Welcome to today's meditation,
A breath work practice in which we visualize the drawing of a square as we inhale and then hold the breath and then exhale and hold the breath and inhale and hold the breath and exhale and hold the breath.
I'm going to guide you through it so if you're new don't worry and this is a really valuable breathwork practice or pranayama for creating balance in the mind and the body.
It's really good at quieting a busy mind,
Settling anxiety and reducing stress.
It aims to balance out the activity of the nervous system and equally balance out the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
So use it anytime you're feeling overwhelmed,
Overcharged,
Overstimulated,
Overworked and anytime that you seek to come back to center and experience a feeling of balance and ease and flow.
It doesn't necessarily make us sleepy but it might do if you're already leaning in that direction.
Ultimately the idea is to refresh us and to create this equilibrium in the mind,
The body and the psyche.
So I'll just walk you through the demonstration before we get going on the practice.
It's as simple as we're gonna take a couple of breaths to prepare ourselves and to come into a position that feels comfortable and then we're going to take a breath in for a count of maybe four or five or some people will be six it just depends everyone's gonna find their own rhythm depending on their own natural lung capacity and boundary for comfort and then we're gonna hold that breath for the same count.
We're then gonna exhale out through the nose for that same length of time and then again we're gonna hold the breath for that same length of time and we continue in that same cycle.
Now if it sounds confusing the thing that's going to help you to create focus is to close your eyes and imagine in your mind's eye that as you're breathing in you see the drawing of a horizontal line from left to right and then as you hold you rest there in the corner and as you breathe out you see the vertical line dropping down and then you're gonna hold at the bottom of that and then as you breathe in again this time you see the horizontal line moving from right to left to draw that third line of the square and then you're gonna hold in that corner for the same length of time and then finally you're gonna draw the line upwards to its starting place again for the same length of time before holding again in that corner and so we create this visual aid that helps us to keep track of the breath and to focus the mind so it's really just a simple drawing of a square and that helps to tether and anchor the practice for a mind that is easily distracted like most of us so when you're ready just finding a comfortable position again if you are towards wanting to lie down remember that's gonna be more sleepy more relaxing may even send you off to sleep and if you've got time for that great to have a little nap that's lovely if you don't want to have a nap and you are feeling a bit sleepy it's best to stay seated but do what's comfortable for you when you've landed in your comfortable position let's just take a couple of breaths to prepare ourselves inhaling fully through the nose and out either through the nose or mouth and then again another breath like that that's lovely and then we'll begin inhaling as you draw the first line of your square and hold exhaling as you draw the second line of your square and hold inhale and hold exhale and hold inhale and hold exhale and hold inhale and hold exhale and hold inhale and hold exhale and hold inhale and hold just an easy gentle hold exhale and hold inhale and hold exhale and hold inhale and hold and exhale and hold good continue at your own pace you may have found a rhythm that suits you better keep using the visualization of this square to keep you on track and allow there to be fluency in the inhale and exhale so that when you come to those corners to hold the breath you're not holding on tightly and grasping you don't want to make it stressful because that's gonna defeat the object of the pranayama when you come to those corners to hold the breath that holding of the breath is called kumbhaka from the Sanskrit word kumbh meaning pot or container or vessel and that's the kind of quality that we're aiming for here we're just holding the breath like a vessel neither grabbing onto it nor straining nor stressing nor pulling but just allowing it to exist peacefully within the container if this is still tricky for you to keep a hold of in any way or to create balance between the breaths and the holds you're more than welcome to count as well for most people it's a count of four but again it's about finding what's comfortable for you and what works it's just another way through counting to keep the mind steady and on track we'll just go for about another half a minute or so really nice so just keep the eyes closed here and let that practice melt away just keep the gaze turned inward and notice any changes in your physical being in your mental being perhaps the breath rate has changed or the mind has calmed give yourself time to emerge from here however you wish perhaps stretching or bringing the hands together at the heart center as a gesture of gratitude thank you for joining me namaste
