Evening Breathwork - Sleep Sweet

A gentle seated evening breathwork practice to unwind from your day and assist your nervous system to a place of parasympathetic: rest, digest, and heal. Using a gentle Ujjayi Breath and Chandra Bhedana Pranayama with the intention of getting you ready to sleep sweet.

Transcript

Good evening,

This breathwork practice is designed as part of your nighttime routine or ritual.

You can think of it almost like a nightcap,

The last thing that you do before you go to bed.

Ideally this practice will be seated and that is what I recommend.

So when you're ready you can go ahead and find a comfortable seat now making sure that you're nice and supported.

And when you are ready and comfortable to do so please close down your eyes.

Feeling for your focus,

Your awareness very gently moving inwards and as a way to help facilitate that you might tune into your physical terrain and soften areas of tension whether they're obvious or more subtle,

Be quite vigilant here.

Tuning your awareness to your breath.

Before we connect more deeply to your breath we will start with a conscious sigh.

This is a double inhale through the nose and then an audible exhale and you can kind of of think of it as an any noise kind of exhale.

So it'll sound a little like this.

So when you're ready we'll go ahead and take three rounds of your conscious sigh,

Double inhale through the nose and then an audible sighing any noise kind of exhale.

And as you take that third sigh just release that way of breathing and as gently as you can connect to your ujjayi breath and see if you can make it even softer and even gentler than perhaps you normally would.

Notice how you do that.

We'll start with our four seven eight breath.

But for now let's work on cultivating a little more depth and a little more length to both inhale and exhale but don't go crazy here.

So you're just very gently feeling for the length on your inhale,

Feeling your navel,

Your heart and the length on your exhale as you empty your lungs completely.

So it's this very gentle push and pull of the breath.

Inhale is pulling and the exhale is pushing.

So our four seven eight breath is an inhale for four seconds,

A pause for seven seconds and an exhale for eight seconds.

I'll count you through when you come into the pause.

See if you can relax your body completely and relax your mind.

I recommend being very mindful of what's in your mind.

Just ensuring that what is in your mind is positive,

Helpful,

Almost prayerful.

Okay,

So using your Ujjayi breath,

Inhale deeply for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Pause seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale for three,

Two,

One.

Pause seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale for three,

Two,

One.

Pause seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale for three,

Two,

One.

Pause seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale for three,

Two,

One.

Pause seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale for three,

Two,

One.

Pause seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Take three rounds of conscious sigh,

Double inhale through your nose.

Audible sighing,

Any noise kind of exhale.

So we'll transition into a variation of Nadi Shodhana alternate nostril breathing,

But this one is called Chandra Bhedana,

Where we inhale through the left nostril only and exhale through the right nostril only.

So channeling more of our lunar feminine yin channel here.

So just allowing a real downshift in energy,

Coming into more grounding,

Balancing and really setting the nervous system for rest and digest.

So using your dominant hand,

You can take a Vishnu Mudra where peace fingers are curled into your palms or peace fingers are resting on your third eye.

And from here,

We'll use the thumb and the index finger to valve nostrils as we go.

But for now,

Take an inhale through both nostrils and an exhale through both nostrils.

Valving your right nostril,

Inhale through your left for five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Valve your left,

Exhale right,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale left,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Valve left,

Exhale right,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Valve your right nostril,

Inhale left,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Valve your left,

Exhale right,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

And just continue this pattern a few more rounds by yourself,

Inhaling through your left nostril for five seconds and exhaling via your right nostril for seven seconds.

So moving in that one direction.

Quite often what happens when we take Nadi Shodhana or any variation of that is there's a lot of awareness and focus through the nose,

The nasal area,

And we kind of forget that we're still using Ujjayi breath and we're still utilizing all of our respiratory channels.

So if your breath is all of a sudden felt a little short,

Remember to start your inhale nice and low from the depth of your lungs and moving upwards.

And then your out breath is moving in the opposite direction.

So,

So much space.

Your breath is very gently brushing over your throat and it's just energy,

Air,

Prana,

That's passing through your nostrils,

In through the left and out through the right.

Just take a few more rounds here,

Keeping your spine nice and long and avoiding the dropping of the chin.

Just a few more rounds as you're doing in for five and out for seven.

So the next time that you exhale through your right nostril for seven seconds,

The next time that happens,

Just bring your hand back towards your lap.

Maybe there's a little bit of adjusting that you do just to find comfort in your seat once again.

And stay with that inhaling for five and exhaling for seven,

But this time just inhaling through both nostrils in the same way and in the same time and exhaling through both nostrils.

So inhaling for five seconds and exhaling for seven seconds,

Just regular Ujjayi breath.

And you might notice some subtle shifts,

Subtle changes here.

Maybe not,

And that's fine too.

Just stay steady with the rhythm of your breath.

And we're very slowly,

Very gently going to cultivate a longer exhale now in ratio to the inhale.

Really starting to work on downregulating the nervous system,

Getting the body ready for rest,

Digest and heal.

So when you're ready,

Please extend your exhale to eight seconds.

So you're inhaling for five seconds and extending your exhale to eight seconds.

This might require a little bit more of a push.

Let that push be gentle.

Remember to use the texture of your breath to really work with the breath.

Still feeling for these really effective inhales,

Feeling navel,

Ribs,

Heart,

And then extending your out-breath to eight seconds.

If you feel comfortable to do so,

You can now extend your exhale to nine seconds.

Just a small little extra push at the end of that out-breath.

So really encouraging these beautiful long exhales.

Maybe even feeling for energy moving downwards on those out-breaths.

And this is your energy grounding.

Last little add-on.

You have an option here to extend your out-breath to ten seconds.

If that doesn't feel realistic for you this evening,

That's fine.

Just stay with the eight or the nine.

That's great.

But if you're feeling quite expansive,

Then maybe you extend that out-breath to ten seconds.

Again,

Having a more gentle approach to this.

So a more Yin approach.

Eventually letting the breath drift away,

The count,

The pattern,

The Ujjayi breath.

And moving into quiet observation.

Try not to move the body.

Stay in stillness.

Noticing any effects from your practice,

Any echoes from your breathing techniques.

Within these last few moments of your practice,

You might reflect upon your day that's been.

You might reflect upon an intention for yourself for the next new day.

You can bring your hands into a prayer position or simply rest your hands on your heart space.

Feeling for your awareness moving down and into your heart.

Feeling into gratitude for yourself.

As you transition into your sleeping ritual,

I'll leave you with some words by Frida Kahlo.

Nothing is absolute.

Everything changes.

Everything moves.

Everything revolutionizes.

All flies and goes.

I wish you good night and I hope that you sleep sweet.

Reviews

Not only very effective but I enjoyed the clarity and gentleness of the instruction. 🙏 ✨

I LOVED that! Thank you so much. Great teaching style and coaching prompts. I have never managed to extend my exhale to a count of ten before! I'm very ready for sweet sleep!

Excellent, thank you for this gift, this relaxed me more than most breath work I have previously tried, I gighly recommend this to wind down, I'm doing this as a pre set for sleep.

Beautiful! Filled my heart with gratitude right before I slept. Great way to end the day!