leg

right fingers and arm

and add on

left upper arm at the shoulder

all the way down to the five left fingers

And the left leg
from hip joint all the way to the five toes

actually,
that’s enough
let’s leave the spine until tomorrow

try this game today:
ten fingers
ten toes
two arms
two legs
breathing in
breathing out

This is “a lot”

YES!

Life is a lot.

(You can do this when happy, and when sad,

doing nothing

taking a walk, swimming, driving

reading on your computer

even,

and we’ll work on this later:

while talking to someone else,

it’s an open eyed mindfulness
rooting us in the reality of these arms and legs
that reach and touch and move us around
and shake hands and write and hug and open a door
and this

breathing thing
breathing in
breathing out

we are alive

isn’t that a good feeling to be sensing

the aliveness of our bones and fingers and toes and
are breathing?)