Awaken Your Breath - Day 2 Of 7 | Tongue Awareness

A 7-day exploratory, workshop-style series designed to help you freshly meet your breath. This is Day 2. Today, we’ll explore the relationship between our breath and something often overlooked: the tongue.

If traditional breathwork has ever felt tricky or intimidating, this series is made for curious explorers like you. We’ll approach our generous and loyal breath with intrigue, ease, and a sense of play.

If you’ve joined recent live sessions, some practices may feel familiar. If this is your first time practicing together, welcome to this community of luxurious breathers.

Each track is intentionally short, easy to return to, and ready whenever your breath feels shy, shallow, or just waiting and wanting to be noticed.

What did you notice about your breath throughout today’s workshop?

Transcript

Hello and welcome! This is day two of a little mini-series sprinkling in some ways to connect, Reconnect with your luxurious breath. And in today's little practice we'll be letting our attention rest on the tongue. So you might begin right away to let your awareness travel down into the tongue. Where is your tongue resting in your mouth? Does your tongue feel relaxed or might there be some tension, Some holding or gripping? You could explore with letting the bottom jaw drop away from the top jaw. If you're like me, Exploring that little movement creates a lot of crackles through my jaw. I'm reminded by my body that I do hold a lot of tension through the features of my face. And the placement of our tongue can really shift the way that we are breathing. So you might explore with pressing the tongue to the very roof of your mouth. And as you press the tongue up to the roof of the mouth, Can you sense into tension accumulating through the jaw, The cheeks, Possibly through the neck, Tops of the shoulders, Possibly even traveling further down a tightening through the abdomen, A clenching through the buttocks. Letting the tongue rest, Letting it find a natural, Easeful place resting in your mouth. And flowing between those two tongue expressions. Inviting the tongue to press right up to the top of the mouth. Noticing what that does to your body. And see what it's like to find a few natural breaths when there is this tension through the tongue, Traveling down through other parts of your body. Taking a pause, Letting that go. And you might see what it's like now to let the tongue fall to the very bottom of your mouth. Perhaps the mouth opens. And here in this tongue expression, It's rather easy for breath to flow in through the mouth. Breath that flows in through our nostrils is warmed and humidified. So when our tongue is gently resting behind the teeth at the top of the mouth, But not engaged, Not pressing firmly up to the roof of the mouth. We are supporting breath flowing in through the nostrils. So if you like drawing in a few breaths, Practicing with the tongue at different parts, Different places within your mouth. Maybe one feels familiar, Maybe one feels really unfamiliar. What information might you be gathering about habitually where your tongue likes to rest? So wherever you are, You might like to take a conscious, Intentional breath with me. Softening the features of your face, The eyelids, The cheeks, Letting the jaw slacken, The teeth, The tongue relax. When you're ready, Gentle breath in and gentle breath out. Thank you so much for exploring this practice. I hope to see you in the next part of this little mini series. But for now, Breathe well.