Hi,
I'm Asa.
Let's breathe.
For this practice,
You can sit upright on a cushion,
On a chair,
Or even lie down on a couch or a bed.
If you're lying down,
You might like to place a pillow underneath your head and underneath your knees so that you're nice and comfortable.
However you'd like to sit,
Take your time getting set up.
And once you get there,
Place one hand on the chest,
One hand on the belly.
Sit up nice and tall,
Lengthening through your spine.
And either close your eyes or let your eyelids be heavy with a gaze on the floor a few feet in front of you.
We'll begin our practice with just some deep breathing.
Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Use your breath to turn more and more inward.
And feel your body breathing here.
Feel that expansion as you breathe in and that gentle softening as you breathe out.
Now as you breathe out,
I invite you to imagine that you're breathing out through a straw or even blowing out candles on a birthday cake.
So breathing out through pursed lips,
And that helps lengthen the exhale.
It's going to send signals to our nervous system to relax.
So breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
And now we'll move into our diaphragmatic breathing practice.
Wherever you're at on an exhale,
Or wherever you're at in your breathing,
Go ahead and exhale so we can all breathe in together.
Now we'll all take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Now as you breathe in,
Visualize that that breath is drawing all the way down through the lungs and into the belly.
So the belly expands like a balloon as you breathe in.
And as you breathe out,
Just gently contract your stomach muscles to press all of the breath out of your body.
As you breathe in,
Imagine the breath is going straight down into your belly.
Belly expands like a balloon.
And as you breathe out,
Just gently engaging your core,
Squeezing your belly button towards your spine.
So continue in this way at your own pace.
And the goal here is to keep the hand on the chest as still as possible so that most of the movement is directed in the diaphragm.
So you're going to feel it most in your belly.
When you breathe in,
The hand on your belly is going to move forward with your belly.
And when you breathe out,
That same hand is going to gently draw back in towards your body.
If you're feeling most of the movement in your belly,
Then that lets you know that your diaphragm is doing the work here.
And that's where you're going to get the most out of this practice,
Which is really calming and soothing for your nervous system.
So just continuing here at your own pace,
Whenever you breathe in,
Belly expands like a balloon.
When you breathe out,
Navel draws in towards spine as you breathe out through purse lips.
And just go at your own pace.
For those of you that like to visualize,
The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle right underneath your lungs.
And so when you.
.
.
Kind of looks like an umbrella.
And when you breathe in,
It contracts and it pushes down towards your belly.
And that's why it feels like your belly is filling with air and expanding on the inhale.
And then when you exhale,
That upside down umbrella pushes right back up and comes back into that dome shape resting underneath your lungs.
So I'll give you a little while longer to practice this diaphragmatic breathing at your own pace.
And then I'll let you know when it's time to close out our practice.
Just a little while longer.
And go ahead and take three more full,
Deep,
Mindful diaphragmatic breaths.
And whenever you're ready,
You can slowly release the technique.
Float your hands down to your lap or by your side.
And allow your body to breathe normally.
If your eyes are closed,
You can gently blink,
Open your eyes.
Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
