Hello and welcome to Breathwork for Love.
This is a beautiful heart opening breathwork and embodiment session.
Really beneficial if you are experiencing a lot of armoring across the heart space,
If you're moving through a period of grief and really just needing to crack open that heart chakra and really come back into your body,
Come back into this overwhelming energy of love that is available to all of us.
Today's practice is going to take us through two different types of breath.
We're going to start with a more invigorating breath in and out the mouth and then transition into a more soothing and relaxing conscious circular breath.
And in both of these I'm going to encourage you to bring in some movement specifically aimed at disengaging some of the armoring and the patterns of holding in the muscles that we all tend to have across the heart space.
So to begin we are going to be breathing in and out the mouth and you can imagine as you take a breath in you're going to open your arms,
So kind of pulling your elbows back,
Opening the arms,
Really feeling like a pull and an opening right straight across the heart space.
Pulling the shoulder blades together so as we breathe in we're going to pull those arms back and as we breathe out you're going to stretch the back body of the heart space by crossing both of your arms over each other allowing the opposite pull to happen across the back body.
So in,
Breathe in,
Arms back,
Breathe out,
Arms forward and across.
So it's kind of almost like a cat cow but just with the upper part of the body.
So breathing in,
Arms back,
Breathing out,
Arms forward,
Curvature in the spine.
So we're going to begin with a very quick paced breath utilizing this movement to open up that space to get some blood flowing up there.
So it's going to be using the motions of the opening and the closing of the arms and the heart space synced with each one of those breaths.
We're going to do that for a minute and then we're going to hold and pause,
Notice what's happening and then we're going to go into our circular conscious breath pattern which is moving through the body like a wave.
So imagining that a wave which has no beginning and no end is moving in and out of the lungs.
You could also imagine this as a circle where one half of the circle is your inhale,
The other half of the circle is the exhale with no pause in between.
So it's this consistent circular breathing pattern.
And we're going to continue utilizing some movement of the body with this starting just with a really slow opening similar to what we did in the beginning but it's much more slower and intentional.
So opening the chest closing the arms allowing a natural undulation in the spine to occur even bringing in some circular movements and motions just really following the intuition of the body.
Okay,
So to begin this practice we're actually going to start standing and then we will move down to a seated position for the circular breath.
So taking a pose with your feet about hips width apart,
Standing comfortably with a tall spine feeling the floor beneath your feet,
Maybe wiggling your toes into the ground beneath you allowing any stretching as you begin to notice different parts of the body that you may not have been paying attention to so far today.
Notice your breath without changing it taking a scan of your body,
Beginning down at the feet,
Moving up the legs all the way up the spine through the pelvis the center,
Your heart space your neck,
Up into the head and out through the crown.
Noticing what sensations are alive here for you before we even begin.
Noticing what parts of the body we haven't been tuned into yet today just connecting Let's take one big cleansing breath together letting it go with a sigh and prepare for our two part breath,
Just in and out the mouth pulling the arms back on the inhale,
Pulling them across the chest on the exhale allowing yourself to fall into a rhythm that feels the best for you sticking with this motion of opening and closing the heart space allowing your movements to be as intense or as subtle as you need them to be we're just going to be here for another 15 seconds,
So stick with it 3,
2,
1 take a big breath in and hold at the top slowly releasing the breath,
Shaking out the whole body moving the legs even taking just a moment to let your energy settle,
Placing a hand on the heart or maybe placing a hand over the belly,
Over the center of your body noticing what is alive for you right now how did it feel in your body across that heart space to open up that energy center being really honest and approaching this with no judgment just with curiosity and observation we're going to do one more round of that quick paced breath,
This time really thinking about how you want to move through this movement now that you've got a feel for it do you want it to feel bigger wider,
Maybe smaller,
More subtle what is your body asking for alright,
So still in our standing position coming back into your place of center taking a big breath in together letting it go and then open,
Close,
Open,
Close bringing intention into each movement,
Awareness into each breath really feeling this expansion and contraction of the heart space in the body breathing on your own allowing any other movement to come into the body if you're feeling that there is something that the lower half of the body wants to do in conjunction with this breath just allow it to come through maybe there's some movement in the hips maybe you want to twist the body maybe move the head we're here for just another 15 seconds so give it everything that you've got 5,
4,
3 2,
1 big breath in together hold at the top holding as long as your lungs can possibly hold seeing if you can find a moment of peace in the void seeing if you can sense the beating of your heart inside of your body without even placing a hand on your body releasing that breath slowly,
Whenever you need to just giving yourself a second to take a few cleansing breaths,
Shake out the body and we're going to move into a seated position now taking a seat either on the floor,
On a meditation cushion,
Or in a chair doesn't really matter,
Whatever space feels the best for you really feeling everything that we stirred up knowing that there's some charge that may be building in the body from this noticing if there is some tension,
Some tingling maybe some stiffness,
Or maybe even more openness specifically across the chest,
The collarbones,
The traps maybe even up into the neck a little bit rolling the neck,
Allowing yourself to connect with these sensations,
Acknowledge them because now we're going to slow things down really allow this heart space the opportunity to open to open to love,
To release any grief,
To release any sadness let's reconnect to the ground,
To our support surrendering to gravity,
Feeling the pull and the connection of our body to the floor,
The ground beneath us just trusting that she is holding us,
That she's supporting us allowing your breath to move freely in and out of the lungs as you find your center as you find a place of comfort in your physical being take a moment to scan the body and locate a space in your body that feels a little warmer and more open maybe it feels safe place a hand here,
Breathing into your hand taking a little snapshot of all the sensations that exist for you in this area of resource,
In your own body recognizing that this is available to you always and let's begin with our circular breath in the mouth,
Noticing this natural undulation of your spine as you breathe in and out taking a breath in,
Allowing the heart space to expand taking a breath out,
Allowing the spine to curve coming back into this cat-cow like movement allowing any emotions to exist and flow freely acknowledging the power of opening the heart bringing expansiveness into this space that we so often close off in armor,
In protection in the name of safety this is an opportunity to open yourself up to love in the safety of your own space,
In the safety of your own company following the cues of your body moving very intuitively now allowing any movement in any part of the body to just come through without thinking about it,
Without judging it let your body and your breath lead the way allow the tears to fall allow the anger to come to the surface no emotion is bad,
No emotion is wrong all of us is worthy of being expressed all of you is welcome here my heart is open I welcome in love my heart is open feeling the fullness of the inhale,
All through the body in every direction,
A 360 degree breath going down into the belly,
Expanding your entire midsection releasing all of that air on the exhale breathing out grief breathing in openness breathing out armoring breathing in staying with it for just a couple more minutes breathing on your own remembering at any time you can slow the breath down,
You can bring your inhale in through the nose rather than the mouth if you'd like to bring more of that parasympathetic nervous system response into the body moving gently staying connected to yourself staying in tune with your body,
With your heart just two more minutes here my heart is open I welcome in love if you haven't already,
Begin breathing in the nose and out the mouth really slowing down the pace keeping the breath in a circular pattern just slowing it way down allowing the body to slowly finish any unwinding,
Any last movements as we begin to come back into a space of homeostasis slower,
Slower,
Slower bringing your hand or both hands up to the heart space together let's take a big breath in the nose letting it go with a sigh one more breath in letting it go just letting your breath fall wherever it naturally wants to fall dropping the pattern,
Dropping any movement and just let your body begin to settle,
If you'd like you can lie down on your back you can stay seated keeping the eyes closed for this last little bit,
Just allow yourself to feel everything that is present taking your attention to your body and the floor beneath you feeling the floor with your hands feeling the floor with your feet honoring what you need in this moment if you'd like to stay in this space of stillness and peace,
You can stay here for as long as you would like just bringing a sense of awareness back into the space that you are in,
Orienting yourself into the here and now calling back all of your energy all of the pieces of you honoring the work that you just did,
Honoring the power of the breath honoring the openness and the vulnerability of your heart space giving yourself thanks,
Squeezing bathing yourself with a hug saying to yourself,
I love you thank you
