Hi there,
My name is Olivia and I'm here today to help you get settled in at home after a busy day away at school or doing activities.
Did you know that when you're very busy it's normal to sometimes feel a little bit unsettled or restless when you get home?
Taking a few minutes to help yourself feel calm and safe can make a big difference when you are settling in at home.
Today we're going to use an ocean breath to help us get settled.
So go ahead and take a seat somewhere in your home,
Either in a chair or crisscross applesauce on the floor,
Whatever is most comfortable for you.
Just making sure that our backs are upright and that we're ready to practice some breathing together.
We're going to do an ocean breath.
Maybe you guessed correctly,
But an ocean breath sounds like the ocean.
So sitting up nice and tall with our chin level to the floor,
So we're not sticking our chin up to the sky or down to our chest,
But we're keeping it out in a normal way like if we were sitting in a classroom.
And then we're going to breathe in through our nose,
A nice big long deep breath,
And out through our mouth making sounds like the ocean.
Go ahead and try it again,
A nice deep breath in and a noisy ocean breath out.
See how long you can make the ocean part?
So take a deep breath in and breathe out for as long as you can making noise.
We can play with breath in a lot of different ways,
So this time instead of an ocean breath,
Let's try a dragon breath.
It's the same idea.
We'll breathe in through our noses and then when we breathe out,
We'll stick our tongues out and make a dragon sound.
Again,
Breathing in through your nose and out like a dragon.
On the next one,
See how far you can stick out your tongue.
In through your nose and out with your tongue out like a dragon.
Sometimes this also gets called lion breath,
So this time imagine you're a lion when you breathe out.
In through your nose and out big like a lion.
You can even add a roar.
Let's try again.
In through your nose and out like a lion with your mouth open big and some sound.
Nice job.
Now just bring your breath back to a normal breath that you would do if you weren't paying attention.
And let's now notice how we feel in our bodies.
Do we feel a little bit more settled or grounded than when we first started?
Hopefully so,
But it's okay if not.
Now we're going to ask our bodies what they need to do to feel like you've gotten rid of any extra energy from the day.
So without getting up,
Stay seated and ask your body if there's anywhere it needs to move.
So maybe you need to shake your head back and forth.
No,
Like you're saying no and up and down like you're saying yes.
Maybe you need to scrunch your face and your hands and your fists and your toes and then release on your outbreath.
Maybe you want to wiggle your fingers and toes or you want to shake your shoulders up and down.
Just play with what movement can you do while staying seated on the ground.
We don't want to be too wild because that's not what we're getting into right now.
Right now we're bringing the body into a place of being more settled.
So we're not trying to be our wildest selves.
We're just trying to listen to where does the body need to move a little bit in order to feel more peaceful and relaxed.
So after you've moved those fingers,
Those toes,
Maybe you've moved your knees up and down like a butterfly if you're seated crisscross applesauce.
Right,
Your knees and your legs up and down.
Maybe you've swayed your spine side to side.
After you've moved everything around a little bit,
Just finding a space of stillness in the body and again just stopping and noticing,
Saying hello body how do I feel now?
Do I feel different than when I first started?
Hopefully your answer is yes.
Now we're just going to take a few more breaths in and this time we're going to breathe into our heart and pretend like our heart is doing the breathing.
So breathe in through your heart and breathe out through your heart.
Of course you're really using your nose but you can imagine that the air is coming in and out through your heart as you breathe in and you breathe out.
Just imagining yourself feeling calmer as you breathe in through the heart and out through the heart and just noticing how does your heart feel right now?
Are there any hard parts of your day that you need to let go of or any really happy memories from your day that you want to keep in your heart to share with your family later?
Just noticing without judgment how your heart is feeling as you breathe in through the heart and out through the heart.
Whether you had a great day or not so great day,
Now you can just bring the feeling of gratitude into your heart.
So finding three things you can be thankful for today,
No matter how hard your day could have been,
There's always three things that we can be thankful for like being alive,
Breathing,
Eating maybe something delicious at lunch or for breakfast or as a snack.
Thankful for our pets that maybe greet us when we get home or that special person who picks us up from school.
Or maybe mom and dad,
Even if they're not home yet,
Thankful for when you'll see them maybe later tonight.
Maybe it's your brother or your sister or a special friend at school.
Finding three things to feel thankful for as you breathe in and out of your heart.
I found my three things and I know that I am feeling calmer and happier than when I first got home and I hope you are too.
Wishing you a good rest of your day whatever that looks like.
Just remember if you start to feel like you have too much energy or you're restless or maybe you're dealing with some harder feelings,
You can always stop and close your eyes and ask your body how it wants to move from a seated position,
How it wants to breathe,
If maybe your body wants to make some sound.
Maybe you just want to bring those people,
Those things that you're thankful for into your heart.
All of these ways of calming ourselves and of finding those happier feelings are available to us whether you're listening to a meditation or you're just at home going about life on your own or really anywhere.
You could be at school and pause too.
You can always pause,
Find your breath,
Find your body and find what you're thankful for in your heart.
Wishing you a good rest of your day.
Namaste.
