Breath is one of the most essential tools we can practice.
It can change our state of mind,
It gives us a connection to spirit,
It gives us life.
Breath holds the key to supercharging and activating anything you wish to do in your life and it's so important in meditation.
A teacher of mine said breath sweeps mind.
He's a Zen teacher I knew from that's the Noma Mountain Genjoji Center,
Bill Kwong Roshi there.
What a beautiful way to use your breath to clear your mind out and this works on so many levels.
Our breath is such an excellent key.
When we follow our breath we're giving our mind something to focus on.
We're using that breath to bring ourselves to our center,
To be in a balanced place.
And with that breath we can actually find ways to achieve peace of mind,
To clear things out of our mind,
That's what the sweeping of the mind with breath means.
To energize ourself,
To balance ourselves,
To be present 100% in the power of that breath.
I'm going to go over a few wonderful simple breath techniques with you.
Of course in yoga breath is called pranayama and it's been used for thousands of years.
Of course you know prana means life force and yama is control.
And there are probably dozens of breath works that you could do.
But one of the things that's always important to remember is you start your meditation with breath work and if you find yourself being stressed out at any time,
Day or night,
You can go right back to remembering to breathe and take a few wonderful deep clearing breaths and sweep that mind out.
Your breath really reflects the true energy of your state of mind and your emotions.
Now when you're stressed out you are not usually breathing deeply.
In fact sometimes you may be holding your breath.
I was just,
It's so funny,
I just got a beep on my watch because I have a little thing on my watch that tells me when I should breathe and I love it.
You know it says breathe.
So we're going to really go into experimenting and practicing a few simple breath techniques.
But let's first use breath to just be present and breathing in deeply with nothing to do but just relaxing and sitting erect so you have lots of space for your lungs to fill with air.
And let's just check out our body with a body scan so we can let our energy flow through freely through us.
Let's check out your head energy.
How are you doing in your mind?
Breathing into that mind of yours and just doing a sweeping clearing breath of your mind.
Going into your neck and releasing any tension you might have in your neck or shoulders.
Again breathing in using that breath.
Breathing out with that sigh of ah to just release any tension in your shoulders or your neck.
Breathing in and going into your heart and breathing out with a ah.
Clearing anything out that might be there in your heart that you need to release.
Breathing in again and going to your solar plexus and just allow that ah to become a hue filling with light there.
Swirling with light and cleaning it out with that breath.
And going into the emotional centers breathing in deeply light and breathing out.
Ah now going to the root chakra.
Breathing in and sending that energy of breath down to the root chakra.
Now I've been living in Hawaii for 32 years and ha is a very key word.
Ha means breath.
So powerful.
Think of your aha moment breath.
Aloha with breath.
Again this breath is behind so many things and I want to do a simple breath exercise with you that's called square breathing.
Breathing in for four,
Holding for four,
Breathing out for four,
And holding out for four.
This has been known to be used by psychiatrists when you have a panic attack.
It can be something you can use when you need to focus and you're going through stress and it's so simple and yet so deeply powerful.
So let's just get comfortable and breathe in for the count of four.
Breathing in,
Holding for four,
And breathing out for four.
Holding out for four,
Breathing in,
Holding that breath for four,
And breathing out for four.
Now when I say for four it's the count of four.
So you're breathing in one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Holding for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Breathing out for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And holding out for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Just do this for a minute here.
Breathing in for four,
Nothing to do but relax and breathe in through the nose,
Holding it and now breathing out for four.
It's a hypnotic and very even way to practice simple,
Powerful breath.
And now since this is a course in activating your awareness,
I'm going to have you experiment with something that I have found truly empowers you with this simple breath technique.
I want you just to do the same thing,
Breathing in for four,
Holding for four,
Breathing out for four,
And breathing,
Holding out for four.
But this time I want you to have the intent,
Which we talked about in our first lesson,
The intent of calling in light with that breath.
So we're going to use that light.
Right now have the intent from yourself,
Your inner self,
To call in light with that breath.
This is a breath of light.
Breathing in light for four,
Letting that light you're holding fill your entire head with light for four.
And as you release the breath with four,
Seeing that light completely filling your entire body as you breathe out.
And as you hold your breath out,
Allow your entire energy field to completely be recharged as you release and let go.
Breathing in light,
Holding that light,
Filling yourself up like a balloon with lovely light,
And releasing it,
Allowing that light to pour through your crown chakra and down into your entire spine and body as you breathe out.
And as you hold out,
Allow that light to dissipate.
That's a calling in light one that I love.
Now this same simple exercise works if you call in peace.
Breathing in peace,
Feeling that peace radiating throughout your whole being,
And then breathing that peace out with gratitude.
As you breathe out,
Let gratitude fill you.
Holding out,
Breathing in peace,
Filling that whole body with peace,
And breathing out gratitude.
Now you can do this for anything that you need to energize with,
And it works.
I'm going to increase this to a level count of eight counts in now,
Holding for four,
And then eight counts out,
Holding for four.
The reason we're doing this now is because we're going to allow ourselves to bring in more energy of breath.
And we will use this breath to use our spine and chakra clearing.
So breathing into the count of eight deeply.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Holding for four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Breathing out.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Holding for four.
Breathing in for eight.
Holding,
And breathing out for eight.
Holding out for four,
And breathing in for eight.
Do you feel the difference with this deeper eight count?
There's definitely a different feeling when you breathe in for eight.
Now we're going to take this simple breathing in for eight,
Holding for four,
And breathing out for eight,
And holding out for four,
And add with it a visualization of light coming up from the base of your spine,
Up your front of your entire body,
To the top of your head on the breath in,
Holding that light there at the top of your head.
And as you breathe out,
We're going to see that light going from the top crown chakra back down through all of your chakras of your spine,
Down to the base of your spine.
Then we'll hold it there.
So breathing in for eight,
Breathing in that light up the front of your body.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Holding at top of your crown chakra there,
Enlightening that crown chakra on the count of four,
And now allowing that light to come through your crown chakra as you breathe out to your throat chakra,
To your heart chakra,
To your solar plexus,
To your emotional second chakra,
To your root chakra,
And on out,
And breathe,
And hold out for four.
Breathing in through your front of the base of spine,
In front of you,
All the way to the top of your head.
Breathing in,
Holding there.
As you get to the top of your crown chakra,
Hold that light there like a ball of light,
And release through your crown chakra,
Down your spine chakra,
To your neck,
And to your heart,
And to your solar plexus,
And to your emotional second chakra,
And to the root chakra,
And out.
This surrounds your entire energy field,
Your nervous system,
In light.
It's very,
Very powerful.
I would also suggest practicing alternate nostril breathing.
Very wonderful way to balance your right and left side of your brain.
The feminine and masculine side are being able to be balanced,
And the right and left part of your brain can be balanced when you do this breath in and breath out.
So just simply put your thumb on your right nostril,
And breathe in through your left nostril.
Breathing in,
Holding and blocking both nostrils with both fingers,
And breathing out through your right nostril.
Breathing in through your right nostril,
Holding with both nostrils closed,
And breathing out through your left nostril.
This is a good one to do for about five minutes.
Um,
It's so wonderful to actually balance your right side and your left side of your brain out,
And also you will find as you become aware of the difference when you're breathing in through your right nostril versus the energy of the left nostril.
And it's a wonderful practice to do.
You,
Uh,
Breath is,
Is a wonderful,
Wonderful key,
And when you take your breath and use that breath to sweep your mind and to create what you wish to create,
To send light using breath,
It's so,
So amazing.
You can unlock the power of your breath and use your breath,
And you will find that it's such a wonderful tool to have in your spiritual toolbox.
