We begin with the exhale, because the exhale is where the body learns that it is safe.
Breathe in, comfortably, through your nose.
Now let it out slowly, longer than you breathed in, without any strain.
One more.
In through the nose.
Out, soft and unhurried, as though you were fogging a cold window.
Your heart is slowing.
Your shoulders are lowering, a little at a time.
Let the breath come and go on its own now, and simply follow it.
Feeling the cool air arrive.
Feeling the warm air leave.
If your attention wanders, that is not a mistake.
It is the practice.
Notice, and come back to the next breath.
Nothing else is required of you here.
No one is waiting for you to be productive.
You do not have to be better than you are in this moment.
You only have to breathe, and let the body do the quiet work it has always known how to do.
Stay with the next three breaths.
And then the three after those.
