Welcome.
Today's practice is intended to help to remove that mental clutter and debris.
This is a practice that I learned from Bill Filter with the Veterans Path Organization.
We're going to start the practice by identifying with posture.
To see the posture,
You can either sit on the floor or in a chair.
Go and find your seat.
Once seated,
Go ahead and feel your weight heavy and on the floor in your chair.
Spine is upright but not rigid,
Supporting our neck.
Our gaze is down six to eight feet in front of us,
Soft,
Our eyes closed.
We're going to turn our palms face up and place them on our thighs,
Relaxing our shoulders.
We're going to connect with the breath.
And before we start,
We're going to take an internal selfie.
Evaluate,
Where are we right now?
Turn the lens inside.
Where are our thoughts?
Where's our mind right now?
How does our body feel?
Where's our nervous system?
Just take that quick snapshot and then we're going to go ahead and begin by talking about the belly breath.
The belly breath is something we're going to use throughout this practice.
We're always going to breathe deep into the belly,
Breathing in through the nose,
Sharp belly,
And then we'll breathe in the upper chest and then we'll exhale through the mouth,
Taking our belly button to spine,
Exhaling all of our air,
Squeezing everything out.
And for this first set,
We're going to do three repetitions,
Just maintaining our posture,
Doing three belly breaths.
And begin by taking a small inhale,
Exhale through the mouth,
Belly button to spine.
Inhale big belly,
Inhale chest,
And let it go.
Belly button to spine.
Again big belly,
Chest,
Exhale through the mouth,
Belly button to spine.
And again,
Inhale big belly,
Inhale chest,
And let it all go.
Let your breathing return back to normal.
And for this next set,
We're going to go ahead and continue with three repetitions,
Maintaining that belly breath.
But at the top of the breath,
After we inhale chest,
We're going to go ahead and tighten our fists,
And we're going to bring our shoulders up to our ears.
And then as we exhale,
We're going to let all of that go.
So again,
We'll begin with a short inhale.
Exhale,
Belly button to spine.
Inhale through the nose,
Big belly,
Chest,
Tighten your fists,
Bring your shoulders to your ears,
And exhale,
Release,
Relax those shoulders,
Exhale,
Belly button to spine.
Again,
Inhale big belly,
Chest,
Tighten your fists and shoulders,
And let it go.
One more inhale big belly,
Chest,
Tighten fists and shoulders,
And let it go.
Letting our breathing return to normal.
For this next set,
We're going to continue with three repetitions,
Maintaining our belly breath.
But at the top of the breath,
After the chest,
We're going to go ahead and furrow our brow and tighten our jaw or clench our teeth together,
Not too tight,
Tightening our whole face.
Start with a small inhale.
Exhale through the mouth,
Belly button to spine.
Inhale,
Big belly,
Chest,
Tighten forehead and jaw,
And exhale,
Let it go.
Again,
Inhale big belly,
Chest,
Tighten forehead and jaw,
And release,
Let it go.
Last one,
Inhale big belly,
Chest,
Tighten forehead and jaw,
And release.
Letting out all that used air.
Letting our breath return back to normal.
For this next set,
We're going to continue with three repetitions.
But at the top of the breath,
After the chest,
We're going to go ahead and do all four tightenings,
Tightening our fists,
Bringing our shoulders up to our ears,
Tightening our forehead,
And tightening our jaw.
Go ahead and start with a small inhale.
Exhale,
Belly button to spine.
Inhale big belly,
Inhale chest,
All four tightenings,
Fists,
Shoulders,
Forehead and jaw,
And release.
Again,
Inhale big belly,
Inhale chest,
All four tightenings,
And let it go.
Belly button to spine.
Last one,
Inhale big belly,
Inhale chest,
All four tightenings,
Fists,
Shoulders,
Forehead,
And jaw,
And release.
Letting everything go.
Let our breathing return back to normal.
Go ahead and take that snapshot right now.
Where's our body?
Where's our mind now?
We're going to go ahead and end the practice with three belly breaths,
No tightenings.
Go ahead and start with a small inhale.
Exhale,
Big belly.
Inhale big belly.
Inhale chest,
And let it go.
Inhale big belly.
Inhale chest,
And let it go.
Last one.
Inhale big belly into chest.
And let it all go.
We'll go ahead and end the practice taking that last internal selfie.
Where's our mind now?
Where are our thoughts?
How does my body feel?
Where's my nervous system?
I just want to thank you for joining me for today's practice.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
