Finding Your Way Back To Center

This is a practice you can come to anytime that you need to find a little stillness, a little peace inside. This will give you a window of time to recharge your energy and slow down your thoughts and breath.

Transcript

Welcome yogis.

So this is a practice that you can pull out of your yoga toolbox at any time that you need it and it's dedicated to those moments when you just need to find a little stillness,

A little peace inside.

It might have been a busy day,

You might have been traveling,

It might have been a stressful day at work,

Busy day with the children,

Whatever it is,

This will give you a window of time where you can just sit yourself down,

Lie yourself down if you prefer and find a little bit of peace and stillness for you.

Now you can do the practice entirely with each of the three techniques in it in one long sitting which is my recommended way but if you're short on time then it would be just as accessible for you to break each of those practices down into three parts and just practice one at a time.

So pick the one that feels most nourishing for you in the moment and go ahead and get comfortable.

So let's begin.

The first one is lying on our backs so come to a comfortable position on your back and once you're lying on your back just take a moment to bring a little bend into the knees,

Bringing the feet to the ground.

Some of you might like to take the feet a little bit wider apart than the hips,

Letting the knees rest against each other and some of you will be comfortable just letting the knees sit facing upward and go ahead and scoop the buttocks under a little so you've got this nice long lengthening impression through the lower back area.

Shoulders are nice and relaxed so if you have that habit of shoulders curling up and forwards see if you can just gently massage and relax them down to the ground.

I like to rest my hands on my belly but you would be just as comfortable with your arms alongside the body.

If it feels uncomfortable for your head to rest directly onto the mat then go ahead and grab really a very thin cushion or perhaps a blanket rolled up just one or two times and place it just underneath the head letting the neck remain free.

So just take a moment or two to find that position that allows you to find and feel like you're in a place of comfort,

A place of relaxation.

As you start to make those little adjustments just ask yourself how can I support myself here?

What is it that I need to allow myself to be able to feel held,

To feel relaxed enough that I can focus instead on just simply being and coming into the position that we commonly call constructive rest.

We spend so much of our time in this fight or flight mode on a daily or perhaps weekly basis.

You know what tends to happen when we're in fight or flight mode is that our breath shortens.

We start to find ourselves in these holding patterns where certain areas of the body particularly around the front of the hips and the belly,

The pelvic floor area start to contract a lot more than they would if we were having equal moments of rest and tension starts to get stored in our body,

In our tissues quite literally.

And this practice is one of just simply resting and giving the tissues with any tension stored in the opportunity to relax.

More importantly letting the nervous system recognize that we're in this safe space,

This place where we can just simply be.

And as the nervous system recognizes this it starts to allow the muscles to relax.

We start to feel the tension melting away from the body.

So with this in mind I want you to just take a moment to close your eyes if you didn't already.

Soften the space in between the eyebrows around the outside corners of the eyes.

Notice where the tongue is and if you happen to find it resting in the roof of the mouth just gently relaxing it away.

Maybe even giving the jaw a little wiggle from left to right releasing any tension in this area that we know is attached all the way down to the pelvic floor.

So when we relax around the jaw we're also relaxing around the pelvic floor muscles and fascia here.

And then if your arms are alongside your body just take a moment to rest one of the hands onto your belly.

And I want you to start to draw your awareness to the here and now.

As you inhale just begin to notice the breath coming into the body through the nose or the mouth.

Notice that gentle rising and falling of the lungs and the heart space.

And the ribs protecting the lungs gently rising and expanding with each inhale.

Becoming aware of how it feels to let everything just slowly work its way out of the body,

Out of the lungs as you exhale.

And see if you can consciously choose to let go of everything else that's going on in your world right now.

Letting go of any attachment to things that have already been or any thinking about the future.

Just allowing yourself to be here noticing the breath coming into your body with every single inhale that you take.

Noticing the energy working its way out of the body with every exhale.

And notice how just a few rounds of consciously being aware of the breath naturally starts to lengthen the inhale.

To slow down the exhale just from giving it your fullest awareness.

And now let's take that a little bit further.

So as you inhale now I want you to notice if you can breathe in through the nose.

And now pay attention to the hand on the belly and just notice if the hand on the belly starts to rise away from the center of your body as you breathe in.

And then notice how it starts to gently come back towards center on the breath out.

And don't worry if it didn't rise or move away on the first round.

Just keep on following that awareness as you inhale.

Guiding the breath down towards the hand.

Awareness of the little movement beneath the hand as the lower part of the belly starts to expand.

And then notice how it returns to center on the breath out.

And with each breath that you take just notice how it becomes a little easier to be aware of that expansion now.

We start to more easily use the diaphragm with our breath.

And as we take these deeper breaths we start to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.

That rest and digest part that we want to be working with today.

And now let's place the other hand onto the center of our chest.

And as we inhale I want you to breathe down towards the hand on the belly.

Notice the expansion on the belly but then continue to notice the inhale.

Notice the hand on the center of the chest lifting upward.

And then as you exhale notice each of the hands just slowly working their way back to where they started.

Breath leaving through the nose or the mouth.

Once again breathing in.

Guiding the breath down towards the hand on the belly.

Noticing the expansion around the chest,

The heart,

The hand on the heart lifting.

And now notice how the ribs move away from each other.

So you can always feel that between your fingers as well.

The center of your palm moving out to the left and right side of the body.

That full expansion.

And then exhale everything starts to work its way back to center.

The ribs move closer to each other and then back towards the center of the body too.

And I want you to follow that awareness now.

So as you inhale just a reminder the breath guiding it down to the belly.

Hand on the belly expands and then we follow that expansion all the way up to the chest.

Hand on the chest lifts upward.

We become aware of the ribs moving out to the left and the right side of the body.

All the way around us.

Fulling fullness and expansion.

And as we exhale everything slowly coming back to center.

You can keep your hands here as a guide or you can take the arms back alongside the body.

Following this this rhythm,

This idea of awareness of expansion all the way around us.

Everything else in the body remains relaxed.

Let's take three more rounds of breath just like this.

When the third breath is complete for you just slowly releasing the hands back down to the ground.

Returning to this awareness of breath but just a little less detail now.

Coming to a natural breath and as you do so just noticing how it feels and how you feel.

Some of us will notice that that natural breath slowed down from when we first came into this position.

Notice how the mind has a little more ease,

A little more space.

Let's just slowly start to draw the knees in towards the chest.

Giving them a little hug maybe a little roll side to side.

And gently rolling ourselves over to the left side of our body.

Gently using our hands to push the ground away and just keeping the eyes closed.

Let's come up to a comfortable seat.

If you feel comfortable sitting on the ground then stay as you are but if you want to grab a block or a cushion to sit yourself on then please feel free to do so.

We're going to sit nice and tall just drawing a little spaciousness and broadness around the collarbone.

Shoulders are relaxed away from the ears and the crown of the head is lifting upward.

It's a nice lengthening feeling in the spine and the chin is just ever so slightly drawing down.

So you feel this lengthening through the back of the neck.

Let's place our palms to face downwards on the legs.

Moving into the second technique now.

So as you take a breath in I just want you to notice how it feels to breathe in this upright position.

Breathing in through the nose if we can.

Guiding the breath down towards the belly just as we did on our back.

And then noticing the expansion of the ribs both forwards and to the left and right and also towards the back of the room.

And you grow taller as you inhale the lengthening motion of the spine.

That feeling of expansion in all directions.

And as you exhale try to maintain that length in the spine but just soften as you gently let the breath out of the body now.

Let's do that one more time.

Breathing in through the nose,

Guiding the breath down deep inside of us.

Becoming aware of expansion in all directions.

Forward,

Sideways,

Back.

Lengthening through the spine.

Everything comes back to centre as we exhale.

Breath working its way out through the nose.

This time I want you to guide the breath in and allow that breath to last for the count of four.

Guiding the breath down in just the same way as we have been already.

Expanding in all of those directions in just the same way.

Counting to four.

And when it's time for the exhale to begin,

Letting the exhale also become the count of four.

We'll continue this cycle.

So inhaling for the count of four.

Exhaling for the count of four.

Using your own rhythm of counting,

Your own rhythm of breathing.

Noticing how your mind feels with this equal rhythm of breathing.

The steady flow of energy in and out of the body.

Three more breaths just like this.

When the third round of breath is finished for you,

Just slowly returning to a natural breath.

Keeping the eyes closed.

Just noticing how you're feeling now.

Notice that sense of calmness that comes with being still.

Notice how it feels mentally to have a little more space in the mind as we spend our time focusing on the breath and letting go of everything else.

Let's move into our final technique now.

So we'll be working with the inhale being the same length as just a moment before.

But now lengthening the exhale to be longer than the inhale.

We're going to breathe in for the count of four and then breathe out for the count of six or eight if you're feeling comfortable with that length.

Let's begin together.

So as we inhale,

Breathing in through the nose,

Feeling the belly rise,

The ribs expanding in all directions,

Forwards,

Sideways,

Backwards.

A feeling of lengthening through the spine,

Breathing into the count of four.

And as the exhale begins,

Slowly releasing,

Counting to six or eight.

When your count is finished,

Beginning again with the inhale,

Counting to four.

At the end of the inhale,

Beginning the exhale,

Releasing to your count of eight.

Continuing with the rhythm that suits you best.

Noticing how your mind feels with this lengthened exhale.

Nice way for us to move a little deeper into that state of parasympathetic nervous system.

Moving into that nourishing state of being for our inner health and healing.

Calmer state of mind that comes with that extended length.

Three more rounds of breath like this.

Three more inhales,

Three more exhales.

When the third round is complete,

Just slowly coming back to your natural breath,

Letting go of the counting,

Letting go of the control.

Once again,

Noticing how you feel.

Taking a moment to just acknowledge that sense of ease,

That sense of calmness that hopefully arrived into your mindset and tissues in your body.

Knowing that you can carry this practice,

This ability to find stillness and ease at any time that you need it.

Let's bring the hands together at heart center,

Bowing our head to our hands in gratitude for the practice,

In gratitude for our health.

Namaste.