We begin our practice as with all others by coming to our own version of a comfortable,
Meditative position.
To a place you can remain relaxed and still,
Free from distractions of the body,
Where the breath flows freely and unobstructed.
For the next few moments,
Settle into your position,
Make any small movements brought on by the mind,
And then slowly find that outward and inward stillness.
Collectively,
Let's take a couple cleansing breaths together,
Aiming to release any remaining tension from the body.
Exhale completely and inhale through the nose together,
Deeply,
Filling all the way into the bottom of the lungs,
Expanding the abdomen,
Ribs,
And chest.
Out the mouth,
Exhale audibly,
Pushing out all the air in the lungs and all the tension in the body with it.
Again,
Inhale deeply,
Exhale completely.
Now letting the breath find its natural,
Balanced rhythm,
Equalizing your inhale and exhale,
Allowing calm to become the new state of your being.
Before we take this practice to our destination today,
We are going to find a breath and sound that matches up with the experience.
This breath being Ujjayi,
The victorious breath,
Or as it's known by the sound it makes,
The ocean breath.
By making a slight contraction at the back of your throat as you inhale and exhale,
The air passing through will sound almost like ocean waves.
Take a moment here to find your ocean breath and maybe imagine what it would look like.
Working to maintain this breath throughout the entirety of the practice.
In your mind's eye,
Picture yourself sitting in the sand at the edge of the ocean.
Whatever imagery comes first to your mind is where you will go.
For some this could be a white sand beach with palm trees from their favorite vacation spots,
With a rocky shoreline just a short drive or walk away in their hometown.
This destination is yours to imagine.
Wherever you find yourself,
Take your gaze out across the water.
See the sun floating just above the horizon as it begins to set,
Spreading incredible and deep colors across the sky.
Feel the remaining warmth it provides softly over your body.
And notice a light breeze coming off the water just barely grazing over any exposed skin.
You can't help but smile at the beauty that nature has laid before you.
Your awareness moves to the incoming waves.
They crash and the water washes up the shoreline to a point just in front of your feet before receding back and becoming part of the ocean once more.
As if your breath could be the catalyst for this motion of the waves,
You sync up your breathing with them.
As you inhale,
A wave begins to gather and roll towards the shore.
At the top of your inhale,
The wave crashes.
And as you exhale,
The water rushes first towards you and then slowly back into the ocean.
An inhale pulls the waves in.
At the crest,
They crash.
An exhale watches the water first push up the sands and then recede back into the vastness that is the ocean.
Here we remain,
Our breath becoming the waves,
The waves becoming our breath.
Here we remain,
Our breath becoming our breath.
Here we remain.
Here we remain.
Here we remain.
Here we remain.
Here we remain.
On the horizon,
The sun has slowly sunk lower and lower and now is barely visible across the expanse of the ocean.
The waves are slowly becoming smaller and you begin to return the breath back to something just of yourself.
Release the sound of the ocean and release the waves from your mind,
Returning back to the space around you.
Connecting our most natural function,
Breathing,
To occurrences,
Emotion and nature,
I find to be incredibly beautiful.
Imagining the sound created by a slight control of the breath to be waves of the ocean is a practice that has been used to incite stillness of the mind for generations.
I hope this practice finds you well and I thank you for allowing me to share it with you.
Until next time,
And with love,
Namaste.
