Hello everyone,
Today I am going to talk about breathing and I am going to share a bit about breathing and a story that I have with it to begin and then I will lead us into a meditation where I teach how really we as humans are meant to breathe.
Breathing is so common,
It is the most important thing for us humans and beings as we are alive,
Period.
When we stop breathing,
We die and so I have been thinking a lot about the culture that I grew up in in the West and as a woman I was taught to suck in my stomach in order to be thin.
Now this wasn't something that was directly told to me but I saw it in media and there is this element of restricting the stomach at all times and so I don't know about you or if you relate to that in any way but I actually for many years of my life didn't know how to breathe correctly and what we know about the breath is that it is calming and critical to life and so when we breathe deeply it sends a message to our nervous system that we are safe,
Specifically when we do deep belly breathing.
And so I would like to teach you,
Maybe you already know this but I would like to remind you how to really breathe and so for this meditation I invite you to place your hand,
One of your hands or maybe even both of your hands onto your belly.
Maybe you go outside for your meditation today and we'll just send breath into the belly and so we expand like a balloon as we breathe in.
How big can your belly get?
And then we contract our belly button towards our spine on the breath out.
So find yourself in a comfortable position indoors or out and place yourself in a way that you can feel your breath.
And a lot of times in our culture we're taught to breathe into the chest and we do.
We breathe into the chest,
We breathe into the diaphragm and we breathe into the belly.
So we're going to practice that together today.
Go ahead and set yourself up sitting up,
Laying down,
Standing,
Whatever feels best for you.
Spread your toes wide,
Place your hands on your belly and exhale completely emptying.
Breathe in,
Fill up through the nose.
Breathe out,
Open the mouth,
Clear.
Empty,
Empty,
Empty,
Empty.
Breathe in,
Seal the lips.
Breathe out the mouth.
Last super clearing breath to begin.
Breathe in,
Open the mouth,
Exhale,
Release.
Exhale fully,
Seal the lips,
Breathe in the nose,
Breathe in the chest,
The diaphragm,
The belly.
Hold for one,
Exhale the belly,
The chest.
Hold on the exhale for one count.
Breathe in deeply in the chest and the belly.
Breathe out the belly and the chest.
See if you can breathe only in and out of the nose,
Breathing in the nose,
Breathing out the nose.
Keep your breath going nice and steady like this at your own pace.
How much can your belly expand out like a balloon on the inhale?
And then pulling your belly button to your spine,
Emptying fully as you exhale through the nose.
How exaggerated can you make your breath?
Each exhale,
Releasing any tension that builds in the body,
Inhale,
Expand,
Exhale,
Contract.
Letting your belly leave your body,
Move away from your body on your inhale and feeling your stomach contract on the exhale.
See if you can hold still in all of your body except for your belly as you breathe.
Notice how much movement you can create with just the breath.
Keep breathing deeply in silence for the next few breaths,
Only listening to the sounds around you,
Quieting the mind just a little more on each exhale.
Your only task is to follow the breath as it moves through the body.
Noticing where you're breathing in the body.
You might notice that if you watch a baby breathe,
They breathe into their bellies and then they exhale and their bellies get smaller,
Tighter.
We know how to breathe when we're born and somehow over time living in the world that we do,
We breathe more in and out of the mouth.
We somehow forget through culture,
Through conditioning and so this meditation is a simple reminder to your body for what you already know,
For what is already innate within.
Taking a few more slow,
Deep breaths in and out of the nose,
Thanking yourself for bringing some calming relaxation to the nervous system today and taking this skill of breath,
This skill of knowing where and how to breathe into your day.
If you start to notice your mind is wandering,
You can take three deep breaths just like this to relax,
Bring you back to center.
Thanks for breathing with me today,
Appreciate you and I look forward to guiding more meditations for you in the future.
Okay friends,
Be well.
