Calming & Grounding Breath

Join this short practice to createcalming and grounding energy. Start with a simple counted 3-part breath to expand your lungs and focus your mind (perhaps letting thoughts fade into the background) and integrate with some Ujjayi breath. You'll then finish up with Bramhari pranayama (using sound to extend your exhalation and de-excite the nervous system).

Transcript

Hello everybody,

Welcome.

Welcome to your Pranayama breath practice today.

So you can sit yourself up onto something.

I've got a block,

You might have a cushion or a bolster,

A rolled up towel,

Anything that you've got available and finding a seat for our practice today.

And we're going to work with some quite grounding breath practices.

Particularly good if you've been feeling a little stormy maybe busy or having some anxiety or some sort of anything that's kind of keeping you up in your head.

And we're going to be doing some really nice,

Safe breath practices today using some simple pranayama tools and some sound to really bring ourselves down into our bodies and and to give our nervous system a nice rest to bring us down into a sense of ease hopefully.

So sitting up tall,

You can let yourself settle here.

You might take a nice long breath in and a sighing breath out a couple of times.

If you feel to maybe moving your body a little bit,

Perhaps giving your shoulders a shrug up and back a few times,

Stretching your arms up towards the sky,

Taking a nice stretch through the sides of your body over to one side and then over to the other side.

And then allow your hands to rest down onto your lap or onto your knees.

You might close your eyes if you feel comfortable to,

Let your eye gaze turn down towards the ground.

Taking the opportunity as we land here,

We feel that connection between your body and the earth to acknowledge the country that we're on.

So paying deepest respects and gratitude to the first peoples of this land.

Their elders past and present and those leaders emerging.

And I acknowledge that I am sharing these practices to you from the lands of the Taungurung and the Dutaroa,

These unceded lands.

You might set yourself an intention for this practice today.

Being curious about how these breath practices affect you.

We're going to start with a full yogic breath.

And so if you feel that you can connect more with this practice by lying down,

You are always welcome to.

I will guide it sitting.

And you can take maybe one of your hands to your belly and one of your hands to your chest.

And then you can take your hands to your chest.

You can take maybe one of your hands to your belly and one of your hands to your chest.

And we'll just explore for the first couple of rounds without counting,

Bringing the breath into the belly and then into the mid part of the chest and then into the upper part of the chest and then releasing the breath from the chest,

From the top first and then the belly drawing back in.

And so we'll take a clearing breath first,

Inhaling fully.

Exhaling with a.

.

.

Exhaling with a.

.

.

To let all the breath out.

And then starting to breathe in and feel that bottom hand expand as you breathe into your belly.

Continuing the breath in,

Draw the breath into the mid part of your lungs,

Feeling that space expand and then lift the breath up into the top of the chest.

And then let the breath out from the top of the chest.

Ribs drawing in and then the belly drawing back in towards your spine.

We'll do one more,

Just feeling those different movements.

So inhale into the belly.

You might pause briefly and then draw the breath into the mid part of the chest.

Pausing briefly there and then lifting the breath up into the top of the chest.

Slight interruption,

Pausing at the top and then letting the breath out from the top of the chest.

And the ribs drawing in and then finally the belly drawing back in.

And then just relax your breath for a moment.

Inhale and exhale fully.

Perhaps with that gentle constriction at your throat,

The Ujjayi breath.

Noticing how that felt,

Where you might have felt any restriction in your body.

And you might even find that you want to have a little bit of stretch again and just ease some space into those areas of the body that might feel a little bit stuck.

And then we're going to do a few more rounds of this full yogic breath.

Durga Pranayama.

And I'm going to count the breath.

So we're going to inhale to start with for a count of four into the belly and then two more counts into the mid part of the chest.

And then two more counts into the upper chest.

So eight counts in total.

And then we're going to release the breath from the top and we're going to count to six to let the breath all the way out of the chest.

And then the final two counts to draw the belly in and back.

So if that starts to feel complicated or the counts are too long,

Feel free just to find your own rhythm again.

But I'm going to count you through for a good few rounds,

About five rounds in total counting and then a few more rounds where you can count for yourself.

So let's do a clearing breath again first.

Inhale.

And exhale with a sigh.

Inhaling for one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Mid chest,

Five,

Six.

Upper chest,

Seven,

Eight.

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

Belly,

Seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

Belly,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Mid chest,

Five,

Six,

Upper chest,

Seven,

Eight.

Exhale,

Chest,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

Belly,

Seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

Belly,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Mid chest five,

Six.

Upper chest seven,

Eight.

Exhale,

Chest,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

Belly draws in for eight.

Inhale,

Belly two,

Three,

Four,

Mid chest five,

Six,

Upper chest seven,

Eight.

Exhale,

Chest two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Belly in seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

Belly two,

Three,

Four,

Mid chest five,

Six,

Upper chest seven,

Eight.

Exhale,

Chest two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Belly seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

Belly two,

Three,

Four,

Mid chest five,

Six,

Upper chest seven,

Eight.

Exhale,

Chest two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Belly seven,

Eight.

Do two more rounds on your own.

And if you want to explore a little more length you can just make those counts longer.

So your one,

Two,

Three,

Four might get a little slower.

You might even explore holding the breath at the top for a moment.

And then when you've finished your exhalation,

Letting that practice go and noticing how you feel.

You can find a natural breath or you might drop into the Ujjayi breath,

That constriction at your throat,

Controlling,

Dragging the breath in and out through the nose.

Feeling your breath rushing past the back of the throat.

An integration breath.

So as we expand the capacity of the body to breathe through Durga Pranayama,

Three-part yogic breath.

Really tapping into the vagal nerve,

Into that rest and digest part of our nervous system.

Letting our body know that it's okay.

And also giving the mind this count and this practice to focus on.

Perhaps it's not so caught up in the busy thoughts.

And so that Ujjayi breath between these practices can be really helpful to stay with that focus.

Sometimes as we let the breath just relax into its natural rhythm the mind starts to wander straight away.

Just noticing if that's the case,

Bringing yourself back to feel your conscious breath.

And then let's do one more pranayama here and we're going to practice brahmari or the buzzy bee breath.

So sounding the breath and again a really great practice to tone that vagal nerve.

Chanting is a wonderful practice to really bring balance to our nervous system if it's been excited.

So this is a great cooling down pranayama.

It's also wonderful to do if you're feeling a little excited or overstimulated from life.

So the breath is going to be done as a sound and we'll just continue it over and over so you can find your own rhythm as you take full inhale and then let the exhale run with the and then as soon as you get to the end of your exhale you can take another breath in and we'll do this practice for about a minute or so and I'll let you know when we're on the last one.

So again we'll take a nice clearing breath to start with.

Inhale fully,

Exhale with a sigh and then beginning our practice you can close your eyes,

You can even take your hands over your eyes if you like.

You you you last one see if you can feel the resonance of that vibration still within the mouth the roof of your mouth perhaps in your throat your heart noticing the quality of your breath now as you just let your breath be natural no need to control it at all you sounding the breath really allows us to extend the exhalation perhaps feeling a sense of calm that comes from that you're welcome to stay here in meditation if you like for another five minutes or so if you're ready to finish your practice to bring the palms of your hands together thumbs at your heart perhaps taking a moment here to offer your practice up in some way to someone needing some positivity today and then bowing your head towards your heart blink open your eyes and then you can lift your gaze and take yourself back into your day or move into another practice whatever your you feel to tonight today thank you so much for practicing this breath exercise with me I find it super useful to do these particularly these two practices and I've had my nervous system this needs to be calmed and nourished and hopefully you find that too so thank you