Hello,
It's Pritika.
You're very welcome.
This video has been inspired by.
.
.
By the mini.
Good souls who come to the live meditation sessions that I offer on Insight.
And particularly those who are looking for relief.
From the pressures of life,
Anxiety.
Tension,
Stress,
Fear,
Doubt.
All of these.
Can have a very dramatic impact.
On our well-being.
Physically,
Emotionally,
Spiritually.
Particularly if they've been held for a long time.
As a trauma.
In the memory of our cells in our body.
And these can cause an underlying imbalance in our energy.
Our joy,
Our happiness,
Our capacity to be the very free and true nature of our being.
That in mind,
And actually some of the very dear souls who attend these lives.
Meditations have asked me if I could actually do meditation on the somatic breath work.
A deeply calming method of breathing.
That brings such a shift.
Away from the energies of discordance.
And return the body and the mind,
The spirit.
To a much quieter,
Calmer,
Stiller presence.
Now,
To begin with,
This method goes back to the very ancient traditions of yoga.
Particularly in posture,
How to sit.
So with that said,
All that really is required of you is firstly to be comfortable.
Where you are sitting whether that's on a cushion on the floor or sitting in a chair.
And also to sit with a straight back and neck.
Okay,
Straight back and neck,
No slouching,
But sitting upright.
For those who ride horses,
You'll understand sitting.
The bones of your bottom.
So you're sitting upright and this will have an obvious.
.
.
I'll be able to explain the reason for this and you'll be able to feel it.
It'll be obvious to you why this posture is important.
As we continue in this exercise together.
All right.
You'll be breathing in through your nose,
So your mouth will be closed and your eyes will be closed also.
To begin.
What you'll be doing is.
.
.
Concentrating only on one thing,
And that is following the path of the breath.
As it enters your body and as it leaves.
Now,
If you've just come away from a busy situation and your mind is full of thoughts or whatever it might be.
Do not be discouraged.
If there are thoughts that are present during this breathing method.
Really thoughts are always going to be there in some way or another.
The main thing always is just don't take any notice of them.
And it might feel strange to say that in the beginning,
But you'll quickly become accustomed to developing the concentration,
The discipline of concentration.
To just follow the path of the breath.
And to ignore all thoughts.
And don't be disappointed if thoughts seem strong,
Sometimes more than others.
That's just the nature of mind.
Just stick with it.
Never give up.
And you'll find over time.
.
.
The intensity of thoughts to be a distraction.
Will become less and less and less,
Until ultimately they're virtually unnoticeable.
Okay.
So to begin,
Close your eyes.
The incoming breath,
As we draw oxygen into our being,
It is very quiet.
It's very relaxed.
Very gentle.
Now as you reach the top of your breath you will feel Physically feel the expansion in your chest.
As the lungs fill.
And then at the top of the breath,
Just pause.
For a moment.
And then exhale.
Now as you exhale,
It really is a reverse of the inhalation.
So your exhalation is again.
Calm.
Relax.
The focus is 100% on following the path of your breath.
Now,
Endeavour to make the length of your outgoing breath longer than the length of your incoming breath.
Then at the bottom of the breath,
Pause again.
Now you will develop your own.
Rhythm.
It doesn't have to be what I am doing,
But as long as you maintain A rhythm which is quiet.
And steady.
And relax.
Then that is perfect.
OK,
So again.
Breathing in quietly.
Slowly,
Relaxed,
Nice and calm.
Slowly reaching top of the breath you'll feel your chest expand.
The lungs will fill.
Pause.
And then exhale.
Quietly.
Calmly.
Nothing rushes.
Concentrating on the movement of your breath.
As it flows out of your body.
And then at the bottom of your breath,
Pause again.
Do it again.
Breathing in quietly.
Calmly relax.
Nothing forced,
Nice and relaxed and calm.
Breathing in.
Reaching the top of your breath.
Pause.
And then quietly,
Slowly.
.
.
Relax.
Breathe out.
With your outgoing breath being longer.
Than your incoming breath.
Now after doing this 4 or 5 times You may have a sense that The body is beginning to feel.
More relaxed.
The distractions of thought are becoming less and less.
And you settle into a natural Awareness of a quietness.
A stillness,
And a calmness.
Now the reason for lengthening the outgoing breath.
Normally,
In our working day,
We are being activated through the energies of the physical mind.
Through the sympathetic nervous system.
As we focus on the length of the outgoing branch,
It's like flipping a switch.
By transferring across from the thinking,
Active,
Doing mind,
Across to the quieter,
Parasympathetic,
Nervous system.
Awareness,
Energy fields.
Of quiet.
Deepening.
Meditative stillness.
And this occurs because we're activating,
We're stimulating the vagus nerve.
And that in turn releases in the body physically the feel-good hormones And that's where the parasympathetic nervous system brings that sense of ease.
Calmness,
Spaciousness,
Openness.
As you relax further and further into the body.
You may notice.
A sense of lightness in the body.
Because really now we're not.
In the realms of the physical body-mind relationship.
We are near.
In the impersonal.
Realm of deep.
Meditative consciousness.
And that's all you need to do.
Breathing in quietly.
Calmly,
Relaxed.
The body is still.
The mind is focused on the flow of the breath.
Top of the breath.
The chest is expanding.
Pause.
And then.
.
.
Breathe out again,
Quietly,
Calmly.
One technique you might like to use to help you.
Gain the capacity to ignore your thoughts,
Treat them like a cloud appearing in the sky.
Now clouds appear.
And then they fade.
So a thought is like the cloud.
But then it fades.
And what is left after.
The cloud has faded.
Spacious stillness of mind.
The sky.
Or alternatively You could imagine yourself sitting on a beautiful water-worn boulder in a mountain stream.
And you're gazing into the beauty of the forest in front of you.
And then out of the corner of your eye,
You see in the stream.
And that leaf.
Continues on the surface of the stream.
It comes to flow past where you're sitting.
And then it continues its journey.
On the way.
To the ocean.
It's there,
You notice it?
And then it's gone So these techniques,
These visualizations.
May also help you.
But the main thing is Never feel disappointed.
Never feel frustrated.
If the strength of these thoughts seem to be all too powerful,
Just not enabling you.
To find even a moment of stillness.
Using this breathing method.
Even if you only have one fraction of a second.
If this is something new to you,
If meditation is something new to you.
That one second more than you had before.
And every time you sit and practice.
Every time you use this breathing rhythm.
Your capacity to ignore thoughts.
Will become greater and greater.
Use this method whenever you feel a sense of relief.
Of tension.
Anger,
Frustration.
You're feeling uncertain.
You're looking for clarity.
And stress.
Some energy which just is there and it's not comfortable.
And that can manifest.
Through an emotional outburst,
If it gets to that point.
But you feel this discord that's like a heat in your body.
And invariably you might notice it.
As this warmth or this heat in the pit of your stomach.
The body tends to tighten the breath.
Begins to become more shallow,
And you can feel this rising energy of discordance.
This is the time.
Where this method is most effective.
So it doesn't matter where you are.
You can be standing in line for a coffee.
You can be on transport.
You can be sitting at your desk at work.
About to go into a meeting and you're feeling A little bit unsure,
You want some clarity,
Just quietly.
Come into this method of breathing.
Only for a few minutes,
That's all it takes.
Or you might be somewhere socially where someone has really triggered some emotional reaction in you and you can feel this heat.
Just quietly remove yourself.
Go somewhere quiet,
Perhaps into the bathroom.
And use this method again It is highly effective.
So I do hope this.
.
.
Will be of benefit to you.
And apart from this video,
There are other videos on Insight Timer.
There are some more.
Wonderful tracks on both free tracks and subscriber which are dedicated to a quieter,
Calmer,
Stiller world.
Reality.
And you can listen to those at any time.
I do hope this helps you.
And once again this method is very traditional,
Very ancient in its groundings.
And it's highly effective.
Particularly as we are living in a world of chaos,
Uncertainty.
Where tensions and stresses and fears and all sorts of manner of nervous system imbalances.
A lot of it can be around the ego.
But whatever it is,
This method is a very sure way.
To bring calmness and stillness.
And,
Importantly,
Awareness and clarity.
Into your life.
Blessings to you.
