Welcome back to my channel.
Thank you so much for taking the space to breathe with me today.
Today we'll be focusing on releasing tension from the body.
So take this first moment to ground down,
Find a firm surface beneath you.
Close down the eyes,
Sitting up straight.
Not completely erect or stiffed,
Just posture upright,
Shoulders back and down.
Let your body loosen.
Pull your shoulders away from your ears.
Just starting off with simple breath awareness.
Slow,
Deep breaths in and out.
This simple practice of being aware of your breath is breath work.
So building a relationship with the breath,
Describing it in your mind now.
Maybe it's shallow,
Maybe it's deep,
Maybe it feels cold,
Maybe it feels hot.
Go into the observer.
Is there anywhere on the body that you already feel density maybe forming?
Bring awareness to this space,
Observe this space,
Breathe into this space.
We're going to start off today's practice with ten,
What I like to call,
Oceanic breaths.
These are the breaths where you constrict the throat and you're breathing only out of the nose.
So begin to inhale in through the nose,
Soft,
Silently,
Slowly.
Find the very top of the breath.
When you exhale,
You're constricting the throat and letting it all go out of the nose.
Inhale in slowly.
As you inhale,
Allow this to be soft,
No need to rush to the top of the breath.
And once you do,
Constricting the throat,
Letting it go,
Continue this breath.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Exhale.
Exhale.
Come back to your neutral,
Natural breath.
Going to begin to scan the entire body and soften it as we go.
Bring awareness to your face,
Softening the eye muscles in the forehead,
The jaw surrenders,
The mouth relaxes,
The tongue softens and releases from the roof of the mouth.
Completely melt the neck from its stiffness.
Feel the shoulders drop two inches.
Going down the right arm,
Envision it relaxing,
Tension flowing out of the arm.
Feel a warmth all the way down to your fingertips.
Moving to the left arm again,
Releasing any tightness,
Allowing every single muscle to relax.
This warm feeling goes from the shoulder all the way down to the fingertips.
Both hands surrender.
Moving into the chest and abdomen,
Allowing any tightness to be released.
Zigzagging across the back,
Allowing all the muscles to soften.
Your hips.
Let go.
Going down the right leg,
Down the thigh to the knee to the calf to the ankle,
Down to the foot,
Down to the toes,
Everything becomes heavy.
Doing the same on the left leg,
Making your way down the thigh to the knee to the shin to the ankle to the foot to the toes.
Envision everything becoming heavier.
Your lower body completely relaxes.
Notice the difference between how your body felt when you first started to right now.
To make sure all of this tension has completely left the body.
We're going to go through the body one more time and this time,
Tensing and releasing.
So starting with the forehead.
I want you to inhale in through the nose and scrunch your forehead as tight as you can bring all of this tension all of this angst we hold so much emotion in this space sadness grief,
Anger.
Exhale,
Soften it,
Let it go.
Relax it.
One more time inhale scrunch the forehead,
More than you did previously more and more and more and more and more tightening tightening tightening release as you exhale.
Inhale in and clench the jaw as tight as you can,
A space where we hold a lot of secrets we hold back from true expression keep tightening clenching.
Exhale,
Release.
Again inhale clench the jaw keep clenching keep holding keep tightening.
Exhale,
Let it all go.
I want you to breathe in the shoulders to the ears bring them all the way up to the ears you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders hold them tightly hold them tightly exhale,
Drop them back down effortlessly soften the shoulders.
One more time breathe them in even higher lift the shoulders to the ears,
All the intensity,
All the pressure,
All right here in this moment,
You get to exhale it away.
Inhale in this is my favorite ball up the fists as tight as you can tight tight tight,
All of this giving receiving and exchanging lives here ball the fists up.
Exhale,
Surrender them open and relax them.
One more time inhale ball up the fists.
Keep holding it all this breath in all this tightness intensity in and all of it out.
Locking out the abs inhale and fully push the belly out completely lock it all in the abdomen area full of breath full of expansion,
Where our real nourishment happens,
Exhale.
Relax.
Belly softens.
Inhale,
Lock the abs out fully even feel the lower back and the back tight and as you do this really big expansion of the ribs and lungs and the heart,
All right here keep locking the abs out.
Exhale,
Let them go.
Relax.
Want you to tighten the hips and butt area on your next inhale in tighten tighten tighten tighten tighten.
This is where a lot of our stability lives.
Exhale,
Soften and release.
Tightening the thighs and knees on your next inhale,
Tighten tighten tighten everything from the hip to the ankle is tight,
Both legs.
Exhale,
Let it go.
One more time,
Tighter than you did before tense up the thighs tense up the knees tense up the calf hold it all at the top.
And release it exhale it away.
Lastly flexing the feet curling up the toes inhale it all in tighten the feet.
Coming back to your neutral and natural breath natural posture.
Ending out this practice just concentrating on the relaxed feelings throughout your body enjoying how it feels now compared to maybe how it felt when you started.
Your body may feel a little bit warmer and a little bit heavier.
Can you just allow the breath to be the anchor.
The more you practice this,
The more likely you can create relaxation in your body when you feel tense by focusing on the feelings of tension in your body,
Deep breathing,
And maybe bringing a word of softness to mind.
Maybe it's literally the word soft maybe it's the word surrender,
Gentle ease,
Choose your word to release tension and come back to this space whenever you need it.
When you are ready.
You can inhale in,
Raise the arms above the head stretch it out.
Big inhale hold it for a moment at the top.
And when you're ready to let go and open the eyes,
Exhale the arms back down and gently come back to this present space.
Thank you so much for breathing with me today.
Until next time.
Peace.
