Invert & Revive

This is a personal favourite of mine. It combines deep relaxation, a sprinkle of loving awareness, and then culminates with three breathwork frequencies, including a higher energy breath pattern for those of you that enjoy non-ordinary states. Take it slow if you're new. You've got a lifetime to practice, and if you happen to be dealing with any advanced cardiovascular disease or if you've been prescribed anti-psychotics, speak with your doctor before beginning a breathwork practice.

Transcript

Hello my friends,

Welcome to Invert and Revive.

This is a practice that I love,

And all you need for it is a quiet space and a wall.

Now,

The basis of the practice really,

Truly only requires a wall and a floor.

I've even done this against trees laying in the grass.

And you can also make it as comfortable as you'd like.

So you might bring a yoga mat along,

A blanket,

Whatever you'd like to use here to make this comfortable.

So find a space where you can take your legs up the wall.

Many of us will have tried this posture before in yoga.

It's referred to as viparita karani.

Viparita means to invert or inverted,

And karani means in action.

So by taking our legs up the wall,

We are inverting against gravity.

And so physically,

We're taking a posture that allows blood and lymph and the metabolites or waste products that might have gathered near the ankles to move back up towards the torso,

And it also alleviates a little bit of a pressure on the cardiovascular system.

So just a nice posture to take for rest.

We're also inverting in the sense of moving inwards.

So at any point,

Pause if you need to.

Find your space.

Taking your legs up the wall,

You want to sit on the wall.

So your sit bones should be touching the wall.

Your back should be laying on the floor,

Face up.

And your heel should be extending straight up towards the ceiling or the sky.

Once you find that position,

We have a couple of options for the arms.

You can just perhaps place one hand on the belly and one on the chest to connect.

You may prefer a little bit of a gentle stretch across the chest.

You can take the arms out into cactus pose,

90-degree bend at the elbows,

Palms facing up.

And you may also prefer a deeper stretch where the arms go up overhead.

Once we find our physical position,

We want a position that we can hold without effort.

But it's okay if during this practice you decide to move or adjust at any time.

So know that you're not stuck where you are.

Closing the eyes,

Allowing that closing of the eyes to take our awareness inwards.

Just taking note and acknowledging this moment,

Any feelings,

Thoughts,

Emotions that are there.

Just allowing and welcoming them in.

Now,

Notice the next breath.

There's the natural course of that breath and the sensations that come along with it.

And we'll just do a few breath retentions to prepare the lungs and body for practice.

So with your next breath in,

Fill belly,

Fill chest all the way up and hold.

Gather any thinking from the day.

And with your breath out,

Release it to the earth.

And then again,

Breathing in,

A bigger belly breath,

A bigger chest breath.

At the very top of that breath,

Hold.

Gathering up any tension,

Any concerns,

Any stresses from the day.

And with your exhale,

Releasing.

Good.

Now,

Breathing halfway in,

Belly hold.

Breathing all the way into the chest at the very top,

Hold.

Opening the mouth,

Exhale,

Ha.

Good.

Once more,

Belly hold.

Filling chest,

Hold.

Opening the mouth,

Letting go,

Releasing,

Softening,

Ha.

Very nice.

Now,

Just connecting with the body for a few moments.

Seven points of soothing.

These seven points often come together for me as a really deep sense of relaxation.

So begin with the belly and the pelvic floor,

Just relaxing all the little muscles around the pelvic floor,

The organs,

The deep core muscles,

Any low back tension,

Just consciously releasing as best you can.

And then out to the feet.

Imagine your feet were like fists and you were just opening and relaxing those fists,

Relaxing the feet,

Ankles,

Legs.

Moving out to the hands,

Again like fists.

They don't have to move but just the energetic feeling of releasing a fist.

Relaxing forearms,

Upper arms,

Shoulders.

Relaxing the space around the heart,

The lungs,

Letting the breath move effortlessly.

And finally coming up into the face,

The tongue,

The lips,

The jaw.

Let the tongue drop down into the mouth and relax.

The inner and outer corners of the eyes,

Let the muscles of the eyes relax into the sockets.

And lastly,

The inner ear,

The space around the ears.

Relax your hearing.

Now I want to give you three levels of breath work today.

If you're new to this,

You may just stay with the first.

I'll give you options for the second and options for the third.

And I just want you to know that you're always in control with breath work.

Breath work can be quite powerful and if you're new to it,

It's good to be cautious and just to kind of ease your way into your breath work practice.

And so let's begin with our undisturbed,

Uncontrolled breath pattern.

So just where you are as you are,

Connecting your attention to your breath in and your breath out.

And this first practice can be incredibly rejuvenating and powerful just to kind of release tension from our days.

So we're going to connect a mantra with two cycles of breath.

So with the inhale,

I say silently internally to myself,

I.

With the exhale,

I say,

Am.

And then with the next cycle of breath on the inhale,

Loving.

And on the exhale,

Awareness.

So I am loving awareness.

Breathing in,

I.

Breathing out,

Am.

Breathing in,

Loving.

Out,

Awareness.

Connecting with your natural rhythm of breath,

I am loving awareness.

Continuing with this simple practice,

Allowing it to be the truth of who you are.

Reconnecting with that deepest,

Most peaceful part of ourselves,

Which is always underneath all the buzz of life,

All the concerns.

Loving awareness.

This practice is truly all that we need,

So you might choose just to turn the audio off now and breathe in this way.

But we also have an opportunity here to use breathwork to take us into some deeper non-ordinary states,

To alkalize the body,

To work with hormetic forces,

And ultimately to stimulate parasympathetic activity.

So our second stage is to begin to breathe or to continue to breathe through the nose,

But we're going to lengthen out the breath and we're going to invigorate the breath a bit,

Bringing more oxygen into the body,

Which ultimately can change the pH of the blood.

So begin with your next inhale,

Breathing fully into the belly,

Fully into the chest,

And then exhaling through the nose.

Fully in belly,

Fully in chest.

Full exhale,

Let it go.

So the inhale requires some effort.

At the top of the inhale,

A release.

We let go of all tension,

Any sort of gathering effort in the body,

And just repeatedly soften and relax.

So we have two interests as we do this breathwork.

One is to move more breath in and out of the body,

And the second interest is just to continuously consciously relax the seven points,

The whole body relaxing.

Let's take five of these breaths together.

We can think of the nose as the regulator of our breath,

So anytime we want to come home or we want to bring the practice down,

We can come back to a very natural nostril breathing.

And anytime we want to take it higher or we want to let the breath move more freely,

We can breathe through the mouth.

So for example,

With this pattern,

We might breathe in through the nose,

Into the belly,

Into the chest,

And then open the mouth and sigh it out,

Just let the breath go.

Keep it going.

Deep breath in,

Deep breath out.

You may begin to feel a little tingling,

A little lightheadedness.

All of those sensations are safe.

Sometimes you might feel the fist clenching a bit or the toes clenching a bit.

Just use your exhales to relax,

Relax.

Sometimes we can feel hot or cold.

All of this is safe and temporary.

Continuing to breathe deeply,

There can sometimes be some resistance here.

Just move more breath in and out,

In and out.

As you breathe,

You may feel emotions rising.

You may want to let out some sound on your exhale.

Maybe it's just a sigh.

Maybe it's a laugh.

Maybe it's a cry.

Everything is welcome as you breathe.

Keep breathing.

Full breath in,

Belly,

Chest,

Let it go.

Keep breathing.

Westing.

La-la-la.

Keep breathing.

Using our motivation and our dedication to breathe deep,

Keep the breath flowing.

Now there's an option here to stay with this pattern where we're breathing in through the nose,

Belly,

Chest,

And then out through the mouth,

Letting it go.

If you'd like,

You can take it a little deeper by making your inhale a mouth breath.

So it goes in through the mouth,

Out through the mouth.

Inhale belly,

Inhale chest,

Exhale,

Let it go.

Keep it going.

Supper cycles of breath,

Relaxing on the exhale,

Surrendering,

Letting go.

Space lion bellows,

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Relaxing through the seven points,

The whole body,

Each exhale.

Taking 10 more breaths together,

Letting them be your deepest breaths yet.

Moving more air in,

A fuller inhale and a more complete exhale,

Releasing all tension.

And top of your next inhale,

Any sort of sound that needs to come out,

A sigh,

A giggle,

A moan,

A howl,

Letting go.

Now releasing control of the breath,

Letting the mouth close and coming back to a nostril-based breathing that's comfortable.

Surrendering your weight to the floor,

Enjoying and drinking in all that you are.

This beautiful body,

This incredible multidimensional consciousness.

So capable,

So free to feel,

To process,

To express.

And if you've been breathing along with me,

Your body will be well oxygenated and it might feel appropriate to come to an exhale and hold your breath.

Now you can hold often longer than you would expect and to take the body from these higher oxygen levels down into the lower oxygen levels is actually beneficial and has been shown to be supportive to aspects of our immunity.

If you decide to hold just a soft internal hold,

Enjoying the stillness,

The effortlessness.

And breathing when you need to breathe,

Coming back to an effortless,

Uncontrolled breath pattern.

Dropping into the peace that is beyond all understanding.

Nothing to do here but rest.

Now if you've come all this way without adjusting the legs,

You might just walk the legs down the wall or take a butterfly position with the feet together and knees apart.

Slowly bringing ourselves back in,

Enjoying these deeper states of relaxation.

Noticing the way the door to presence and awareness is open for us.

And often all we have to do is let go.

Making our way out,

You might begin to move and circle through the wrists,

The ankles,

Rolling over to one side.

Taking a few moments there,

Acknowledging any insights that you may have come across.

Eventually you might gently crack the eyes and allow yourself to come back into your room,

Turning and pushing up off of the floor.

You might enjoy a bit of tapping,

You can just cup the hands,

Come to a seated position and just give the body a little tap,

Tap from the shoulders down to the wrists.

Tap the chest,

The torso,

The legs.

Coming all the way back in.

And perhaps finishing with one last deep breath together,

Allowing a little Buddha smile to come across the face.

Thank you all for practicing with me today and I hope you enjoy the rest of it.

See you soon.

Reviews

I feel so aerated and relaxed!

I really appreciated this to begin my day. The gentle instructions, the music. This helped soothe my tired legs and my nervous system.

Wow! Amazing breathing technique. I really enjoyed it and definitely feel invigorated now. Thank you so much ❤️ Xx

So very good! 🙏🏽♥️

Amazing guidance. Felt supported throughout the entire practice

Wow that was amazing. Thank you 🙏

I do breathwork more often..but it's something about having the legs up?? Thatbis really bringing the relaxation and buzzing to another level. Thanks you.. definitly going to do this more often!

This is my new fav meditation! I feel revived and the head tension is relieved. Buddha smile back too you.🙏

This was so powerful creating new sensations. Thank you so much Damien

Excellent, thank you

Absolutely love this practice!

Great voice, great pace, I will visit this one again.

So good. Thank you man.