Breathing & Meditation For Expanding Awareness

Join me for a short 10-minute Breathing exercise to drop ourselves into the Parasympathetic Nervous System and a relaxed state, followed by a 20-minute guided Meditation to come to understand our own Mind and Awareness at a deeper level. Explore the Nature of your naturally clear and spacious mind through this visualization of our Minds as the sky.

This is a Meditation inspired by the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism.

Transcript

Whenever we're ready,

We can settle ourselves in to a seated position.

You can take a minute here to build yourself a little meditation nest,

Grab any pillows or blankets,

Make yourself nice and comfortable.

And then we're going to sit with our sit bones rooted in to the floor or to the chair below,

Whatever is most comfortable.

And we're going to have our spine straight and self-supported.

So a good way to think of this is to imagine somebody attach the string to your tailbone.

You pull the string all the way up.

So you straighten out your spine and then you let the string go.

So you just slump a little bit back down.

And then all together here,

We'll inhale to roll our shoulders up and back.

Let them just sink down your back.

And let your chin just tuck slightly so that your spine straightens out.

And now we're going to start with the breathing technique.

So we can keep our eyes open just for the first round to watch how it's done.

And then you can close your eyes and go more internal.

So we're going to get our first and second finger and put them just between our eyebrows here.

And we use our thumb to block our right nostril and our ring finger to block our left nostril.

So we're going to do three breaths through the left nostril,

Three breaths to the right nostril,

And then three breaths through both.

So to start,

We block our right nostril.

We inhale for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And we exhale through our right nostril for two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Now we inhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And exhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Now bring your hand down and inhale through both nostrils for two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through both nostrils,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And now we bring our hand back up,

Block the right nostril.

Inhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And now we bring our hand back up,

Block the right nostril.

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale through the right,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And exhale through the left,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And now you can drop the hand.

Inhale through both,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And now bring the hand back up and block the right nostril again.

And for this one,

Just close your eyes,

Go internally and do it to your own count.

So it's three through the left,

Out through the right,

Three through the right,

And out through the left,

And three from both.

If the count of four,

If you felt that straining at all,

You can reduce the count to three.

Or if you feel like you have more capacity,

Feel free to increase the count to five.

But just do it at your own pace now.

And what we're doing with this technique is balancing out our yin and our yang,

Or our masculine and our feminine energies.

The left nostril,

Which connects to our right brain,

Represents our yin energy,

Or our more feminine or lunar qualities,

Such as our creativity,

Our intuition,

And our compassion.

The right nostril connects to the left part of our brain,

Which is all of our more masculine and feminine energies.

And the left nostril is all of our more masculine or yang or solar qualities.

So these include our assertiveness,

Our more scientific mind,

Our analytic mind.

And by doing this exercise,

We try to bring both of these sides of our brain into balance.

So you'll probably notice as well that there's always one of our nostrils that tends to be dominant.

And this has a tangible effect on our physiology and the function of our body.

So you'll notice if your left nostril is dominant,

You tend to be in a more relaxed state.

Whereas if your right nostril is dominant,

You tend to be more active.

And this naturally changes within everybody every three to four hours.

But it's interesting,

You can just check in with yourself throughout your day,

Notice which nostril is dominant,

And then check in with what effect that's having on your physiology.

So it's something you can do maybe later on today,

Try to just notice which nostril is dominant and how that's affecting you.

And now we're going to just finish up one final round of this nine-point breath.

And then we allow our breathing to just come back to normal.

But take your time to get there.

And ideally,

In meditation,

As in life,

We want our breath to be through our nose and slow,

Deep,

Continuous,

And silent.

They say that the more we optimize our breathing,

The less we should even notice that it's there.

And people with fully optimized breathing should be able to put a feather at the tip of their nose,

And it shouldn't even move.

And now once we're all back to our normal breath,

We can just let our eyes close and feel into our posture here.

Feel your sit bones rooting down.

Feel your sit bones rooting down into the seat or into the floor.

Feel your hands resting on your lap.

Your spine is straight and self-supported.

The chin is slightly tucked to straighten out the spine.

Feel that your jaw is loose.

Feel that your tongue is relaxed in your mouth.

Feel all the muscles of your face relax.

Relax the little muscles around the eyes.

And relax your head.

Relax your eyes from the inside to the out.

Relax your forehead.

And relax the top and back of your head.

And now just gently scan down through the body.

From the top of your head to the bottom of your toes.

And try to just feel whether there's anywhere you're still holding on to some tension.

And breathe into that and release it.

And once we've scanned down through our body,

Just gently release all thoughts and distractions.

Let go of anything that's on your mind.

And just know that you can deal with it after the session.

It can wait.

And take a moment to just generate trust in the fact that you have absolutely nothing to do now.

Let yourself be fully at ease in the present moment.

And take a moment to generate a positive motivation for your practice.

A positive intention that you want to put into today's motivation,

To today's meditation.

And recognize that the real source of happiness doesn't come from anything external.

But it comes from an internal source.

And now we just place our attention on this ongoing movement of the breath.

We follow it all the way in and all the way out.

Just become very curious about the breath.

And observe the cycle of the breath.

Very curious about the breath and observe the cycle in its entirety.

So without thinking too much about it,

We just follow the breath in a natural way.

And we try to stay in this awareness of the breath.

And with every in-breath,

We try to center our mind,

Bring it back to the present.

And with every out-breath,

We let go of any thoughts or ideas or emotions.

And without thinking of the past or looking into the future,

We just allow the breath to rest in the present moment,

At peace from moment to moment.

So we're not trying to block any thoughts that come in.

Just notice as they come up.

And gently bring your mind back to the present moment,

Maybe with a gentle smile.

On your face.

Because when we do this,

It creates a positive reinforcement.

That bringing our mind back to the present moment tells our brain that's a good thing.

So now from this place of inner peace,

We're going to start to look into the nature of our own mind.

So as we start,

Just know that our minds are by nature pure and clear.

And that our disturbing thoughts and negative emotions are only temporary.

They're not a part of our actual being.

And first,

Try to become aware of what it is that is actually happening.

Become aware of what it is that is actually observing your breath.

Which is your mind.

Notice your own mind as it observes the breath.

And get a sense of the quality of your mind in this moment as it observes.

And there is something within you that is aware of your breath right now.

So ask yourself,

What is that?

Become aware of this quality within you that is aware.

Direct all of your attention onto this quality of being aware.

This is a clear and knowing quality of our mind.

And now with all of our attention on our awareness,

Allow our awareness to expand and to become vast.

So let your awareness fill your entire body.

And then watch it expand to fill the room that you're sitting in.

And with each out breath,

Push your awareness further out into the world.

Until the whole world is in your awareness.

And forget that there is an observer and something being observed.

Imagine your entire experience,

Your mind,

Being like the sky.

Vast and spacious and infinite.

And now with each out breath,

Push your awareness further out into the world.

Vast and spacious and infinite.

So hold this experience gently.

And identify with the experience of having a vast,

Clear and spacious mind.

Know that just as the sky is clear,

With a beautiful sun shining down on you,

Just like that,

Your mind is by nature clear.

And sometimes clouds may fill the sky and obscure this sunlight.

But the sky itself remains unaffected by the clouds.

The sky doesn't identify with the clouds.

With the clouds.

And it doesn't judge the clouds.

The clouds just pass through this vast spaciousness of the sky.

But the sky itself remains unaffected and is not stained by the clouds that pass through.

And it is like that with the thoughts and emotions in our mind.

So just attend for a minute or two to the vast spaciousness of your mind in silence.

And know that each idea,

Mental image,

Thought or emotion that comes up is just like this.

A cloud passing through an infinite and clear sky.

So concentrate on this experience and observe how it feels for you.

And whatever comes up in your mind,

Let it be just like a cloud.

So instead of identifying with the clouds,

Identify with the vast space behind the clouds,

Which is unaffected,

Free and open.

Now as you breathe in,

Allow your awareness to become completely clear and crisp,

As if a cool breeze is passing through.

As you breathe out,

Further expand your awareness in all directions and let go of any clinging to allow the mind to become even more vast.

And now within that vast space you've created,

We can just let go of any appearances or thoughts.

Let go of any appearances or visualization and come back to the natural movement of our breath.

Just let it flow freely and naturally and pay attention to the sensations of the breath within the body.

And now just stay with these sensations for a few minutes and recognize the quality of your mind after the meditation we have just been doing.

So allow yourself to sit in this spacious mind for another few minutes.

Just enjoy it and remember at the end to give yourself a minute to reflect on your experience.

So I'm going to sign off now,

But please feel free to sit with this spacious mind for as long as feels comfortable for you.

And thank you for joining today.