Releasing our fears take up a comfortable but active meditation posture with a straight back and putting our hands in kidney mudra where the tip of the thumb rests on the back of the ring and pinky finger index and middle finger are extended this meditation is based on traditional Chinese medicine where kidneys are paired with bladder,
The water element responsible for the water management in our bodies as well as our brain health in TCM organs are paired with emotions as well and when we have an excess of emotions they will be stored in certain organs the emotion associated with kidneys is fear when we release our fears we create space for gentleness,
Calmness and silence with this practice we aim to release some of our fears and we start with a warming breath exercise a Palabhati breath where you take a passive or normal inhale and an active exhale through the nose keeping the mouth closed during all cycles and during your exhales really forcing out the breath using a quick and sharp exhale and just let me demonstrate normal inhale keep doing this breath repeatedly for a couple of minutes so a normal passive inhale and an active exhale forcing the breath out of the nose you may release this breath or the mudra at any point if you become uncomfortable just resting the hands in your lap and returning to normal breath observe what's happening inside the body when doing this warming breath for a little while longer if you like our kidneys like warmth so hence we start with this warming practice if you'd like to continue for a little while longer please pause this recording as we then continue by slowing down what happens when we experience fear is that our exhales especially become much shorter contributing to feelings of fear in itself possibly even panic attacks because we become out of breath and start hyperventilating so notice your normal breath,
Your natural breath its depth and length and especially its location and we start by bringing the breath into your lower abdomen when we experience fear our breath tends to travel into our upper chest again contributing to our feelings of discomfort and fear so consciously bring it down into the lower abdomen when it's there,
When you're comfortable,
Focus on making in and exhales equally long and then working towards extending our exhales and it may help to count either continue in your own tempo or follow me for two examples where we breathe in on the count of four exhale on the count of six in preparation let's breathe in together normal inhale fully exhaling through the nose keeping the mouth closed as we breathe in one two three four and out two three four five six in two three four and out two three four five six continue in your own tempo inhaling up to four exhaling to six and exhale to seven exhale to eight exhale to nine exhale to ten exhale to eleven exhale to twelve exhale to fifteen if you like you may continue with this breath or join me in reflecting on your fears letting the mind project whatever fears you've been experiencing and again observe what's happened within yourself and if it's possible try not to resist,
Suppress,
Deny or fight your fears in this practice just sit with them let them accompany you without attaching yourself to them getting caught up in them but also with no need to marginalize or ridicule them just allowing the fears to be observe the process within yourself can you allow your fears to just be?
Be accepting of whatever happens,
Whatever you find,
There is no right or wrong take as long as you need and pause this recording if need be or join me in making a start to release feelings of fear and in TCM one of the things to do is make a specific sound I'll demonstrate the sound for the kidneys for fear first and I then allow you two minutes to make this sound you may like to make the sound for the full two minutes or just a couple of times or just half time it is entirely up to you,
You may release and return to normal breathing and you may release the mudra as well if you're not comfortable at any point and the sound for kidneys is like the word you but literally only a sound,
Go ahead about one minute to go play around with the sound,
Making it louder,
Deeper,
Longer or shorter and see what brings you the most relief and imagine you're blowing out your fears,
Bidding them farewell slowly finishing up one or two more breaths if you were still going and then gently returning to natural breath,
Taking a moment to observe how you're feeling body,
Mind,
Emotions and mood remain seated for as long as you like while I finish up this session Namaste
