Start in a comfortable seated position,
Arms and legs uncrossed,
And feet firmly planted against the earth.
We will be doing practices to engage and soothe the vagus nerve and turn on the relaxation response within your body.
Let's begin with an awareness practice.
Close your eyes and just notice how you're doing.
Scan through your body from head to toe,
Noting how you're doing physically,
If there's tension or tightness within,
Emotionally,
And mentally.
Then rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10,
10 being blissful and 1 being super stressed out.
5 is I'm okay.
By shifting into the observer mode,
We start to shift toward relaxation.
From the state of presence of observing,
We'll now begin our breathing practice.
Deep breathing is our anchor and it's always available to us.
It's accessible,
It's free.
So start to breathe deeply,
Inhaling through your nose and exhaling slowly through a slightly opened mouth.
Let's do a few breaths like that.
Just inhaling deeply through your nostrils and exhaling super slowly like you're letting off steam on that exhalation.
You're opening the body to the breath.
On that next exhalation,
I want you to pull belly to spine and squeeze the stale air from the body.
Now take a big deep breath in,
Noting if you can breathe more deeply.
And of course exhaling very slowly.
Good.
It's helpful to begin any breathing practice by letting go of the stale air.
Now place your hands on the sides of your low ribs and continue to breathe deeply and notice if you're breathing into your belly or if you sense the low ribs moving with the breath.
Breathe deeply and consciously and begin to feel the low ribs expanding and contracting with the breath.
Make that happen with your deep breathing.
This will ensure that you're breathing diaphragmatically.
Try that a few breaths where you're just expanding,
Having your hands there so you can really feel into your body and contracting on that exhalation.
By breathing diaphragmatically,
We're automatically triggering that relaxation response.
Now relax your hands down to your thighs and note how you feel where your hands were presenced on your ribs as you continue to breathe deeply.
You can still have that awareness of that deep diaphragmatic breath.
On the inhale,
Breathing in through the nostrils fully,
Widening the low ribs.
And on the exhale slowly breathing out through your mouth,
Sensing the release,
The letting go.
Now we will begin with breath counting,
Doubling our exhalation,
Breathing into a count of three and exhaling to a count of six.
Let's begin together.
Exhale,
Pull belly to spine,
Squeezing stale air out.
Inhale two,
Three,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Inhaling two,
Three,
Exhaling two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
You at your own count.
Good inhaling through the nose and exhaling super slowly through that slightly opened mouth.
On your inhalation,
Feel yourself filling the body with a deep diaphragmatic breath.
And on the exhale,
Simply release,
Relax and let go.
We are breathing slowly and rhythmically.
Feel the breath expanding the lower ribs as you inhale.
And the contraction as you exhale.
No need to try so hard.
Just relax and breathe.
You are assuring your nervous system that you are safe and that you can relax now.
Breathing slowly and deeply.
Exhaling fully to a count of three,
Exhaling slowly to a count of six.
Wonderful.
Let's add on.
At the top of the inhalation,
Pause.
And at the end of the exhalation,
Pause.
Just a brief pause.
Continue to breathing this manner.
Finding that pause at the top of the inhale and at the base of the exhalation.
If this is stressful for any reason,
Skip the pause and go back to our three to six count breathing.
We do not want to put stress into the body.
And if you are pausing,
Just note how you may begin to linger within the pause.
Finding that sense of peace there.
Now let go of the breath counting and just find a fulfilling inhale and a slow relaxing exhale.
You're already in a beautiful rhythm.
So notice how you can breathe with ease and keep the same rhythm.
Find the pause at the top of your inhale and the base of your exhale.
Beautiful.
Letting go of the breath practice and just become aware of your body.
Perhaps more grounded in your body,
Your back against the chair,
Your bottom heavy in the seat and your feet firmly anchored to the earth.
Invite the whole body to relax and release as we scan consciously through the body.
Feeling any tension in the face.
Invite your tongue to soften down to the floor of the mouth.
Jaw releasing.
Letting go of tension in the cheeks.
Around the eyes.
Body's becoming heavy now.
Softening the temples and the forehead into the scalp and all the way down to the base of the skull.
As you bring your attention into the back of the neck and throat,
Swallow gently inviting release.
Bringing your attention over the shoulders and pausing and allowing the shoulders to melt.
Slowly letting go from the neck to the shoulders and moving this relaxation down into the arms all the way to the hands and fingers.
Invite that sense of release.
And bringing your awareness back to your throat.
Completely letting go through the chest.
The entire heart space is invited to open.
The abdomen and low ribs relaxing and belly letting go.
And coming back to our shoulders now,
Invite the back body to release from the upper back and shoulder blades down to the middle torso and down to the lower back,
The sacrum and the tailbone.
Move down inviting release into both legs from the buttocks to the thighs down to the knees into the shins and calves all the way to the ankles and feet.
Completely grounded to the earth.
Feel the whole body relaxing and letting go.
Sense the front of the body,
Back of the body,
The whole body softening.
Sense the whole body as a vibrant field of awareness.
And begin to note the energy around your body.
So vibrant.
Observing any changes from the beginning of our practice.
How would you rate yourself on our scale of 1 to 10?
Deep peace to you my friends.
Namaste.
