This exercise is called abdominal breathing and the purpose of the exercise is to help you to relax your mind to make everything nice and calm but also to be able to breathe much more efficiently because you're actually using more of your lungs.
So for this exercise just place one of your hands on your lower abdomen.
And then closing the mouth,
Breathing in and out through the nose.
And just observing your breath.
Just as it is,
However you happen to be breathing right now.
So is the breath.
Deep or shallow?
Is it fast or slow?
Can you hear yourself breathing?
And do you feel any obstruction either as you inhale or exhale?
And now just be thinking of drawing that breath down a little deeper into the lower abdomen.
So as you breathe in,
Your belly expands.
And as you breathe out.
The belly shrinks.
So if you're just watching my hand.
Breathing in.
The hand pushes out.
Breathing out.
And the hand sinks down.
Breathing in.
Really relaxing in the abdomen.
And breathing out.
So as you're breathing like this,
You're not really thinking about your lungs.
Or moving your shoulders.
The only movement is.
.
.
The movement of the abdomen.
So now to bring your mind into this exercise.
Just think of as you breathe in through the nose,
Catching that very first little bit of breath as it enters the nostrils and following it down with the mind all the way down into the belly.
Keep the mind down there as the breath turns around and then following it all the way back up.
And out,
Consciously letting go of that breath with the mind.
So breathing in and catching the first little bit of breath.
Following it down with the mind.
And then breathing out.
And letting go at the nostrils.
So just practice that for a couple more breaths now,
Trying to Encourage the mind to follow the breath.
And you can actually use this exercise for a much more therapeutic purpose.
You can use it to get rid of,
Or what's called discharge,
Any waste energy at the end of the day.
So we all accumulate waste as we go through the day.
From rushing around,
From day-to-day living,
From breathing in air that maybe isn't so clean.
And just general kind of tiredness and exhaustion.
So what I'd like you to do now is think of something that's in your body that you don't want.
So this could be an ache or a pain or stiffness or exhaustion.
So something physical.
Or it could be something.
Mental,
Like an emotion of sadness or grief or anxiety or worry.
Of fear.
And of all the things you may be thinking of that come to mind,
Just pick the main thing that's the most obvious to you.
So working on one thing at a time.
And as you breathe in,
What I want you to think of is breathing in really clean,
Fresh,
Energizing air into the lower abdomen.
And as you breathe out breathe out that thing that you don't want so really imagining it with the mind coming up and leaving the nostrils,
Consciously letting go at the nostrils.
And thinking of whatever it is you don't want just drifting away up into the sky or out the window far away from you wherever you are right now.
So you're breathing in the really good stuff,
The clean,
Energizing air,
And then you're breathing out whatever you've decided that you don't want.
And as you breathe out,
Try not to do so with any force or with any kind of anger or malice towards that thing you don't want,
But more be thinking of creating a lovely open pathway going kind of up through the body and out through the nostrils,
Whereby that thing you don't want can easily leave the body.
So just practicing that for a few more breaths.
And then bringing your mind just back to that movement of your hand.
Going up and down as you breathe in and out.
And then just finishing this exercise by placing the other hand on top of the hand that's on the abdomen.
And circling a few times in one direction.
And a few times in the other.
And then just close your eyes for a few moments just to observe.
Any sensations or feelings you might have.
In terms of your breath.
Is it again faster or slower than at the beginning?
Is it deeper or shallower?
Can you hear yourself breathing or is it silent?
And do you detect any obstruction as you either inhale or exhale?
And generally just make a mental note of how you feel.
Generally.
And then just taking the hands away from the abdomen.
Relax the hands by your sides.
And then rubbing the hands together just to generate a little bit of heat.
And just to bring yourself back into the room or into the space where you're practicing,
Just rubbing the face a few times.
Just to energize the area.
And finish this exercise off.
And that completes the abdominal breathing.
I really hope you enjoyed that.
