Breathe Yourself To Relaxed Alertness

This is my favorite session that I do as often as I can. We breathe using a deep, full breath in a circular, connected way and alternate that with breath-hold sequences where we hold both with filled and empty lungs. This will hopefully have you reach a state of energy and relaxation, or in other words relaxed alertness. The session concludes with a short landing phase. Stay longer in integration if you are able!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this breathwork session.

My name is Emil and I will be your guide.

This one is a bit longer.

We're going to breathe for three rounds.

The first round for 15 minutes,

The two others for five minutes.

We're going to end each round of breathing with a breath hold sequence where we first hold our breath with filled lungs for one minute.

We exhale,

Breath retention one minute,

Breathe in again and hold our breath on the top for one minute.

The breath technique that we will be using is called circular breathing.

Double inhale,

Sigh of relief at first,

Meaning we breathe in through the nose,

Exhale through the mouth.

We're going to breathe twice into the lungs with each inhalation.

Inhalation first deep into the belly,

Expanding 360 degrees and then taking another sip of air on top of that first one before we exhale by simply relaxing and allowing the out-breath to express itself fully.

So I invite you to find a very comfortable place to lie down preferably,

Somewhere soft in your bed or on a yoga mat,

Wherever you can be as undisturbed as possible for the next half hour,

45 minutes or so.

So just make sure your cell phone is off.

You can pause this session if you need to prepare that place for yourself.

And we come to stillness just gently coming to the place where we're going to breathe,

Adjusting anything that needs adjustment,

Allowing ourselves to leave whatever has happened throughout the day and whatever is going to happen after this session.

We allow ourselves to just let go fully of that.

And by doing that we invite the present moment to unfold.

And so we start by simply following the breath in and out as it comes and goes,

Just allowing the body to breathe exactly how it wants to,

Just gently following along with our attention,

Expanding,

Contracting,

Perhaps noticing details about the breath that we haven't noticed before.

So step into a childlike sense of curiosity,

Open-mindedness,

Just to see what it's like to breathe.

And we breathe 20-25,

000 times per day.

Most of these breaths are completely unconscious.

And now we're gently taking charge over the breath for a few moments in this session.

So with each exhale we just feel the body sort of melting,

Relaxing further,

Allowing the face to relax,

Allowing the belly to relax as well.

And this is also a good moment to ask yourself,

Is there an intention within me that I can take along on this journey?

What is my longing?

What do I want to bring into my life through the breath?

Or perhaps there's something that you can let go of.

Just inquire for a moment,

See what's there within.

And then you can place this intention somewhere around your heart space.

As we now start to take control over the breath by drawing in air through the nose deep into the belly first.

And as the belly becomes full we add another sip of air on top of the first one.

And then we relax the breath out with a sigh of relief.

As soon as the breath is fully out we invite the next inhalation deep into the belly,

Adding another sip of air,

Expanding the entire lungs,

Before exhaling by simply allowing the breath to leave us.

Continue in this flow,

In this rhythm,

In your own pace.

At first it might feel a little bit restricted,

Like there's some resistance to this breath.

That's fully normal.

Allow your body to get used to it.

So just continue to breathe fully,

First into the belly,

And then adding another sip of air on top of the first one.

Just relaxing the out-breath all the way out,

Perhaps adding also a sound to the voice.

It makes it really nice to breathe out like that.

See if you can let go of anything that you're holding on to in your body,

Allowing the muscles to sort of soften.

Since we will be breathing for quite a long time in this first round,

There's no need to rush anything.

Allow your body,

Allow all aspects of you to get into this breathing.

So we're not forcing anything,

We're not straining too much or putting too much effort in,

But still we're adding a bit of energy into the breath,

Finding that perfect balance between effort and relaxation.

And I would invite you to see if you can keep that childlike curiosity throughout this entire session,

Making it a playful exploration,

Like a dance with the breath.

There's no right or wrong,

No judgment involved at all.

It's simply you exploring your own breath.

If it at any point feels difficult to breathe in through the nose,

You can always use the mouth instead.

However,

If it feels sharp or cold to breathe through the nose,

You can just try and breathe through those sensations.

It will probably become easier after a while.

See if you can welcome anything that arises in your experience,

Anything that wants to come along,

Even if that means welcoming resistance to this practice,

Allowing the expansion to happen with each inhale,

Really expanding the lungs,

Inviting that life force,

And just letting it out,

The exhalation,

Allowing it to leave us.

Great work so far.

Just keep on breathing.

Surrender to the breath.

Allow it to flow.

See if you want to create more like a wave of this deep breath,

Rather than dividing it into two parts.

If that feels good for you,

You can breathe first into the belly and just allow that inhale to come all the way up to the upper part of the rib cage before allowing the exhale to happen simply by relaxing.

Create that wave with each new inhale.

One big inhalation starting at the depth of your belly,

Growing all the way up to the collarbones.

Beautiful breathing.

So by breathing like this,

New sensations might arise.

We might feel a lot of tingling and cramping in our hands,

Or our legs,

Or our feet,

Or even lips.

We might feel cold or warm.

Losing a sense of even having a body.

All of these sensations are completely normal.

So see if you can welcome anything that arises and just breathe with them and through them.

Curious about these new sensations that you might be feeling.

We might also feel new emotions or old emotions coming to the surface.

So if anything wants to be part of your journey,

Allow it to just express and welcome it with open arms.

You're doing great so far.

Keeping the breath going all the way in this first round.

We're almost there.

Feeling the expansion happening and the contraction that follows.

Ebb and flow.

We have three minutes to go now in this first round.

Stay with each new breath.

Allowing each breath to be the most beautiful breath you ever took.

Stay with it all the way.

We're reaching the last minute of this first round.

If you want to increase the speed or intensity for this last minute,

Now's the time to do it.

If you prefer to stay in your own pace,

Perhaps even slowing down,

It's totally fine.

As long as you keep expanding.

Last 25 seconds now.

Now we'll count down from three to zero.

On zero,

Exhale everything out.

Three.

Two.

Taking the last few breaths.

One.

On your next exhalation,

We exhale everything out,

Squeezing the navel towards the spine,

Emptying.

Then taking a big breath in all the way to the top and holding the breath with filled lungs for one minute.

See if you can make this breath hold effortless,

Releasing all tensions while holding the breath very gently,

Allowing the beautiful pause to just unfold.

Last few seconds here.

One minute has passed,

So we allow the breath to fall out again and we hold the breath where it naturally stops,

At the bottom,

Holding it right there,

Very gently,

Trusting that the body has what it needs.

And as one minute has passed,

Once again,

We take a big breath in from the belly all the way to the top,

Holding again with filled lungs.

The last 20 seconds up here.

And as we now exhale,

We add a tone to the voice.

Great job.

That was round number one.

And we're going to invite the second round to unfold right away,

As we once again invite that full breath that starts at the depths of our belly,

Continuing up all the way to the collarbones,

In through the nose or the mouth,

Simply relaxing,

Allowing the out-breath to come out all the way.

Finding the flow where we don't pause in between the breaths.

We're always breathing.

Even if we're breathing slow,

We keep the depth and we keep that circular breathing.

The wheel keeps turning.

As we're warmed up at this point,

It might be easier to allow a fuller breath to flow.

See if that's the case for you.

If you want to expand even more,

We're inviting a faster,

More intense breath.

There's no correct way of doing this.

It's about you exploring,

Dancing with your breath.

Do what feels best for you at this point.

In the second round,

We're breathing for five minutes.

We're approaching halfway.

Just keep breathing.

Wonderful.

Just keep on breathing.

Doing amazing.

We're in the last minute of the second round.

If you want to intensify this dance with your breath,

Now is the time.

Feeling what it's like to perhaps inviting an even fuller breath without forcing,

Rather just surrendering,

Allowing.

We'll count down once again from three to zero.

From zero,

We exhale everything.

Three,

Two,

One.

On your next exhalation,

Exhale everything out.

Emptying.

Taking a big breath in.

Holding at the top.

Holding here with as little effort as possible.

Holding here for another 30 seconds.

See if you can relax even more.

Just a few more seconds.

As we now exhale and hold again where the breath naturally stops.

Holding this time with empty lungs for one minute.

See if you can focus your mind as well.

20 seconds.

Now we inhale from the belly all the way to the top.

Holding again with filled lungs.

Holding for a little bit longer here.

Almost there.

As we now exhale,

We do so with a tone on the voice.

Wonderfully done.

As we're stepping into the last round.

Five minutes of breathing.

See where you want to take this round.

If you want to increase the energy a little bit in the breath by breathing in through the mouth.

Or keep working with that beautiful wave.

In through the nose,

Out through the mouth.

Just trust that the body knows.

Allow it to breathe fully.

Expansive.

Just keep on breathing.

Great.

Allowing yourself to release anything out that you need to have released from your system with each exhale.

Always breathing.

Keeping the wheel turning.

Three minutes to go.

Doing great.

Last two minutes.

Letting the breath flow and express itself in the most beautiful way.

Lift.

Keep breathing.

Just invite whatever you're longing for into your being through the breath.

Exhaling the old.

Inviting the new.

Three to zero.

On zero we exhale completely.

Three.

Two.

One.

On your next exhale,

Exhale everything out.

Before inviting that full breath in from the belly all the way to the top and hold.

Keep holding.

And we allow the breath to fall out now.

And we hold the breath again.

On the exhale with empty lungs.

Another 20 seconds down here.

As we now inhale again all the way to the top and hold.

Holding for the last time.

And as we exhale we add a tone to the voice.

And we allow that tone to be the signal to ourselves that we came all the way to the end.

Now it's time to just relax,

Let go.

Allow the relaxation to just envelop you until I guide you back shortly.

And even though I conclude this session now I invite you to stay here for as long as you need to,

As long as you can.

Simply enjoy the state that you've created through your breath.

And I hope that I will see you soon again.

Take care and thank you.

Reviews

Both powerful and releasing for body and mind. Tack🌟🙏🏼