Alternate Nostril Breathing And Extended Exhale

Notice the flow of air in the nostrils. As we breathe in the air is a bit cooler and as we breathe out the air is a bit warmer, perhaps somewhat moist. Extending our exhale to 6 seconds or more signals safety to ourselves inviting calmness, rest.

Transcript

This is a practice of alternate nostril breathing when we notice the flow of air in the nostrils.

And as we breathe in,

The air is a bit cooler.

As we breathe out,

The air is a bit warmer.

We're going to work with the active nostril and the passive nostril.

So one of those nostrils has more airflow than the other.

Sometimes they're almost even,

But usually there's a difference between them.

So you could block off one and inhale.

Or you could just inhale and notice which one is cooler,

Which one has more airflow.

And then we bring our attention into following the breath as though we're breathing from the eyebrow center to the base of the nostrils and then back to the eyebrow center.

Let your awareness follow that flow.

As you're exhaling,

Let your awareness flow down from the eyebrow center through the nostrils to where the nostrils meet the upper lip.

And then inhale back up through to the eyebrow center.

And let that rhythm and pace become smooth,

Even,

Continuous.

And sometimes that might mean that we roll our shoulders around a little bit or relax our body from head to toes so that the breath can have more ease.

And sometimes we work with a mantra of so hum as we breathe.

So if you enjoy that,

Let that arise in your mind now and just hear the sounds.

As you're inhaling,

The sound is so,

Exhaling hum.

Let the sound and the breath and your awareness flow smoothly,

Evenly,

Continuously from the eyebrow center to the base of the nose and back.

And let all of your attention be focused on that flow of breath and awareness.

And inhaling so,

Exhaling hum.

You will do a simple practice of breathing several breaths on one side and then the other for the alternate nostril breathing part.

So finish inhaling and then block off your passive nostril with either your thumb or your ring finger.

And exhale and inhale just through your active nostril.

Relax your shoulders,

Your face and jaw.

Just follow that flow of breath in the nose.

Next exhalation,

Switch to the other side.

And then take your time,

Next exhalation back to the active nostril.

Limit.

And again,

Take your time next time you exhale switch over to the passive nostril again,

Letting the flow of breath,

Awareness and sound be continuous and smooth in your mind.

So back to the active nostril on an exhale.

Let your whole body relax,

Your mind focus.

And then back to the passive nostril again.

Let your mind be steady flowing without awareness of breath and sound.

And then for your next exhalation,

Bring your hand down and follow the flow of breath between both nostrils,

Between the eyebrow center and the base of the nose and back.

We start by feeling the sensations of air and following the breath in both nostrils and then we move to the center.

Several breaths just letting your attention flow,

Eyebrow center to the base of the nose,

Letting it gradually come into that central channel between the nostrils.

Inhaling so,

Exhaling hum,

Keep your attention steady.

If your mind wanders off,

Just bring it back.

And then get ready to move into extended exhale breathing,

Two to one breathing,

Where the exhalation is up to twice as long as the inhalation.

You can do that from sitting,

You could lie down.

Take a moment to check in with yourself what you'd like to do.

Exhaled exhale can be easier lying down because your belly can be completely relaxed.

We start with this same even continuous flow of breath.

This time we're putting our attention into the belly.

And see if you could allow your breath to be so smooth that there's no jerkiness in the breath at all.

There's no pauses,

You're not holding your breath.

Just as you finish the end of the exhalation,

Your belly is soft and moving back towards the spine.

And then you inhale,

Let your belly rise as the lungs fill with air.

As soon as you have a sufficient amount of air,

Then let the air go.

Let your lungs empty again.

So we start off with an even length of exhale and inhale,

And then gradually let the exhalation lengthen.

If you're breathing into a count of three,

And let yourself breathe out to a count of three or four,

Up to six,

As long as you're not creating any kind of stress in the breath.

Exhale,

Just let that exhalation continue a little bit longer.

No pressure in the muscles of the belly,

We're just letting it go a little longer.

We're not squeezing the air out,

We're just letting it release.

You can continue to let so hum arise and flow in your mind if you like,

Or let it come to rest.

Easy,

Smooth,

Letting go of the breath,

Letting the exhalation continue a bit longer.

And then without holding the breath,

Without any sense of strain,

Let the inhalation start again.

And let go into the exhalation,

Let the exhalation lengthen a bit.

Smooth,

Even,

Continuous breath,

The whole of your body relaxed head to toes.

And if you only have a few minutes,

You could come back to an even breath whenever you like.

If the mind gets bored and starts to wander off,

You could give it something more focused to do.

Like really noticing the feeling in the belly as you breathe out,

How everything softens.

The belly moves back towards the spine.

Notice the transition points in the breath.

As you finish breathing out,

Keep your attention really sharply attuned as you start to breathe in.

What's the difference?

There's a different energetic feel to the inhale.

And just as you have enough air,

Let it go and notice the difference again.

You can also notice as you begin to inhale that the muscle fibers in your belly start to lengthen.

And with this softness in the belly,

There's no resistance to that.

You can take a full inhalation and a long,

Slow exhalation.

And as we're exhaling,

There's a natural letting go.

And we could also bring that to mind.

Is there some kind of stress in your body that you could release as you breathe out?

Your forehead and eyes,

Eyebrows,

Now through your mouth and jaw,

Your tongue and throat.

Sides in the back of your neck,

Your shoulders,

Into the upper back.

All through the whole back of your body as you're breathing out.

And we have a little bit longer for that.

With this extended exhale,

We could really put our attention on releasing tightness out of the body.

Letting the whole body,

Especially through the back of your body right now,

Soften just like your belly.

Let your arms and legs be at rest.

Sometimes we can let go of ideas,

Anxieties or fears,

Things that are holding us back.

Or we could very simply just be breathing,

Allowing our attention to be just on the direct experience of breath.

And coming back to an even breath,

About the same length,

Exhale,

Inhale.

Where again of your whole entire body,

Head to toes.

Tune in again to the feeling of the breath in the nostrils.

Open your eyes.

As we finish the practice,

It's good to just look around for a moment,

See what's here.

Make a conscious transition out of the practice and back into daily life.

Reviews

Beautiful after yesterday live which gave me a sense of calm in these troubled waters I was drawn to nostril breathing again, thank you for sharing this gift Lynn 🙏

Great thank you! Busy meditation, but effectively and soothing. I love ypur clear and calm instructions. I will look for more from you.