Hello and welcome.
This meditation is about mindful breathing.
One of the most important steps in a healthy breathing practice is to become and to stay aware of your breath.
First becoming aware in your breath practice,
And later,
As you learn to apply this awareness more broadly,
Becoming aware during the rest of your day.
Being aware of your breath will help you to notice when your breathing is working for you and when it is working against you.
Awareness,
Or mindfulness,
Is the first step to learning to adapt and control.
To help you with breath awareness,
Before you start any type of breathwork protocols,
I'd like you to learn how to visualize all parts of the breathing process.
During this session,
I will point out those parts of your breath you can become aware of,
So you may also learn to notice those parts in the rest of your day.
But before we start with breath awareness,
I would first like you to locate the sensation of your heartbeat somewhere in your chest,
Or perhaps in your fingers,
Or perhaps you hear it rushing in your ears.
When you feel your heart,
Notice its intensity and its speed.
Just be with your heart in this moment and notice any quality to it without judging whether that is good or bad.
Now bring your awareness to where air enters the body,
The nose,
The beginning and the ending of each breath.
Pay attention to the subtle opening of your nostrils on your inhale,
To any energizing or tingling sensation,
And perhaps noticing a difference between your nostrils,
Not judging whether that is good or bad.
Imagining the hairs filtering the air,
Feeling the air go all the way up.
Imagine the moistening and the warming of air as it enters the throat,
Going down.
Feel your relaxed jaws,
Your tongue gently pressing upwards towards the roof of your mouth,
Lips are slightly touching.
Feel the difference between the quality of the air entering and leaving your nostrils,
The difference in sensations on the inhale and the exhale.
Become aware of your lungs,
Imagine your lungs as an upside down tree,
Branching out once,
Twice,
All the way into the 500 million tiny little leaves that are there to receive oxygen and release carbon dioxide.
Every time you inhale,
Imagine the branches filling up with air,
Expanding in a wave to the very tips of all the leaves.
Allow for the exchange and follow the air back from the tips of the leaves,
Along the branches,
Into the stem as air leaves the body.
Perhaps you notice that when you mindfully do this,
There is a natural pause between exhale and inhale,
And perhaps between inhale and exhale.
Sometimes it only requires us to be fully present with our breath,
To just allow this natural pause to occur.
Perhaps as you follow the flow of the air as it branches into the lungs and out of the lungs,
You notice the gaps become larger,
Or the breath naturally lengthening.
There is no need to change anything,
You only have to be here and witness as the breath unfolds its natural,
Calm but attentive rhythm.
Now become aware of your belly,
Imagine that like your diaphragm,
Your belly is a parachute.
Relax and allow your belly to expand the parachute on the inhale,
And pull it in to flatten and contract on the exhale.
Inhale,
Release and expand,
Exhale,
Flatten and gently pull in.
No need to force anything here,
Just see if you can visualize this parachute like movement of your abdomen.
Bring your awareness to the sides of your ribs,
Imagine the ribs expanding outward to the sides,
Front,
Imagining all the muscles in between the ribs gently contracting in a wave-like motion,
One by one,
Starting in the lowest ribs and waving up and out,
Widening the ribcage on the inhale,
Pulling the ribs back in place on the exhale.
Can you feel your breath in the back ribs as well?
Whatever you notice,
Stay with the physical sensation or with the visualization of this motion.
Bring your awareness to your diaphragm,
Located just below the ribcage,
Imagine the parachute again,
Feel the flattening and the contraction of the parachute as it moves down into the abdomen and widens into the ribcage.
Feel how your belly and side ribs make space for the parachute as you inhale.
Feel the effortless release when you exhale and visualize the parachute gently blowing up,
Rounding into the chest area.
Flatten the parachute,
Drawing the air in and release the parachute,
Allowing the air out.
Notice the natural pauses between inhales and exhales.
Now bring your awareness to the whole interplay of drawing and allowing movements.
Feel how as the belly rises and the ribs release,
The diaphragm gently pulls down and out,
And feel how as the belly and ribs pull in,
The diaphragm relaxes upward,
Experiencing this interplay between pull and release,
And waves of sensations,
Controlling nothing,
Noticing everything.
Bring back your attention to your heart space,
Notice the quality of the heartbeat,
Notice the pace,
Feeling,
Tone,
Intensity.
Feel how this too is a pull and a release,
Riding onto the waves of your breath.
Rest in this awareness of beating and breathing.
The mechanics of breathing is a complex interplay of movements.
Perhaps in today's practice you have experienced an awe for all the different sensations there are to feel.
If you wish,
You can take a moment of gratitude towards this powerful and extraordinary force that allows you to live such a full life and be aware of it.
Without this breathing apparatus,
Humans would never have evolved to develop the brains that we have,
And you would never have been able to become aware of your breath the way you just did.
Let's find the space of gratitude towards yourself for taking the time to marvel at this experience and become aware of the stillness and clarity that comes from simple breath awareness.
Thank you for taking this time to become aware of the wonder of breathing.
Have a lovely rest of your day.
