This is a very good Dharma talk. Thank you. I have a good mantra for this practice that I would like to share. The short form is this: on each of four complete breaths, recite (inwardly or outwardly) the following injunctions:

Breathing

Observing

Letting Go

Abiding.

Adding the -ing (participial) ending to these verb phrases makes them descriptions of what you are actually doing, rather than commands from some imagined deity or authority figure of what you "should" do--since any such "should" immediately invokes resistance from our recalcitrant child-self ("I don't wanna...") But a description is just...a description of what you are actually doing.

Next, (if you wish) elaborate on these as follows:

BREATHING with gratitude

OBSERVING with compassion

LETTING GO with joy

ABIDING in equanimity.

These are the Four Brahmaviharas, or "Abodes of the Divine"--gratitude, compassion, joy, and equanimity. They can be thought of more colloquially as four useful attitudes to cultivate.

Finally, if you wish, as you come to a deeper understanding of these injunctions, try converting them into the familiar Sanskrit chant:

OM MANI PADME HUM

It's all the same stuff, after all. But remember, mantras are like training wheels on a bicycle: once you get the hang of it, simply let them go, and just breathe...