Come to a comfortable position either seated or laying down somewhere where you feel like you have plenty of space around the body.
Begin just by taking a long deep breath in and then slowly let it out.
Just repeating this two or three times more,
Letting each breath in be a bit deeper,
A bit longer than the last.
Letting that breath out be even slower,
Even steadier.
Allowing for any tension,
Any holding in the body to begin to soften and melt itself away.
As you relax every part of the body with each breath out.
Continue just to breathe slowly and naturally.
As you bring your awareness to the whole of the lower half of the body,
The feet,
The legs,
The hips.
Just feeling that sense of warmth and relaxation.
Spreading through all of the muscles in the lower body.
This is if you just stepped into a bath of warm water.
Now let this peaceful feeling travel into the upper body.
As it moves its way past the belly,
The chest.
Soothing and releasing through the shoulders,
The neck,
All the way down the back.
Allow for a release of all the muscles in the face.
You might want to take a little yawn or a sigh.
Give the jaw a little wiggle.
Relax the muscles in the eyelids,
The eyebrows.
Softening the forehead and the space between the eyebrows.
Be aware of everywhere in the back of the body.
Just feeling that sensation of sinking,
Relaxing and melting away.
Then tune into a feeling of spaciousness in the front of the body.
As you inhale,
Breathing and expanding out into the space in front of the body.
Softening and relaxing through the back.
Lifting and expanding through the front.
If you've noticed a sinking or a collapsing in the body,
Just imagine a little string lifting you up through the crown of the head.
Lengthening through the spine,
Rolling back through the shoulders,
Opening and uplifting through the chest.
Come to tune into the very centre of the body.
That space where the lungs sit,
Like two small balloons.
As you inhale just a little bit,
Feel them expand from the inside.
As you exhale,
It's like balloons have just been released of that air.
Softly drawing back in,
Shrinking back.
As you inhale a bit deeper,
They expand a bit bigger.
As you exhale,
They release and draw back in.
Feeling that expansion and that contraction with the roll of the breath.
If at any point that work with the breath feels uncomfortable or feels forced,
Simply let it go for a few rounds.
Return to the natural rhythm.
Come back to the awareness of the breath whenever you feel ready.
As you begin to make those breaths deeper and fuller,
Become aware of the rib cage that surrounds the lungs.
Between each rib,
Feeling that stretch of the muscles as you breathe in.
Again,
As you breathe out,
They relax and draw back in.
Just follow and track that sensation,
That inner stretch on the inhale.
Release on the exhale.
As if you were wearing a perfectly fitted jumper.
Feeling the fibres stretch even more as the breath becomes deeper.
It relaxes as the breath leaves.
Then come to notice where else in the body you can feel the breath.
Where else is that movement or that sensation?
Then coming back to watch the breath in the lungs.
Taking as deep and as full a breath as you can without it feeling forced.
Take a few rounds just to connect to the length of that breath.
You need to see if you can find that Samavritti,
That equal length breathing.
So if a comfortable breath for you is in for three,
Match it out for three.
If it's in for four,
Match it out for four.
And after a few rounds you might notice that you're comfortable adding a single count to that length.
Taking it from three to four,
From four to five.
And if that feels forced or uncomfortable for you,
Just go back to a shorter length.
Then come to be aware of that space,
That transition between the top and bottom of each inhale and exhale.
As you move fluidly from one breath into the other,
See if for the next few rounds you can just extend and lengthen that pause.
Sitting in that stillness for a single count or two.
You may want to take a few natural rounds of breath.
Letting go of that counting before resetting and going back to the count,
Back to the pause.
If it still feels comfortable too in the body,
Perhaps you begin to lengthen that pause now.
Exhaling for a count,
Holding for a count.
Exhaling for the same count that you inhaled and pausing at the bottom.
Getting curious about the rhythm of that breath that works for you.
For now,
Letting go of any control,
Any work with that breath.
Just noticing within your body what felt comfortable.
Now just letting yourself relax back into a natural rhythm.
Come now and take a deep breath in,
A little pause at the top and let go with a big sigh.
Let that awareness spread from the path of the breath all the way to the outer edges of the body.
Bringing your awareness back once more to the space around you.
Whenever you feel ready,
Beginning to move into that space.
Eventually opening the eyes.
