Guided, widening out from your own breath to everything. Music underneath
Nobody else in the world is breathing this exact breath. Then we widen out until half the country is breathing with you.
About 14 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice. Perfect for the morning.
Your own breath first, wherever you feel it most. Then the room, and the same air going in and out of you. If there is a pet asleep somewhere, notice it has its own rhythm going alongside yours without either of you trying. Then the house next door, the street, someone a few roads over putting the kettle on.
Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on stevenwebb.uk
Thank you for sitting with me.
Steven
Who this is for
Mornings where you feel separate from everything. Where the day ahead is a list of people to get through.
Nobody else in the world is breathing the exact breath you are breathing right now. And at the same time the air you just took in has been through other lungs, other leaves, other lives.
Both of those are true, and this meditation sits between them.
What happens in this meditation
You start with your own breath and find where you feel it most, then rest there.
Then it widens, one step at a time. The room and the air in it. A pet asleep somewhere with its own rhythm going alongside yours. The house next door, the street, somebody a few roads over putting the kettle on.
Then wider still, to birds and trees and animals and fish, all doing the same continuous taking in and letting go.
Then it narrows back to your own chest, and something has shifted.
How to get the most from it
Fourteen minutes, and it earns its length. Do not use this one as a rush.
Take the bit about other people out into the day with you as a feeling rather than a thought. Everybody you pass woke up this morning, felt the weight of it, and carries fears they do not talk about.
You do not have to become kinder by trying harder. Knowing it is usually enough.
Questions people ask
Is this a breathing exercise?
No. You are not asked to change your breath at any point. You only notice it, and then notice what else is doing the same thing.
I do not have a pet. Does that bit still work?
Yes, skip it. It is one example of a rhythm going on beside yours without either of you arranging it. A clock or somebody else in the house does the same job.
Is this loving kindness?
Not in the usual form, there are no phrases to repeat. It gets to a similar place by a different road.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
morning · breath · compassion
Read the transcript
Good morning. I'm Steven Webb. And wherever you are right now, whether you are sitting up in bed, sat at
the kitchen table, or on your cushion, it really doesn't matter, but just allow your body to settle into this
moment.
Allow your body to relax.
Your body knows how to relax.
And just bring your attention to your breath.
Your body knows how to breathe.
And we're just bringing ourselves right to this moment.
Notice your face. notice
your nose and your ears, your
jaw and as you notice, just allow them to relax. Allow
your head
And your neck and your shoulders to relax.
Your arms and your hands.
Down through the rest of your body.
All the way down to your toes.
And as you're allowing your body to relax, just keep your awareness on your breath.
At the moment there's no way you need to get to this morning
there's nothing you need to achieve in the next few minutes
you're just here. And
that's enough, this moment has everything you need.
And as your body is breathing, I just want you to notice that.
Not change your breath in any special way.
Think of all the times your breath has known how to breathe without you getting involved.
And you feel the air come in and
feel it go out.
Notice where you feel it most. Maybe the nose, maybe the chest. Maybe
it's just a belly rising and falling.
Wherever that is, just rest your attention there.
And this breath is yours, it's personal, it's private.
Nobody else in the world is breathing this exact same breath as you right now.
Just you.
And this little rhythm keeps you alive moment after moment.
And without asking anything of you in return.
You may find your mind is already busy this morning, already running through the day,
already solving problems, it's already worrying, that's just what the mind does in the morning.
You
don't have to stop it, just notice it.
And now just come back to your breath. It's
always here. And now without losing your breath, I
want you to gently widen your attention just a little.
Notice the space around you, the room you're in,
The air in the room, the
same air your body is drawing in and letting go.
You don't have to look around you or think about it,
just feel the room,
The ceiling the
quiet of it all,
or maybe the noise of it.
Whatever it is, it's the space that's holding you this morning.
Maybe there's a pet curled up somewhere in the room,
notice that they're breathing too,
their own quiet rhythm going on alongside yours.
You don't have to do anything with that,
just notice it.
Just two of these rhythms in the same space, breathing together without even trying.
And now let's go a little further. Beyond this room, there are other rooms, other people
waking up this morning, the person next door, the family across the street, someone a few
roads away putting on the kettle, they're rubbing their eyes and checking the time, they're
all breathing.
Right now this same morning air
moving in and out of their lungs just like you.
You don't have to hold all of that,
You can feel it just for a moment, that your breath is not separate from all of that,
it never was, you're part of something that is happening everywhere right now, all
at once.
The practice itself doesn't make the breath different, the practice is to stay with it anyway, to
breathe with it, not against it.
At some point today, you're going to step out of this quiet into the world, you're going to encounter people,
the person at the shop, a colleague, someone on the bus, a stranger walking the other way on a pavement,
maybe even someone that annoys you. And
here's the thing I want you to carry with you,
not as a thought but as something you feel in your body right now.
Every single one of those people woke up this morning just like you did.
They opened their eyes, they felt the weight of the day ahead, they breathed in,
They carry hopes that they don't talk about,
they carry fears that keep them up at night, they
have a body that's tired, a mind that gets loud, a heart that has been broken more than once.
You don't have to do anything with that, you don't have to become a kinder person by trying harder, just
knowing it, feeling it, that's enough.
And now one more widening, the last one. Right now as you sit here, the whole world is
breathing, not
just people, birds outside your window are also breathing. Trees are exchanging air in their own
slow way. Animals in fields, insects in the grass, fish putting oxygen through the water.
The whole world is involved in this single, continuous act of taking in and letting go.
You are part of all of that,
not in a poetic, decorative sense,
actually physically part of it.
your breath is not yours alone, it
never was.
The air you just took in has been everywhere, it's
passed through other lungs, other leaves, other lives,
And when you let it go it goes back,
it becomes part of everything again.
So just for a moment let yourself feel that, not think it, feel it.
You are breathing with everything, everything is breathing with you.
And now gently let the wideness go, come
back to your own breath, your own lungs, your own chest, rising and falling, this space, this
body, this
room.
But notice something has shifted, you haven't lost what you out there, the breath you're breathing now is
the same one that connected to all but
you know now you are never only breathing alone.
So as you come back to this morning, start to feel your fingers and toes, start to hear the sounds
around you, just
take a breath, a slow one,
And all that that breath carries with it, the room, the street, the strangers, the animals,
the whole breathing world.
And when you're ready just gently open your eyes.
Thank you, good morning, I'm Steven Webb and thank you for allowing me to keep this podcast free with no
adverts due to the kindness of the donators and you can see about my other podcast and
my other teachings and my newsletter on StevenWebb.uk Thank you. Have a
