Let's start by finding a comfortable posture. You can do the practice sitting in an upright chair or lying on the bed or on the floor. You can even do it standing. It really is completely up to you. The main thing is to choose a position where you'll be as comfortable as possible and as alert as possible.

And beginning to settle into the position that you've chosen. Giving the weight of the body up to the surface you're resting upon, whether you're sitting or lying or standing. And allowing your weight to yield down into this position and seeing if you can receive the support of the chair, or the floor, or the bed. When we're in pain, we very often kind of pull away from gravity, pull away from the support and create lots of extra tension in the body. What's it like to rest, yield, arrive and settle? And to help this you might want to take a deeper in-breath.

And then on the out-breath, releasing a little bit more. Then letting the in breath flow back in, in its own time. Do this a few times, if you'd like to, as appropriate for your body, with your breathing. There's no rules. And now allowing the breathing to settle and to find its own natural rhythm.

Flowing in and out with the body. All the time yielding the weight up to the support. Letting the buttocks be soft. The body soft. In this meditation we're going to go deeply inside breathing in the whole body.

And using breathing to soothe our pain. Letting go of all the secondary tension and holding and rigidity that so often arises in the body when we've got pain. As we release into the flow of breathing, we can allow this experience that we label pain to also become a little bit more fluid. And we're going to focus in on what I call the five B's of the breath. This is the bottom, the back of the body, the belly, the base of the skull and the brain.

These are five particular areas of the body that is particularly important to soften and release as we breathe. So, first of all, let's take our awareness into the buttocks. If we're sitting on a chair, if we're lying down, can we let the buttocks be soft and to yield into the support? Letting go of a sense of perching, and releasing into a sense of resting and settling through the buttocks. If we can let the buttocks be soft then this allows breathing to drop deeper inside the body. And coming into the belly, the abdomen, the soft front of the body between the ribs at the top and the pelvis at the bottom.

Can we allow this area to swell a little bit on each in-breath and subside a little bit on each out-breath? Yielding and resting with each out-breath. Down through the support. Opening and vitalizing a bit with each in-breath. So we're receiving into the belly and then we're releasing, yielding with each out-breath. And now coming into the back of the body.

Allowing our awareness to rest inside the whole back of the body. And can we allow breathing to show up in the back of the body. Broadening on the in-breath, subsiding on the out-breath. Back breathing is naturally calming. It stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system.

So when the pain is bad or we're stressed or tense, drop your awareness inside the back of the body in this way. Allowing it to be soothed by the breathing and always releasing, yielding, letting go into the support with each out-breath. This will be particularly obvious if we're lying down. But if we're sitting, we can feel this rocking, sort of massaging movement in the back of the body on the in-breath. Then yielding down through the buttocks with each out-breath.

Feeling the breathing in the upper back, the back of the ribs, the back of the lungs, the shoulder blades, the spine, all being massaged by breathing the natural breath. No need to force or strain. Coming through to the chest at the front. Opening, subsiding. And now flowing up to the base of the skull.

Seeing if we can let the base of the skull be soft. When we soften in this area, it helps the jaw to relax a little bit. And then the wind of the breath can flow freely through the back of the mouth on the way into the body, and on the way out of the body. Letting the jaw and the tongue and the lips be soft along with the base of the skull. And now coming up inside the head and getting a sense of the brain resting inside the head.

We won't feel this directly, but the brain rests inside a little cradle of bones. And this can also participate in the rhythm of breathing. So you can just imagine this very, very subtle, but letting the brain rest. So rather than the brain feeling like a hard rock full of thoughts, maybe disturbed thoughts, we can imagine the brain resting, participating in this rhythm and flow in the body. Now let's broaden our awareness to be aware of the whole body.

The five B's of the breath, soft. The buttocks, the belly, the back of the body, base of the skull and the brain. The face soft. Eyes soft. Allowing the arms to fall away from the midline of the body with the hand supported.

Allowing the legs to fall away from the hips with the feet flat on the floor if we're sitting, or resting on the bed if we're lying down. And let's rest inside breathing inside the whole body. Whole body opening a little bit in all directions on the in-breath. Subsiding a little bit in all directions on the out-breath. Sense a vitality on the in-breath, a sense of yielding and letting go, releasing into gravity with each out-breath.

Allowing the pain that we're experiencing to be soothed, softened and released a little bit with this rhythm and this flow of breathing. And continuing the meditation if you want to. Or else otherwise bringing a tiny bit of movement into the body if you can, if it's appropriate it, maybe the hands, the fingers. And just noticing. Is there any tendency to immediately grip around the breathing as you move? And seeing if you can keep the breathing soft and continue this quality of yielding up to gravity as we begin to move.

Coming out of the meditation in your own time and re-engaging with your day. Or maybe you're doing this in the night if you can't sleep and maybe just allowing yourself to drift off back to sleep. And thank you so much for your practice. Remembering that you can come back to the five B's of the breath at any time in the day or the night to help you cultivate and little bit more ease in your body, your heart, your mind. I wish you all the best.