Hello,
My name is Gareth and thank you for joining me.
Welcome to the first step in deepening
your relationship with your breath and in turn deepening your relationship with yourself
as well.
In this meditation we're going to explore the breath and the space that it occupies
within the body in an effortless way.
We're going to deepen our awareness of the breath
and slow the breath down just to help us relax and settle into the space that we're in.
Make
sure that you're sitting comfortably or lying down and allow your body to soften and relax.
Take a deep breath in and release a nice big sigh.
Let the muscles of your face soften,
Relaxing your jaw,
Your forehead,
Your eyebrows and maybe even softening the gaze or closing
down the eyes.
Relax your shoulders,
Your legs and your arms.
Just taking the time to
get nice and comfortable.
Take another deep breath in and a deep breath out through the
nose.
Now I want you to begin just breathing normally and just turning your awareness to
the breath without any intent to change the way that you're breathing,
But just noticing
what space the breath occupies within your body.
Noticing what areas might expand with an inhale,
And then soften again with an exhale.
Just letting your breath flow nice and freely in
and out through your nostrils.
If you like you can rest your tongue just gently on the tip of
your mouth,
The tip of your palate or even just behind your top teeth.
Just breathing in and out
smoothly,
Evenly and softly through the nostrils.
Maybe feeling the belly expand on an inhale and
contract on an exhale.
Maybe even noticing the sides of the ribs flare out on an inhale and
then relax back in on an exhale.
All the while the shoulders and the back are remaining relaxed
and soft as the breath continues to flow nice and freely and softly.
Just continuing to rest
your awareness on this space that the breath is moving into and out of.
Noticing tension just
release with every last exhale more and more.
Becoming less stressed and more relaxed with
each breath.
Now we're going to begin to lengthen the breath just ever so slightly.
Still remaining
completely effortless,
But just making the inhale just a tiny bit longer and the exhale just a tiny
bit longer.
The breath should still remain nice and quiet,
Nice and smooth and even.
Still feeling
spacious and expansive with each breath.
Just continuing to let the breath just organically
and naturally just lengthen and deepen as we start to take slightly longer inhales and longer exhales.
Maybe even making the exhale a tiny bit longer than the inhale.
Just to help further promote
that sense of relaxation within the body,
A feeling of softness and ease.
Now we're going
to move into a bit of ratio breathing.
So we're going to be inhaling for four seconds and then
exhaling for seven seconds.
Now whenever you feel ready,
I'd just like you to start to begin to count
on your inhale.
So one,
Two,
Three,
Four and then exhaling for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six and
seven and just continuing on just like that.
Inhaling deeply down into the belly,
Into the
sides of the ribs and exhaling,
Allowing everything to soften as the breath leaves
with ease,
Releasing tension and stress as it goes.
Just continuing on just like that,
Inhaling for four seconds and exhaling for seven.
Noticing how the body and the mind is
responding to this practice as we just gently and effortlessly extend the breath.
Lengthening
the exhale and releasing tension.
And we'll continue this way with this ratio for another
minute or so.
Shoulders still soft,
Breath still quiet and effortless and the exhale relaxed.
Next time you take an exhale,
I want you to empty out every last little bit of air in your lungs
and take a big sigh.
Take a full inhale on the next round and then another full exhale,
Emptying out every last little bit of air and then filling the lungs with fresh new air and
energy.
And then just allowing the breath just to soften back into any natural rhythm,
Becoming even more easeful than it maybe was before.
I'm just checking back in with the body,
Noticing how you feel mentally,
Physically,
Emotionally.
This is one last little check-in.
I'm going to leave you within this space to sit in this accumulation of awareness of your breath,
Hopefully feeling a little bit more relaxed than you possibly were at the beginning.
And I hope
you're able to take that feeling with you for the rest of your day.
Just remember that this
practice is always here to return to,
If you just need a short little moment of presence to
release a bit of tension or to reconnect with yourself.
Thank you very much for joining me
and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Om.
