For today's practice,
It can be done lying down,
Eat it!
Standing.
Or you can even do it walking around.
Just in a comfortable way.
Just make sure you're comfortable.
And you're able to feel.
In the ancient texts,
The Upanishads,
Indian Thai.
There's this amazing conversation that goes on between the five senses.
And basically,
They're having a chat over who's the best,
Who's the king of the body.
I see you have speech.
You have hearing,
You have seeing,
And so on.
And each one takes its turn.
We'll leave the body to see how the others fare.
And.
.
.
In the end,
There's just prana and prana.
Prana meaning breath or energy.
As being quite quiet.
During this discussion.
And then gets ready to take leave,
And just getting ready to take leave,
All the other senses suddenly go,
Oh,
No.
Cut me!
And they realise the breath is king.
And in fact,
I think this story,
Well,
For one thing,
It's a great story.
It's worth a read.
The great thing about this story is I think we really do take our breath for granted.
I'm What I think is really important actually is to have some sort of relationship with our breath,
Some sort of awareness of our breath.
I often say to kids in kid yoga that the breath is our secret power.
Today's class or today's lesson is just about being aware.
That's all.
Not about how to breathe,
What's the right way to breathe,
Where to breathe from.
It's literally listening.
To your breath.
If you're seated or if you're standing.
Just find your feet.
Solid on the floor,
Feeling super.
The four points of your feet.
You decided to walk around.
Keeping an awareness of how your feet are treading the earth.
If you're lying down,
Just notice.
The points of your body have contact with the ground beneath you.
Take a little moment just to feel.
And see you bot.
Into your physical body.
You might notice in cases of tension.
You might like to just release those areas.
So for example,
For me,
I'm finding a little bit of tension in my wrist,
So I'm just weaving my wrists around.
Letting my head also just have a little bob.
Are you just noticing I might.
Like to release a little more and give it a little bit of encouragement.
And then without changing the way that you're breathing.
Just tune into your breath.
And simply notice.
What's the length of your inhale?
What's the length of your exhale?
Is one longer than the other.
Are there any natural causes?
So even natural pauses.
Between the inhale and exhale or exhale and inhale.
None noticing.
How your body is responding to your breath.
Where do you feel?
Your breath respond to your inhale.
What's your body doing?
Is it maybe expanding in a certain place?
And the ribcage maybe.
Valley.
And how does your body respond on the exhale?
Maybe you feel a certain part of your body releasing.
So just notice.
Take a little bit of time here just noticing.
And you could,
If you wanted to,
Place your hands.
Where you might be feeling your breath.
So you may have.
One hand on your chest and one hand on your belly or both hands on your belly.
Or your ribcage.
Complete.
Your hands to where you feel your breath.
Again,
There's no wrong way.
We are simply connecting.
Now how about allowing our inhales to get longer?
And the exhales become longer.
Giving you a little bit more time.
To feel into the response of your body.
Notice your breathing here now.
Can you become aware of the space around you?
Immediately around you,
The air around you.
Notice how you breathe into that space on the inhale.
And that space hugs around you on the exhale.
Notice how your body is responding now to your breath.
You may also notice a shift in your energy.
You may also notice is shifting the mindset.
And maybe The chatter has quietened or maybe it's increased.
Just noticing.
It's no wrong thing.
Think of this exercise as Making a friend.
Or strengthening your bond.
And you may here like to just notice if there's a word or an image that comes up.
Or it might simply be a color.
Breathing with that.
And then just letting your arms down.
You had your hands on your body.
Take a nice large inhale now through the nose.
Nice large exhale out through the mouth.
If you had your eyes closed,
You may like to open your eyes now.
And just notice once again,
How does my body feel now?
How do I feel within myself?
And you may have noticed that I gave no instruction on whether to breathe through your nose or breathe through your mouth until the very end.
And that's because this isn't about controlling the breath,
Having a proper way to breathe.
This exercise is purely about connecting to the breath.
I don't often use the term breathwork,
I prefer breath connection.
So my suggestion to you is during your day,
You can do just one of these large inhales and exhales.
To simply connect.
And feel.
And notice.
How are you breathing at this moment?
