To practise meditation, you don’t need to sit for hours a day. It really can be as simple as setting aside 5 – 15 minutes a day.

Choose a time of the day when you can sit or lie comfortably without being disrupted. Begin with bringing your awareness to your breath. Start to focus on feeling your breath through your nostrils.

Feel the quality of how you are breathing and then begin to focus on making your inhale gentle.  Feel the breath come in through the nostrils, feel the temperature of the breath and continue to follow it into your body. Repeat this and continue for several minutes until you establish a connection of your mind being with your breath. Once you have established the inhale then turn your attention to the exhale. As you breathe out, make the choice to do so gently and ensure that the quality of how you let the breath out of your body, that it too, is gentle.

Continue with a focus on both the inhale and exhale and the quality of the breath. Once you practise this for some time being present with your breath and you feel the connection of being with yourself, then when you get up from your formal meditation practise and head into your day, choose to maintain this quality of connection that you have established with your body via the meditation. When you complete your formal meditation practise, continue to feel your body as you go into your next activity holding your connection in what it is that you next do.

The development of the mind being with the body is called conscious presence.

Once conscious presence is developed and practised throughout your day, the racy thoughts of the mind start to slow down. That part of your mind that is always thinking of the next thing to do, or that tantalises you and causes suffering, those thoughts begin to lessen. Of course, this takes time and practice, but the more this is practiced, the mind stabilises and becomes more clear.

Try it – and see how it feels for you in your body. Here is a link to free instructional audio download library of the Gentle Breath Meditation™.

You may also be interested in reading our blog What is Meditation?

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane offer private Meditation tuition at Yoga & Healing Balmain,Cammeray and Balgowlah clinics.