The Rise And Shine

How you begin your morning will set the stage for how the rest of the day will unfold. This breathwork and meditation practice is designed to help gently stimulate both hemispheres of your brain so you feel calm and focused, bring you into a seat of authority over your physical body, and help stimulate digestion and circulation.

Transcript

Hello friend.

Welcome to The Rise and Shine.

In this practice,

We'll start off with a couple minutes of Nadi Shodhana breathwork or alternate nostril breathing.

We'll follow that with a guided meditation and then we'll wrap up with some Kapalabhati breathwork.

All right,

To begin,

Go ahead and bring yourself into a comfortable upright position.

For this meditation,

I don't recommend laying down as it might send you right back to sleep.

This is especially true if you're practicing early in the morning as we kind of recommend.

Our goal here is really to help our body and our mind to wake up peacefully,

Prepare us to be calm,

Alert,

Collected,

And focused throughout the rest of our day.

So as you come to your seat,

Take a few breaths.

Just roll your shoulders up towards your ears and down and back.

You might find a little length in your spine by slightly lifting your chest and then pressing your tailbone gently down into your seat.

All right,

Let's begin with a few minutes of Nadi Shodhana or alternate nostril breathing.

With your dominant hand,

Bring your pointer and middle finger to rest at the center of your forehead,

Just above your eyebrows.

We're going to use our thumb and ring finger to alternate closing one nostril at a time.

So when you're ready,

I'm going to take a slow,

Deep inhale.

Now close your right nostril,

Exhale out the left.

Inhale through your left nostril.

Now close your left nostril,

Exhale out the right.

Inhale through your right.

Close your right nostril,

Exhale out the left.

Inhale through your left.

Close your left nostril,

Exhale out the right.

Inhale through your right.

Close your right nostril,

Exhale out the left.

Inhale through your left.

Close your left nostril,

Exhale out the right.

Just keep continuing on at your pace.

Just here for a couple more minutes.

Maybe let your eyes close if they're not already.

Just keep breathing slow and steady,

Taking this at your pace.

Right now we're helping to not only open up our nasal passages to help us have a clearer breath throughout the rest of the day,

We're also helping to stimulate both hemispheres of your brain.

This is going to be particularly helpful as we move into our guided meditation next.

Alright,

You've got about 30 more seconds.

Just keep going slow and steady.

Alright,

You are doing so good.

After your last exhale,

Go ahead and release your hand down to your lap.

Now let your breath return to normal.

We're going to head into our guided meditation now.

If they're not already,

Let your eyes close.

We're going to begin by doing a full body scan.

Just take a moment,

Get comfortable if you're not already,

And then start to bring your attention to the crown of your head.

Start to move down to the back of your neck and to your jaw,

Maybe even all the way down to your shoulders.

Just try to take notice of anywhere that you might be holding tension,

And if you notice that tension,

Try not to judge it.

Your body is always doing exactly what it needs to with the information it's receiving from your brain.

Sometimes we just need to guide ourselves onto a gentler path.

So as you notice any areas of tension,

Try to send three slow deep breaths to that spot.

This is where you're going to have to use a bit of imagination,

But in doing so you'll likely find you have a lot more control over your body than you thought.

If this doesn't make sense,

Try this.

Each inhale,

Imagine that you're expanding that tense spot out in every direction,

Almost like you're inflating a ball.

Then with each exhale,

Try to imagine the muscles in that area melting down,

Smoothing out in all directions.

Keep doing this just at the pace of your breath,

And then let's continue on with our body scan.

All right,

Bringing your attention to your shoulders,

If they're not already,

Start to make your way down your arms,

Past your elbows,

Moving to your wrists,

And then all the way down to the tips of each finger.

Coming back up to your shoulders,

Start to make your way down your upper back,

Moving forward to the front of your chest,

Around your ribs,

And then moving a little further down your torso into your abdomen,

And then wrapping into your lower back.

We now arrive at our hips,

And if you're human,

You most likely have some amount of tension in your hips.

So let's take three slow,

Deep breaths together,

Practicing that imagery we talked about earlier.

On your next inhale,

Try to visualize the muscles surrounding your hips expanding out in all directions.

Don't worry,

This isn't permanent.

Now exhale slowly,

And try to imagine those same muscles melting back into place,

But smoothing out in all directions,

Allowing your hip bones to sink into your seat just a little bit further.

Let's do that two more times.

Inhale slowly,

Exhale,

Sink down,

Release everything down into your seat.

One more inhale,

Imagine those muscles expanding out,

Creating space all the way from the front to the back of your hips,

Exhale,

Those muscles relax back down into place,

They're elongated and smoothed all together.

All right,

Great work.

Let's continue on with our scan,

Beginning to move down the back of your legs,

And wrapping around to the front,

And then moving past your knees into your shins,

And then wrapping around to your calves,

All right,

And then making your way to your ankles.

Continue breathing slow and steady,

And perhaps take a couple slow ankle circles,

Moving your foot around in a clockwise direction,

And then a counterclockwise direction,

Just trying to release any tension physically,

And relax your feet back down to the ground.

Continue our scan down to your foot,

And into the arches of your feet,

And all the way down to your toes,

And perhaps on your next inhale,

Lift your toes,

And try to spread all 10 toes wide on the ground,

Exhale,

Then relax them all the way down.

Great work,

Friend.

How's your body feel now compared to when you first started?

Hopefully,

A little lighter,

And a little more relaxed.

If you're still experiencing tension or pain anywhere,

Don't worry,

Try not to judge those areas.

Again,

Your body's doing exactly what it's supposed to,

And we only really make tension and pain worse if we allow frustration and dissent to sink in.

All right,

Go ahead and bring your attention back to your belly button.

We're going to create a wave in our body using our breath.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about,

Bring one hand to rest on your belly,

And then bring your other hand to rest on your chest.

On your next inhale,

Let your belly button rise up first,

And allow your breath to expand up into your chest.

Maybe you imagine it going all the way to the crown of your head.

On your exhale,

Your belly button's going to fall first,

And as it falls,

It starts to pull the breath from the rest of your body back down to your navel center.

Next inhale,

Your belly rises,

Expands upward through your torso,

Maybe even outwards from your shoulders and down your arms.

Exhale,

Your belly falls first,

And the air from the rest of your body recedes back to your navel center.

Inhale again,

Your belly rises.

Your breath expands upwards and outwards,

Maybe this time even downwards through your legs all the way to your toes.

Exhale,

Your belly falls,

And the air from the rest of your body recedes back to your navel center.

Keep going just like this at the pace of your natural breath.

Do your best to maintain that visualization of your breath originating at your belly button,

Expanding outward in every direction,

Then receding back to your navel center on your exhale.

For the next five minutes,

I'm going to stop talking.

If you notice your mind start to wander or you begin to have racing thoughts,

Rather than trying to fight them away,

A fight I promise you will not win,

Instead,

See if you can observe your thoughts.

Try to become aware that you are having them,

And allow them to move through your mind and just see what happens.

Then,

Whenever you're ready,

And again without judgment,

Try to bring your attention back to your wave of breath,

Perhaps using the same visualization we practiced with our physical body.

If your thoughts become persistent,

Try using your breath to wash them through you.

Let your breath begin to deepen.

If you find some movement in your fingers and toes,

Perhaps on an inhale,

You stretch your arms straight up overhead,

Maybe even straighten your legs,

Taking kind of a seated full body stretch,

And then when you're ready,

You can start to blink your eyes open.

Then take a couple clearing breaths,

Inhaling deeply and quickly through your nose,

Exhaling fully through your nose or your mouth,

Whichever feels best.

Couple more.

Great work,

Friend.

We're now going to move into our Kapalabhati Pranayama.

This is an energizing breath work that's going to help get your digestive system moving,

Your core muscles firing,

And it's going to gently stimulate your nervous system so that you can feel alert and focused as you enter the rest of your day.

All right,

To begin,

Sit upright,

Slightly lifting your chest,

Sending your tailbone down into your seat,

Finding some length down your spine,

And empty your lungs.

Take a slow and full inhale,

Then exhale out halfway.

Now we begin the practice with quick contractions of our abdomen in and up.

Don't worry about your inhales,

They will happen automatically as your belly relaxes.

Try to focus on your exhales and forcing the air out of your lungs with that in and up contraction of your abs.

Your breath should sound like this.

Keep going.

We're here for about a minute and a half.

Feel free to slow down or speed up.

Just find a pace that works for you and keep moving.

If you'd like to bring back in some visualization,

Try imagining a small glowing light in the center of your skull.

With each exhale,

Imagine that you're fanning that light,

Making it grow larger and expand out in every direction.

Don't be afraid to let this light grow larger than the borders of your head.

Just keep letting it grow as you fan it with your breath.

Keep going.

We're here for about 30 more seconds.

You're doing great.

About 15 more seconds.

Perhaps considering going just a little bit faster with your breath.

Here for 3,

2,

1.

Exhale completely.

Hold at the bottom of your exhale.

Then inhale fully.

Let your breath return to a normal pace.

Thank you so much for joining me today in this Rise and Shine practice.

Go out and make the world a little lighter.

I'll see you next time.

Reviews

Multiple breath practices good way to start the day…

Loved this so much. A soothing voice to listen to, such a wonderful practice to start my day. I feel so relaxed and refreshed, thank you for this.