Breath Sweeps Mind

Breath Sweeps Mind. The word “Pranayama” translates to the "control of life force". Breath is the key to all forms of meditation. In yoga breathing exercises, pranayama reduces stress and high blood pressure, improves sleep, decreases tobacco cravings, and makes the respiratory and nervous systems work better. I do a few different breath practices.

Transcript

Aloha,

I'm Reverend Cindy Palos and today we're going to talk about breath.

Breath is such an important aspect in all forms of meditation.

I had a Zen teacher who used to always say,

Breath sweeps mind.

And we know when we go into meditation,

We're always starting with our breath.

It's such a wonderful key because as we follow our breath,

We're giving our mind something to focus on and we are using the breath to bring ourselves to a more centered balanced place.

In yoga,

Of course,

It's called pranayama and it's been used for thousands of years,

Starting in India and spreading around the world,

Of course,

Prana,

Meaning life force and yama,

Control.

And there are probably dozens of kinds of breath work.

But the key thing is just to always remember to begin your meditation with breath work.

And if you're finding yourself stressed out during the day,

To go back to taking a few wonderful deep breaths and clearing out anything you're going through,

Your breath reflects the energy of your emotions and your state of mind.

And when you're stressed out,

You are not breathing deeply or you're breathing very,

Very irregular.

You can even cause yourself to faint by breathing in a wrong fashion.

So we're going to just enjoy delving into breath and remembering all the wonderful things it can do for you.

Such a relaxing technique.

It also helps control blood pressure,

Muscle tension.

It can help with clearing out anything in your body and clearing out tension.

It can bring you peace,

Bring you into harmony.

And so we're going to start really easily because the last thing we want to do is cause more stress.

And we're just going to make sure that your spine is erect.

So it's easy for your lungs to breathe in and breathe out.

And let's just check our body and do a body scan.

And if there's any tension in your head or your shoulders,

Your neck,

Any part of your body feeling tight in your torso or your lower back,

In your arms,

Your legs,

Anything feeling tight,

Just relax and allow yourself to just focus on your breath.

Starting very simply with just breathing in to the count of four,

Holding for four counts,

And breathing out to the count of four.

Holding out for four breaths,

Four counts.

Breathing in to the count of four,

Holding for four counts,

Breathing out to the count of four,

Holding for four counts.

Continue to do this,

What is called square breathing.

It's used by psychologists and psychiatrists to help keep people who are starting to get into a panic attack.

It's simple and it's effective.

You will find yourself immediately slowing down,

Continuing the count,

Breathing in for the count of four,

Holding for the count of four,

Breathing out to the count of four,

Holding out to the count of four.

These are all done through your nose.

Breathing in to the count of four,

Holding to the count of four,

And breathing out.

In the Hawaiian language,

Ha means breath.

It's very interesting when you're doing alternate nostril breathing.

Ha is considered to be,

Of course,

The male side and it's the right nostril.

The female side is the left side,

Which is the moon side.

That's thaw,

So you have ha,

Breath,

Thaw.

It's very simple,

Very simple practice and it helps balance out your breathing.

The male,

Female part of your breath should be balanced throughout the day.

It may not be that way depending on what you're doing.

But let's now do a few simple alternate nostril breathing.

Taking your thumb,

Placing it on your right nostril,

Breathing in through your left nostril to the count of four,

Holding for the count of four,

Breathing out through the right nostril to the count of four,

Holding out for the count of four.

Breathing in through the right nostril,

Holding for the count of four,

And breathing out through the left nostril for the count of four.

By the way,

This shouldn't be done with your mask on.

Breathing in through the left nostril to the count of four,

Holding for the count of four,

And breathing out through the right nostril to the count of four,

Holding,

Breathing in the right nostril,

Holding for the count of four,

Breathing out the left nostril.

Continue now a couple of more times,

Breathing in through the left nostril,

The moon side,

Holding for the count of four,

And breathing out to the count of four on the right nostril,

Sun side,

The ha.

Hold out,

Breathing in to the count of four,

Hold it,

And breathe out to the count of four on the left nostril.

Now take a moment and just do a re-scan.

Have you found yourself slowing down a bit?

How do you feel?

Are you feeling the effects of some of these breath exercises?

We're going to try to do a little,

Not try,

We're going to do a deeper breath because,

You know what,

We have a lot of stale air that can collect in our lungs.

It's important to get a lot of wonderful breath energy in and to make sure we have full exhalations.

We want that breath sweeping all of our mind,

But also clearing out any toxins,

Anything in our lungs that may have been sitting there.

Again,

Make sure you're comfortable and your spine's erect,

That you have room to breathe with your lungs.

We're going to breathe in for the count of eight now.

Breathing in for the count of eight through both nostrils.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Holding your breath for the count of four,

And breathing out for the count of eight.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Holding out for the count of four,

Breathing in to the count of eight,

Holding your breath for four,

Breathing out to the count of eight.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Holding out,

Breathing in to the count of eight,

Holding for four,

And breathing out to the count of eight,

Exhaling all the air slowly out of your lungs,

Forcing anything there left over,

Just breathe it out.

Now take a couple of natural breaths.

You want to be able to have your lungs be free to breathe.

You want to be able to be completely relaxed and in tune with the highest energy.

Now I do something which is breathing in light.

So let's do breathing in to the count of four,

And now let's focus on calling in the light with that breath.

Now as we breathe in,

Breathe in light,

Breathing in to the count of four,

Holding for four,

And breathing light out to the count of four,

Breathing out to the count of four,

Breathing in to the count of four,

Holding for four,

And breathing light out throughout your entire body,

Letting that light re-energize every cell of your body.

Did you notice anything different when you were breathing in light?

If you do this breathing in light for a while,

You should start to feel the energy of light entering your body.

If you name and call in an energy with breath,

You can actually bring that spirit of that energy into your body.

Now let's call in gratitude.

Gratitude is probably one of the most important aspects that we can imagine to get rid of any kind of depression,

Any kind of worry.

Let's breathe in gratefulness to the count of four.

Breathing in gratitude,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Holding gratitude,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Breathing out gratitude to the count of four,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Holding out to the count of four,

Breathing in to the count of four,

Breathing in gratitude.

Now you continue for about another minute,

Just breathing in gratitude and breathing in exhaling that gratitude out to all parts of your body and letting yourself be bathed in gratitude and do this for another minute.

Breathing in gratitude and just allowing yourself to be bathed in the energy of gratitude.

Think of something you're grateful for as you breathe in gratitude now.

Hold that breath of gratitude and breathe it out.

Now since we started,

I'm feeling much more relaxed.

I feel like I've slowed down.

I feel like I'm more in balance and in harmony.

These are just a few of the breath practices you can do.

There is an app which you can get.

I have it on my watch,

Which reminds you to breathe throughout the day.

It's pretty interesting.

Just taking a moment to breathe is pretty good.

There's also the breath of fire,

The Kundalini to the bellows breath.

That's a powerful one.

I'm not going to go into it here now because sometimes if you're doing it and I'm not aware of what particular situation you're in,

It can make you dizzy.

The Kundalini actually is activated when you do that for a period of time,

But it's very good for completely clearing out your body tension and anything in your lungs.

Of course,

In yoga,

There's some other lovely practices you can do that have to do with letting the belly come into work as you breathe out in other ways and contractions.

I'm just wanting you to stick to the simple ones so that you don't make it too difficult and you remember to do these.

This is really powerful to do in the morning in meditation,

But it's also extremely helpful to do before you go to bed at night.

If you have a chance just for a minute to breathe at lunchtime,

Just doing it those three times,

And it can be a simple minute or two at lunch,

But definitely in the morning and at night before you go to bed,

You will find this really brings you back to your core,

To your center,

And to your soul.

It's a very effective practice.

Breath sweeps mind.

It works.

It really does.

I hope you always remember how important your sacred breath and breathing is.

Thank you so much for breathing here with me and being here with me,

And I send you my deepest love and gratitude and blessings.

Aloha.