Last class, I shared a relatively unfiltered experience of the 3-minute breathing space practice. This class we’re going to take a closer look at the scaffolding of the practice itself. What are we actually doing with our minds during these three minutes?
Essentially, we’re inviting our attention to move. And we’re moving it in a couple of different ways. The first movement is towards a very open and spacious attention. Consider the quality of this as being very receptive. We’re not selecting any particular mental content during this time. Instead, we’re opening up, noticing whatever thoughts, feelings and sensations exist; and instead of engaging with them, we watch them. We stay here for about a minute, with our minds and with our attention.
The second stage of this practice asks us to let go of that receptive and open mode we were in, and shift to a quality of attention that’s a little narrower and more focused. The way we do that is by primarily focusing our attention at the belly and at the breath. So our attention is now trained on a singular place, and our job is to be really curious about the sensations and the changes and…