Beat Stress With The Breath - 20 Minute Daily Insight

This meditation will work with the power of the breath as a way of beating stress. When we experience stress our body tenses up and tightens, this practice will focus on relaxing the body and softening tension in key areas that hold stress: the throat, the belly, and the buttocks. When in doubt breathe out.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to the Daily Insight for today.

My name is Vidya Malabarj and today's meditation is going to focus on how we can use the simple act of breathing in the body as a way of beating stress.

And the reason this works so effectively is because almost inevitably when any of us get stressed we tend to hold the breath.

So say you've got a lot of anxious thoughts,

You're really worrying about something,

Your energy,

Your awareness is up in your head,

What you'll find is your breathing becomes shallow and restricted.

Maybe your belly and your jaw get tense and tight.

So a very simple way of beating stress in each moment is simply to allow the breathing to be natural,

Soft and wholesome in the body.

And what this means is essentially allowing the out breath to go all the way out.

And then the in breath takes care of itself.

So when we're holding the breath what we're doing is we're restricting the volume if you like of the out breath.

And we never allow the out breath to go all the way out.

There's a lovely little phrase,

A little slogan which I sometimes teach,

Which is when in doubt,

Breathe out.

When in doubt,

Breathe out.

Let the breath flow all the way out.

And there's three areas in the body that are helpful to pay particular attention to.

One is the throat,

The other is the belly and the third one is the buttocks.

Very often we have constriction around the throat,

We have a tight belly and we've got tension in the buttocks.

So right now let's just see if we can let the throat be soft.

Maybe yawning for a few moments.

Really releasing tension around the jaw,

Softening the lips,

Making sure the teeth aren't clenched.

Let the air of the breath flow freely through this area at the back of the mouth.

And let's soften the belly.

Maybe even loosening your trousers a wee bit if they feel tight in any way,

Just loosening your waistband if you can.

Let it all hang out,

Let the belly be soft.

And then let's let the buttocks be soft.

So we're resting down onto the chair that we're sitting upon.

And when we soften the buttocks,

That means that the sensations of breathing,

The movement of breathing can go right down inside the body all the way down into the pelvis.

And now let's also be aware of breathing in the back of the body.

Very often we don't really consider what's happening in the back of the body.

We can't see the back of the body,

So we kind of blank it out.

But the back of the body is very engaged with the act of breathing.

The ribs are as much in the back as the front,

The lungs are as much in the back as the front,

And there's long ligaments that attach to the diaphragm that go all the way down to the lower back.

So every time you breathe in and out,

The lower back is also being rocked and cradled by breathing.

Let's rest our awareness in the whole back of the body for a few moments.

Starting first of all in the upper back.

Feeling the movement of the ribs in the back of the body.

Maybe getting a sense of the lungs in the back of the body.

Maybe even feeling the way the shoulder blades move a little bit apart from one another on the in-breath,

Subside on the out-breath.

Seeing if we can allow the volume of the upper back to expand with each in-breath and subside with each out-breath.

Let's come down to the middle back,

The area at the back of the waist just below the ribs.

What's happening here with each in-breath and each out-breath?

Always making sure that the out-breath has its full length,

Its full exhalation.

And then the in-breath quite naturally flows in again.

And the lower back.

Feeling the shape of the lower back,

The curve of the lower back,

The breadth of the lower back,

The length of the lower back.

How's breathing showing up in your lower back?

What can you feel directly in your lower back?

If there's not much happening that's fine.

Just being aware of the possibility of the lower back being involved in breathing.

And checking that the buttocks are relaxed,

That you're giving the weight of the body up to gravity.

Again,

When we're stressed,

Anxious,

We tend to pull away from gravity.

And it can be very interesting to cultivate a new habit of always dropping downwards,

Always resting on the chair,

On the floor,

On the earth,

And allowing ourselves to be held by gravity.

And now being aware of the whole torso,

The whole volume of the torso,

The front,

The sides,

The back.

Expanding in all directions on the in-breath,

Resting on the out-breath.

And now let's allow our awareness to flow out into our limbs.

So we have this movement,

This undulating movement in the whole torso.

And then our awareness pours down.

First of all into the arms.

Giving the arms up to gravity.

So let's see if we can allow the arms and the hands,

The fingers and the thumbs to all be soft and restful and heavy.

One more time.

And as soon as we let the arms rest,

Let the hands rest,

Then the breathing will also soften.

Always allowing the whole breath to flow all the way out and all the way in and all the way out and all the way in.

Let the breath breathe itself.

And now let's allow our awareness to pour back up the arms through the shoulders to inhabit the whole torso again for a few moments.

Checking that the jaw is still soft,

The teeth aren't clenched,

The tongue is soft,

And in particular the back of the mouth is soft.

So the wind of the breath can flow freely through this area on its way into the body and on its way out of the body,

Letting the whole face be soft,

The eyes soft.

And now allowing our awareness to drop back down to the torso,

All the way down through the torso to come to rest in the hips,

Checking that the buttocks are soft.

See if we can allow breathing to drop right down into the pelvis.

And coming to rest inside the hip joints,

This is where the legs join the torso.

Breathing down a little bit more with each out breath.

And now allowing our awareness to pour down into the legs.

So we've got all this movement happening in the whole torso as we breathe,

And let's just see if there's any kind of ripple,

Any kind of echo down in the legs.

Very,

Very subtle.

And now let's allow our awareness to inhabit the knees,

Feeling the shape of the knees if we're sitting the angle.

If we're standing or lying,

Just being aware of the shape of the knees,

Whatever position they're taking.

Maybe there's some very subtle echo of breathing in the knees.

And the lower legs.

Soft calves at the back,

The shins at the front,

The surface,

The circumference,

Contact with clothes perhaps.

Okay.

So now let's come right down into the feet,

The ankles,

The soles of the feet,

The tops of the feet,

The ten toes.

Maybe you can even feel a very subtle echo of breathing right down in the toes.

Don't worry if you can't.

Just seeing if you can allow the breathing to be soft and whole,

The out-breath all the way out,

The in-breath flowing in quite naturally.

The body a little softer,

More pliable,

More fluid than we normally experience.

And so there's an echo right down in the toes of all the movement in the whole torso as we breathe in and as we breathe out.

And now broaden to be aware of the whole body,

Legs,

Torso,

Arms,

Head,

Face.

The whole surface of the body expanding a little bit on the in-breath and condensing a little bit on the out-breath as we breathe.

And all the movements inside the body as we breathe.

If you find images helpful,

I like to relate to the breath as a wave coming up a beach.

So the in-breath is the wave flowing up the beach and then it pauses,

Turns,

Flows back out to sea,

Rejoins the ocean,

Pauses,

Gathers and then another wave flows up the beach.

I think our breathing is very like that.

So seeing if you can get a sense of this as we rest here for a few more moments with whole body breathing.

Good night.

And you can stay with this breathing for as long as you like.

And when it's time to move on to bring the meditation to a close,

Doing this gently,

And then seeing if you can take this whole body breathing with you into your day,

And remembering the slogan,

When in doubt,

Breathe out.

Every time you notice yourself holding on to the breath,

Gripping the breath,

Contracting around breathing,

Just allow the out breath to blow all the way out,

And the in breath will take care of itself.

So I hope you have a really great day.

Reviews

I love all your practices so much!!!
Thank you

Great, I felt the sea of breath moving through me

Thank you for sharing your experience and your thoughts xx

Loved that, so helpful. Thank you

Really lovely. Thank you!

Very relaxing- 20 mins flew by quickly and spent an extra 5 mins to continue the technique

Really informative about where the stress is held in the body. Thank you.

Very relaxing 😌

Very effective meditation for me, softens tension in both mind & body🙏

Made me feel content and heavy in a good refreshing way. “When in doubt breathe out” , really added and was refreshing to me as well. Good and insightful advice

🙏🏻🌟🙏🏻

Excellent pacing, insight, timing, flow. Thank you.