Check In With Your Breath

A sweet and simple meditation to bring you into the breath. Often during meditations, we’re taught to manipulate the breath to calm down, wake up, or go deeper. This meditation isn’t like that. Instead, we simply listen to the breath as it is in this moment, noticing what it can tell us about the current state of our body, mind, and energy. Check in on your breath with me and see what it has to say.

Transcript

This is a short meditation to help you check in with your breath. I think a lot of meditation teachers like to use the breath to manipulate your current state or they talk you into the breath in order to get you into the moment and I think that we forget that the breath as it is naturally can give us so much information about our present state of mind, Our present state of body, The present state of our emotions and so in this practice we're not going to focus so much on changing the breath but on seeing how the breath is in this moment. Let's begin by finding a comfortable position you can be seated or standing or laying down doesn't really matter but wherever you are find a nice long straight spine so take a moment and really extend through your spine and create a little bit of extra space between each vertebrae all the way from the base of your spine to the back of your neck really lengthening extending through the top of your head and then as you find that length just gently allow your body to settle in and relax into the space you've created in your spine and allow your spine to just hold you upright maybe you close your eyes and as you close your eyes just gently soften the muscles around your eyes the muscles in your forehead and in your cheeks release and relax the muscles in your jaw maybe you swallow as you relax the muscles in your throat soften across your chest and your collarbones and allow your arms to be heavy hands heavy in your lap and soften down into your torso into your belly and maybe you start to feel the breath in the body as you soften your belly feeling that gentle movement of the breath as it comes in continuing to allow your body to soften so softening your hips and your legs softening down the legs into your feet and taking a final moment here as you just really sink into this moment into your body to make yourself just a little bit more comfortable adjusting your legs or your position sitting up a little bit taller or straighter and really allowing yourself to come into this moment before you turn your attention to your breath just begin to follow the inhales in and the exhales out and then slowly bring your attention back to your breath noticing the overall energy of your breath as it is right now maybe your breath feels soft and slow like you just woke up or maybe you've already done a lot today and your breathing is a bit faster it has a bit more energy behind it just getting a sense of the overall energy of your breath continue to follow the natural rhythm of your breath begin to notice if the breath feels like it's getting stuck anywhere on the way in or on the way out does your breath reach all the way into your belly does it stop somewhere in your chest or in your throat maybe every time you breathe in you feel tightness or tension somewhere else in your body just noticing how you're breathing it's all just information there's no right or wrong way to breathe continue to take some deep and natural breaths and notice if your inhale is longer or shorter than your exhale or maybe they're about equal in length a longer inhale brings in more energy to the body so if you're naturally taking deeper inhales maybe you just need a little extra breath extra a little extra energy meanwhile your exhale lets go of energy it helps us to relax so if you're exhaling extra deeply maybe your breath is trying to help you slow down and go inward and you can use this information to help yourself settle in or help yourself energize but it's also interesting just to notice what you're doing naturally and if your breath is about equal the inhale matching the exhale maybe you're feeling pretty balanced in your energy take a moment here in silence just to notice and be with your breath following its natural rhythm and then just gently and slowly in your own time and in your own way begin to deepen your breath just taking a few longer inhales a few deeper exhales and maybe you want to take a few deep sighing exhales and as we come to the end of our meditation I'd like to repeat that there is no right or wrong way to breathe and the way that you're breathing is just information and it can be a beautiful clue into the current state of your mind and your body and your energy in any given moment and next time you feel overwhelmed or out of sorts or happy and joyful take a moment to notice how you're breathing in those moments how the breath echoes the realities of your life the energy of each moment and notice how beautiful it is that your breath is like a teeny little reflection of who you are in this moment in time thank you so much for practicing with me today I'll see you here again soon bye now