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Breathing Sabbath: A Guided Meditation for Those Who Cannot Rest

A person sits cross-legged on grass, smiling and enjoying the sunlight in a serene park setting.

The following is a guided meditation for beginners looking to experience rest. It is recommended you try this meditation once while focusing on the sound of your breath, and a second time, while placing your hand just below your rib cage, on the location of your diaphragm, which will allow you breathe deeper and experience deeper rest and relaxation.


First
Divine inhalation.
The Creator’s breath – In (Take one breath in).
A Cosmic breath – Out (Take one breath out).

And what followed?
A human being.
A creature that could be both In (Take one breath in) 
and Out (Take one breath out).

Fashioned with a living soul within.
And a body that could enjoy nearly every fruit from without.

Somewhere, we forgot to breathe.
Forgot that we could not merely create (Take one breath in)
But rest (Take one breath, out).

O, G-d of the first breath, Giver of Life to body and to soul.
Help us find the calmness, the cessation and the repose (Take one breath in)
To make the Sabbath our oxygen.
For Your Sake
And the sake of all Creation
To stop so we can keep going again (Take one breath out).

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