Welcome.
We'll spend the next several minutes bringing our awareness to our breath and bodies and allowing our energy to come back to center.
Begin by finding a comfortable seated position on a meditation cushion,
A bolster,
Or in a chair.
Choose a position that you can maintain for the next several minutes.
You may like to use bolsters or blankets to get even more comfortable.
Take some time right now to find your comfortable seat.
You can allow your eyes to come to close.
Hands come to rest in your lap or on your thighs.
Palms can face up or face down.
And begin to ground down through the sitting bones,
Feeling the weight of your pelvis releasing down into your support.
Start to lengthen up through the spine,
Reaching out the crown of your skull.
Slight tuck of the chin toward the chest.
Shoulders release down your back body.
Allow your jaw to release.
Tongue softens.
And relax the spot between the eyebrows.
Now bring your awareness to the breath as it is in this present moment,
Without trying to change anything.
Just note the quality of your breath at the beginning of this practice.
Not offering any judgments,
Simply observing and taking note.
Gently seal the lips,
Allowing your breath to come and go through the nose.
Now you can begin to lengthen your inhale and extend the exhale.
Perhaps counting to four as you inhale and counting to four as you exhale.
Starting to invoke the samavritti pranayama,
Allowing the length of the in-breath and the out-breath to be equal.
Bring your awareness into your belly,
Into the space around your navel center.
Allow it to relax.
Release your grip,
Your hold on the muscles of your core.
As you breathe in,
Let your belly expand.
As you breathe out,
Let it fall.
As you inhale,
Navel rises.
As you exhale,
The navel moves closer to the spine.
Continue in this way.
Inhale and exhale.
Feel the breath becoming smooth and silent.
Continue to watch the breath flow effortlessly through your body,
Like warm oil being poured from a pitcher.
This practice of bringing our awareness to the breath can activate the parasympathetic nervous system,
The body's rest and digest state.
Slowing down the heart rate,
Stabilizing the mind.
When you find the mind has wandered,
Gently bring it back to the breath,
Back to the rise and fall of the belly.
Now begin to imagine that there is a clear glass tube that runs through the center of your spine from the tip of the tailbone up to the crown of the head.
Bring your awareness to the base of your spine.
On your next inhale,
Sense that the breath travels through this tube from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.
Perhaps you see the breath as a bright white light traveling up the length of the clear tube.
On your exhalation,
Sense the breath and watch the light travel down through the tube from the crown back down to the tip of your tailbone.
Continue to watch this bright white light travel the length of the clear tube,
Making its way up on every inhale and descending back down with every exhale.
From the base of the spine all the way up to the crown of the head and back down to the base of the spine.
Continuing to breathe,
Watching this bright white light travel up and down the clear tube.
Feel the fluidity of this light of your breath effortlessly flowing up and down in a smooth even pace.
Again,
When you find the mind has wandered,
Gently bring it back to the breath,
Back to the flow of the light in the long clear tube.
Let's take one more cycle of breath in this way.
Inhaling up to the crown of the skull,
Exhaling to the tip of the tailbone.
After your next complete exhale,
Allow your breath to return to its natural cycle,
No longer trying to pull or control it in any way.
Taking a moment here to simply observe your internal landscape.
Take note of what feelings,
Sensations,
Or thoughts are present in this moment.
There is no need to make a judgment of what is arising for you.
I invite you to bring your hands together at heart center,
Chin tucked slightly towards the chest,
And taking a moment to honor yourself for taking the time for this practice.
Thank you for trusting me to be your guide.
Take a deep inhale,
And on your exhale,
Bow forward to seal it in.
Have a wonderful rest of your day,
And I hope we will practice together again soon.
