Deep breathing practice.
To begin find a comfortable position either sitting on a cushion on the floor or in a chair or laying down on your back.
Whatever works best for you right now.
If you're sitting allow your spine to be straight and let your shoulders drop.
Gently close your eyes or if you'd prefer just gaze down in front of you with a soft focus.
Let's begin to let go of the day so far.
Things you've done,
Conversations you've had and allow yourself to come into the present moment.
Allow yourself to be fully here now.
And take a moment here to tune into your body.
Just notice how you're feeling today.
Perhaps you're feeling a little stressed or agitated or perhaps you're feeling quite calm and relaxed.
However you're feeling just take note.
Allow yourself to sit with whatever is here.
So in today's practice I'll be guiding you through a diaphragmatic breathing exercise otherwise known as belly breathing or deep breathing.
The idea is to relax your belly as much as you can.
Then as the breath comes in let the belly rise on its own and as the breath flows out let the belly naturally fall.
So we'll deepen the breath so that we're lengthening both inhale and exhale and feeling an exaggerated rise and fall of the belly.
We'll breathe into the count of four,
Briefly hold and then breathe out to the count of six.
We'll breathe in through the nose and out through the nose or mouth.
And it might be helpful to place a hand on your belly and notice the feeling of it moving as the breath flows in and out.
If your hand is rising and falling with the breath then you have it.
Okay let's begin.
First breathing out all of the air out of the lungs and then let's breathe in two three four and hold and breathe out two three four five six and in two three four hold and out two three four five six and in two three four hold and out two three four five six and in two three four hold and out two three four five six and in two three four hold and out two three four five six and now continue to breathe down into your belly like this at your own pace noticing the feel of the breath flowing into and out of the body and do your best to keep your attention here on the breath.
Breathing into the count of four and breathing out to the count of six.
Now from time to time during this practice you will notice that your mind wanders off from the breath.
You might get distracted by a thought,
A memory or something in your environment.
As soon as you notice that your mind has wandered off simply take note of where it went and then gently and kindly guide your attention back to your breath.
There's no need to give yourself a hard time about wandering off.
It's actually completely natural and normal.
Our minds are designed to think so be kind and compassionate and simply return to your next breath.
Continuing to breathe deep down into the belly.
Breathing into the count of four briefly holding and breathing out to the count of six.
And noticing where your attention is and if it's wandered off gently returning to your next belly breath.
As the practice comes to an end take a moment to tune back into your body now and observe how you're feeling.
Notice if anything has changed or shifted since the beginning of the practice.
What's your energy like?
Perhaps you feel more present or more connected to yourself or perhaps you don't feel differently which is completely fine too.
I'm going to ring a bell to signal the end of the practice.
You of course have the option to continue to sit here with your breath for as long as you like but otherwise when you can no longer hear the ringing of the bell gently open your eyes and come back into the room.
