Pranayama - Relaxation

Ease into a relaxed state by using the breath, along with some gentle retentions and Pranayama practices. Find ease and comfort in your day, by releasing some stress using these gentle, and restorative techniques.

Transcript

When you're ready,

Come into a comfortable seat,

Either on the floor or on the couch,

Or you can even do this practice lying down if you prefer as well.

So just find somewhere that you're comfortable,

And just start to bring your awareness into the breath,

Not with any intent to change its rhythm or its flow,

But just simply to notice where we're breathing,

How we're breathing,

And in what parts of the body we can feel the breath.

That might be in the abdomen or the ribs,

Or we might be breathing slightly more into the chest.

So just simply noticing,

And just noticing how we feel within ourselves at the moment as well.

If we're already feeling kind of relaxed or if we're feeling a little bit stressed or sort of run down.

And just simply noticing.

And then gradually just starting to increase the length of the inhale and the length of the exhale,

Deepening the breath.

You can bring both hands to the belly or to the sides of the ribs here if you like,

Just to get a little bit of tactile feedback as the abdomen expands out and softens back in.

And you can use a ratio of four seconds in and four seconds out,

Or five seconds in,

Five seconds out,

Or six in and six out,

Or just whatever works for you.

It might even be shorter than that,

And that's okay,

But just try to even the breath in and out.

Nice smooth,

Even inhales,

And smooth,

Soft,

Passive exhales.

The exhale should still feel nice and relaxed,

Nice and soothing.

Inhale should feel nice and spacious,

And at the same time still quite relaxing.

And just continuing to breathe just like this,

Even inhales,

Even exhales,

Just for another couple of minutes.

Just maintaining that focus on the breath,

Allowing the body to start to feel relaxed,

Releasing any tension through the jaw,

The face,

Through the shoulders,

Allowing that relaxing feeling that comes with the exhale to spread through the entire body,

Just knowing that for the next five to ten minutes you've got nowhere else to be,

Except to just sit and just be and relax and to breathe.

Just maintaining that focus of your even inhales,

Even exhales.

And just continuing on on your own,

Just for another minute or so before we move on.

And just maintaining that awareness of the breath.

And then just taking one more full inhale through both nostrils,

And just releasing a nice audible sigh through the mouth.

And just doing that two more times,

Really noticing how that sigh feels through the body,

How it feels on your whole system,

How relaxing it can feel,

How releasing it can feel,

And just know that that feeling can always be there within each exhale if we just tune into it and allow ourselves to just feel that softness and that release that comes with it.

And then while maintaining a nice softness with the breath,

We're going to split the inhale into three separate parts.

So we're going to breathe into the abdomen and then just gently pause,

Even just for half a second,

And then breathing up into the sides of the ribs,

And then once again just pausing,

And then breathing all the way up to the top,

Filling up the lungs as much as we can,

Pausing right at the top,

Even just for half a second,

And just taking a nice smooth,

Slow,

Long exhale through both nostrils,

Or if it feels better than releasing the breath through the mouth.

And just whenever you're ready,

Just start that practice by breathing up into the abdomen and pausing,

And into the ribs and pausing,

And right up to the top and pausing.

There's no saturation for how long the inhale should be or how long the exhale should be.

So just whatever you're comfortable with,

We don't want to be adding any extra strain.

All we're looking for is to split the inhale up and a nice,

Long,

Relaxing exhale.

We won't be doing this for too long,

Just a minute or so.

As I said,

The pauses can be extremely short,

They can be half a second,

Or they can be longer.

Just working to bring a little bit of control into the diaphragm and back into the respiratory system.

Really promote a feeling of relaxation with that long,

Soft exhale.

Let's continue on for another couple of turns.

Filling up the lungs,

And allowing a nice,

Soft,

Slow exhale.

And the next time you exhale,

I'd just like you to take a full inhale afterwards,

And release yet another nice,

Audible,

Long sigh.

And then just allow the breath to return to any form of softness,

Any natural rhythm afterwards.

Releasing any control we have over the breath.

And just allowing it to be soft and natural.

Once again,

Allowing the body to feel soft,

Relaxed,

Less tense.

So relaxing the muscles of the face,

The shoulders,

The legs,

The back,

Allowing the shoulders to soften down.

Allowing the breath to remain soft just now as well.

And then when we're ready,

We're going to start another breathing practice,

Which is just another ratio breathing.

We're going to be inhaling for 4 seconds,

And exhaling for 7 seconds.

And if 7 seconds is too long for you,

Then just shorten that back down.

It could be whatever.

It could just be even 4 in and 4 out again.

But when we're ready,

All together,

We're going to take a big inhale.

Nice,

Long,

Audible sigh.

And then inhale for 1,

2,

3,

4.

Exhale,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

And 7.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

We're just going to do one more.

Breathing in for 1,

2,

3,

4.

Breathing out,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

And 7.

Now take a big breath in.

And a long,

Slow breath out.

And just release any control you have over the breath.

Allow the breath to relax.

Allow it to remain soft and passive.

And just allow yourself to sit within this space,

This relaxed state that we've created,

Hopefully,

Just for a minute or so.

And just allow your attention to drift to the mind or to the body.

Maybe there's a part of the body that feels particularly relaxed,

And if so,

Then tune into that.

And imagine you can let that feeling spread throughout the rest of the body.

And just taking stock and just noticing how we feel within ourselves,

How we feel within our mind.

If we feel any more relaxed or if we feel much the same,

And that's okay if we do.

Just allowing ourselves to sit within this quiet space,

Allowing ourselves a chance to rest,

To reset.

Allowing ourselves a chance to breathe,

To release some stress.

And then when you're ready,

Just start to bring some awareness back into the body.

Maybe taking in some slightly longer inhales and exhales,

Deepening the breath again.

Stretching your arms overhead,

Or stretching in any way that your body feels like it wants to or needs to.

And then when you're ready,

Feel free to get up and continue on with your day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Really simple and so powerful. Thank you for a great reset. 🙏🏻