And as you start to arrive and land in the optimal position for your morning meditation practice,
Why not take the deepest breath you've taken all day as a start to the day and as you exhale open the lips and let the water,
The quality of the breath escape.
Take two more like that imagining a waterfall of any stagnancy,
Any tension,
Any haziness releasing as you exhale in that way.
And then after you've taken those two rounds of waterfall exhale breaths gently seal the lips and continue to breathe with intention through your nose.
Allow intention to be present as you breathe.
So notice how you're meeting the breath.
Can you intentionally meet the breath in a way that is expansive and releasing?
Expanding with the inhale and releasing with the exhale.
This is the simple practice of the breath for the next few rounds.
Beautifully done.
For the next few moments we'll just drop into the body and create an aspect of openness and a grounding essence too.
So starting in the face allow the forehead to smooth,
Allow the eyebrows to relax and find a gentle awake and openness through the mouth in terms of finding a gentle smile.
The corners of the lips gently flare up toward the corners of your cheeks.
Notice how creating this gentle smile in the face alters the inner experience as you drop into your practice today.
Gently releasing the smile but keeping the energy of the smile present and then dropping into the torso finding an openness as you're breathing.
Spacious quality to the breath for the next few rounds.
Allow the back of the rib cage to receive also and then allowing your awareness to drop down into the hips,
The legs and the feet and find this earthy quality here,
This grounded feeling connecting to earth below you,
Supported and held.
And then from that support of the ground there's now this lift and vibrancy that comes up through the spine,
Out through the chest,
Up and out through the top of the head.
Shoulders also find an earthy feeling relaxing them down toward the ground.
Beautiful.
So now we find this balance between effort and ease here in the physical stance.
Seated with the hips and the legs,
The shoulders grounding but a lift and expansion through the chest,
The crown of the head.
We prepare our seats so that we can meet our breath work today with vitality.
So for today's breath work we have a simple breathing technique derived from holotropic breathing.
We're going to be inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth and there'll be an opportunity to increase the rhythm,
The pace.
You can always stay at level one or you can join me in the three steps.
Whatever breath is present in your body just gently releasing it and then inhaling two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale through the mouth two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four.
Continue with this rhythm.
You don't have to count you can just find that pace without the counts and for the inhale breath make it an active drawing in.
For the exhale breath make it a passive restful relaxing exhale,
Inhale.
So you find your own pulse in through the nose,
Out through the mouth,
Active inhale,
Passive exhale.
This is the practice for the next 60 seconds or so so commit to it fully and know that it's temporary and we're just exploring together.
So this is gear one or level one of our breathing practice today.
Feel free to remain here or in the next 10 seconds or so we're going to alter the rhythm to the second level,
The second gear.
This might sound a little bit more like this.
We're only here for the next 10 seconds so feel free to drop into that for 10,
Nine,
Eight,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
And one.
Inhale fully to your capacity,
Take a little pause at the top of the breath and then as slowly as you can exhale the breath and when you get to the bottom of the breath,
Pause.
Don't move into the next inhale until you've had a little space,
A little moment of nothingness.
Only you know when it's time to Only you know when it's time to welcome in the next inhale and we just take a few rounds of natural breath when that does happen before we go to our third and final gear with a breath retention.
Nicely done.
So preparing mentally,
Physically for the final round of our breath practice today.
It's finding that effort and ease,
That balance between both.
Lengthen openness through the chest,
Weightiness through the hips and the shoulders and for the third and final round it's going to be a pretty quick rhythm of breath and it might sound a little bit like this.
We're only here for 10 seconds so begin when you're ready.
10,
9,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2 and 1.
Inhale fully,
Expand the whole body,
Pause and suspend for just a few moments at the top of your breath and then slowly exhale and when you get to the bottom of your breath pause and suspend.
When you pause and suspend relax the jaw,
Relax the shoulders and rest into the space between.
Only you know when it's time to welcome in the next inhale breath and we're simply returning to a natural breath when you do go there.
Beautifully done.
So on the back of your breathing practice you will be feeling some sensations,
Perhaps in the body,
Perhaps in the mind or the emotional field.
So for the next few moments simply observe what is here,
What is present on the back of that welcoming opening breath practice.
In mindfulness we strengthen our practice of observation.
Can you without judgment just witness?
See what arises and see what passes inclusive of the thoughts that come up.
Know that there is a space behind the thoughts or beyond the thoughts where you can just simply observe and every time that you get taken away by sensations,
Thoughts or feelings can you courageously step out of them into that space behind and beyond and witness with curiosity,
With compassion,
Noticing what is present for you.
Notice where the mind goes and with this expanded sense of spaciousness we infuse the space with positivity through some positive affirmations today.
I'll leave a space after each affirmation for you to repeat internally or to simply let it or to simply let it marinate in yourselves.
Today I open to what life is offering me.
Today I open to what life is offering me.
Today I extract the insight and wisdom from challenges that I face.
Today I extract wisdom and insight from the challenges that I face.
I meet this day with a smoothness from within.
I meet this day with a smoothness from within.
From within I trust in my abilities and acknowledge my potential.
I trust in my abilities and acknowledge my potential.
I move forward after practice with clarity and calm.
I move forth after practice with clarity and calm.
Starting to deepen the breath from here bridging the gap between practice and what's to come through a lovely expansive breath.
Then slowly recognizing any sounds in the space.
Noticing your body held by the support beneath you once again and then start to gently bring some motion into the fingers maybe the toes.
If it feels good allow the head to soften and stretch out the back of the neck and in your own time you can blink the eyes open and open to the day ahead.
