Welcome to your practice.
You may do this session seated or standing.
Choose what feels most supportive for your body today.
Let's begin by placing your left hand on the center of your chest.
Gently close your eyes and take a mindful pause,
Simply noticing how you feel in this moment.
Take a slow deep breath and as you continue breathing deeply,
Circle your hand in the center of your chest,
Increasing the warmth and blood flow to this area.
We are gently stimulating some of the pathways of the vagus nerve as it comes into the torso.
Now pause the circles and slowly move your left hand to the right collarbone.
Circle here.
Then slip your left hand over your right shoulder.
Take your left hand down that right arm and squeeze and release,
Giving a nice massage of the right arm as you move down the arm toward the hand.
And when you reach the hand,
Softly pull off and let both arms relax.
Take a deep inhale,
Exhaling with a sigh.
Now we'll do the other side.
Bring your right hand across your left collarbone and begin to circle,
Massaging here.
Then take your hand over the left shoulder and slowly glide down the left arm,
Squeezing and releasing the muscles as you go down the arm toward the hand,
Pulling all the way off of the hand and let the arms relax.
Gently shake out both arms.
Take a deep inhale,
Exhaling release.
Pause and notice.
You may already feel tension beginning to soften.
Now bring both of your hands to your low ribs,
Just beneath your breast or pectoral area.
You can circle here or gently move the hands in and out,
Massaging the low ribs.
Rest your hands on the sides of your low ribs.
Relax your shoulders and if you're seated,
You can lean back slightly in your chair,
But be sure to keep your spine straight and upright for this practice.
We'll move into expansion breathing.
Exhale with me and gently draw the belly toward the spine.
Inhale,
Inflating the breath into the side ribs.
Exhale,
Simply relax and release.
Moving at your own pace,
Inhaling,
Expanding the ribs wide.
Exhale,
Release.
And you may add a sigh to the exhalation as this sound further stimulates the vagus nerve,
Encouraging relaxation.
Now release your hands,
But continue to expand the ribs on the inhalation.
This is a deep diaphragmatic breath that expands the intercostal muscles between the ribs giving us a deeper resting breath.
Release your breath and on our next round,
We'll be bringing the breath awareness to the upper lungs at the chest.
Exhale with me.
Gently tone your belly,
Keeping the belly slightly engaged.
Inhale and lift the breath upward toward your heart.
Exhale,
Releasing but maintaining the tone in your belly.
Inhaling again,
Drawing the breath upward toward the chest.
Exhale,
Fully relax and release your breath.
Now we'll move the breath into the back of the lungs.
Exhale and as you inhale,
Begin to expand the breath into your back ribs.
Exhaling as you're ready and just continue to breathe into the back of the lungs.
The largest lobes of the lungs are actually located here.
Release the breath as we come into our last practice.
Next,
Bring your arms out shoulder height and inhale.
Bring the arms up above your head.
Exhaling,
Release the arms down all the way to your thighs.
Inhale,
Sweep the arms up,
Taking the biggest breath you've taken all day.
Bringing the hands palm together above your head and exhale,
Bring those prayer hands down to your heart.
Flattening the palms of the hands against your chest,
Taking a mindful moment here to notice any changes.
Give yourself a big smile and give your body lots of loving kindness.
Wishing you deep peace,
My friends.
