Just at the end of your nose.

When I was on the Camino, I had a bell on my walking stick that would ring randomly, and there were days that I chose silence and being on my own for the whole walk listening to the bell. I needed to listen more than I needed to talk to anyone. Listening to what I was doing was inside my body, inside my mind and breathing, deliberate breaths that I was in complete control, while my mind processed and talked and talked.

I would love to tell you that this made it, so my mind is quiet, but that's not the case; my brain is just like yours, and it hammers at me with thought without a break. I understand it is normal that the brain speaks like this, but there is a problem with it when there doesn't seem to be space between you and the thought, the thought is everywhere, and it interferes with our life. It grabs your attention and derails other thoughts making things mental chaos.

Just at the end of your nose is the answer.

Look down the bridge of your nose and find the object right in front of your nose and look, drop your jaw, and breathe deeply in the nose and out your mouth.

Listen to the sound of the air moving and the feeling of the air passing through the body; tell the full story of the breath you just had with birth at the inhale to exhale and death of the breath.

Feel the relaxation.

Be aware of the body and the thoughts, and notice that your brain takes a millisecond to look at the item just under your nose. It is seeing it without description as you are more aware of your breath.

What has been created inside your body is space and awareness. Space from thought, sensations, and emotions. Awareness of what's right in front of your nose.

That space and awareness we are recognizing have always been there. We don't know or look at the space; we are busy with ideas and physical motions that brains do with your body; it may seem a lot of the time you are following instructions from these thoughts, emotions, and sensations.

Doing a practice like this in this way, we observe our body and our life consciousness, we become aware of things as they are now, and doing this over and over in various forms is awareness builds space inside, between us and our thoughts.

Why does this work?

First, deliberate breathing is like a slap across the face. The body just isn't used to the idea that you are taking over; it could feel odd taking over like this for the first time, I have experienced this myself as I have had gaps in my practice at times, and there is an awkward feeling when you force the brain into the awareness space that it hasn't been in for a long time or maybe the first time you have intentionally recognized awareness.

On top of that, you took over the most basic human function that we assume is just automatic. Breathing is not automatic; we use our brain in the process of breathing while treating it as if it were a basic reflex, going in and out without the need of our mind. If this were the case, we would not be able to hold our breath to the point of passing out; the reflex of breathing would kick in, but it doesn't until you pass out. Loss of consciousness and breathing drifts back to global awareness, where it takes on the pattern you have taught it to use over your lifetime.

Second is the fact that you are looking at something and forcing your eyes to be aware and telling them what we will be looking at without thought; the body is in control. Here we get space again; space from eyes just taking stimuli from the visual field. Eyes are another part of our body we take for granted; we assume if we point them at the right item or look around, an eye will take it from there.

That is not true; just another body part controlled by our brain.

We can dictate the direction of our eyes and what we are looking at; we can look without thought or with thoughts that pass in our minds with the death of each breath.

We can feel the space from all the other surroundings our eyes are looking at and trying to process.

Space and awareness begin to bond in a full relationship, I don't have better words for this FULL because the mind isn't invited, and sometimes it makes me cry, and other times it makes me smile with joy; there isn't a good or bad, better or worse, again without the mind the comparison and the judgment are unavailable.

The full awareness you find will be for you only and unique, which is all the motivation I have to give you to try this exercise. There is no one else to do these practices for others than you, and not because I suggested, so if the meaning for trying this exercise is anyone else, then maybe consider that you are not ready.

If you decide that you want to be in control of this existence, this will help, and you can build more awareness in this simple task, but it's only yours.

No one can do this task for you, and no one can be the one in your mind that fights or overcomes the excuses; please, if you choose reasons that you don't do this type of exercise, know you are not lost; this isn't the only path to awareness this isn't the only way to an engaged life and know deep in your heart that when you need exercises like this, your body will know and do the things we learnt. Waiting until you require these things isn't ideal, but at least you learned the technique, and if you ever need it, you got it.

I hope this helps.