Lower back, upper back and neck

Following the Movement of the Breath

A slightly more detailed breath-awareness opening that helps you notice exactly where and how your breath moves: good preparation right before breath-led movement.

How to do it

1. 1

   Settle into a comfortable position and leave the breath alone

   Sitting or lying, whichever is comfortable today. You are not going to change the breathing in any way.

2. 2

   Notice where you feel the breath moving

   Belly, ribs, chest, or the air at the nose. Simply find where the movement is most obvious for you right now.

3. 3

   Follow one breath from beginning to end

   The inhale, the small pause, the exhale, and the pause after it. Follow one, then follow the next.

4. 4

   Let your attention be interested rather than corrective

   There is no better breath to arrive at. When the mind wanders, just find where the breath is again.

5. 5

   Stay with it for a minute or so

   Give it a minute, up to about a minute and a half, then let your attention widen back out into the room.

What to watch for

If watching the breath closely makes it feel effortful, short, or uncomfortable in any way, open your eyes and rest your attention on something in the room instead. Nothing here needs correcting.

If this one is too much today

Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.

• Arriving with the Breath

Other ways to do this movement

Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits.

• Arriving with the Breath

Before you try it

Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.

From the clinically authored Vinys movement library.