Mindfulness Exercise: Noticing Air as a Meditation

How often do you stop and notice the air? I would say I do quite often with how quick I am to open a window if a room is stuffy or to use the scarf I always have in my bag over my shoulders when I feel a chill. When we notice something as simple as how the air feels against our skin we sit in a mindful moment. Our consciousness then shifts into our next task at hand or to an unfinished conversation that's lingering in our mind. This is normal, our mind is designed to move yet when it moves into race mode or gets stuck on the same thing is when problems like stress, anxiety and more arise.

Here's a simple mindfulness exercise you can do where you notice what rides the element of air as a focal point to ease your mind into meditation.

Take a moment to sit by an open window or sit outdoors and notice the cloud formations in the sky. After some deep cloud gazing close your eyes and feel how your thoughts became lighter. Smell and breathe in the floral and dewy scents of spring. When you feel a breeze take a deeper inhale in and exhale out. What do you hear? Birds, lawn mowers, kids playing, bees buzzing by?

Sit with what you sense floating on the air as your point of focus. Allow whatever thoughts and feelings to come up but as often as you can go back to hearing the birds and wind chimes to slow your mind down.

When you're done fill your lungs up with 3 deep breaths and exhale each breath out by drawing your belly in and grounding your seat and feet into the earth. Remember to respect your breath. Great ideas and truths are positioned around them in your consciousness.

Practice this meditation as often as you like. It is perfect for summer. You can also join me in connecting deeper to the element of air at my "Need a Break to Breathe? Summer Pranayama Classes" every Friday in June at 1:30pm at www.bamboomovesyoga.com.