Take a few moments to find a comfortable position on your back.
Feel free to place a pillow under your head,
A pillow or a bolster under your knees,
Or a blanket over your body.
Indulge in what makes you feel comfortable.
You deserve this comfort.
You've taken time out of your day to breathe,
To center yourself,
To grow through meditation.
Offer yourself some gratitude and get comfortable.
This meditation practice will consist of visualization and pranayama.
When we practice pranayama,
We focus on the movement of our breath.
The breath is a life force,
Fueling us every day,
Keeping us alive and present among those we love.
In this practice,
I want you to direct that love toward yourself.
Direct the love that you truly deserve toward yourself.
That love,
Which we will visualize as a bright yellow essence,
Like the sun.
Exhale completely and breathe in this yellow essence arriving from the top of your head,
The tips of your toes,
Through your fingertips,
Through your nose.
Exhale and continue to breathe in this yellow essence of love and kindness.
It's not always easy to look at ourselves and fill ourselves with love.
We may feel stuck.
We may feel angry,
Tense,
Disappointed.
I want you to take all of those sticky feelings and exhale them out.
Visualize a gray,
Dusty,
Dirty mess in the nooks and crannies of your body.
We tend to hold and hide stress throughout our bodies.
After you inhale love,
A yellow,
Bright light,
Exhale this dirty,
Icky,
Negative,
Gray energy.
Exhale it through the top of your head,
The tips of your toes,
Your fingertips,
Your nose.
Inhale,
Fill yourself with love,
Light,
And positivity.
Exhale,
Release tension,
Pain,
Anger.
Inhale,
Fill yourself up with acceptance.
Exhale,
Release rejection.
Inhale,
Fill yourself with joy.
Exhale,
Release sadness that you've been holding onto for too long.
Inhale,
Fill yourself up with gratitude.
Exhale,
Release grudges.
Inhale,
Fill yourself up with love from those that you love.
Exhale and make room for forgiveness.
Continue with this visualization,
Deepening this practice and your journey.
With each inhale becoming more and more filled with light.
With each exhale releasing more pain and more negativity.
Exhale,
Release the energy that you've been holding onto for too long.
For this next part of the meditation,
We will be practicing krama breathing.
You may also know this technique as stair-step breath.
You can release the visualization if you like or carry it with you through this next part of the practice.
Start to notice where your inhales and exhales are moving throughout your body.
Are they reaching the chest?
Are they reaching the belly?
Are they reaching the toes,
The fingertips?
Take a few moments to simply track the direction of your breath to observe without judgment.
You can place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly if this feels comfortable.
To begin stair-step breath,
We're going to count our breath.
We're going to count as it fills up the chest and count as it fills up the belly in equal parts.
Then we'll count as we exhale from the belly and exhale from the chest.
We'll do two counts for each part of the inhale and each part of the exhale.
Take a moment to calmly exhale all of the air that you have out.
Inhale through the chest,
Through the chest,
Through the belly,
Through the belly.
Exhale from the belly,
From the belly,
Chest,
Chest.
Inhale through the chest,
Two,
Through the belly,
Two.
Exhale from the belly,
Two,
Chest,
Two.
Inhale,
One,
Two,
One,
Two.
Exhale,
One,
Two,
One,
Two.
Continue to count and follow the direction of your breath in equal parts.
You can integrate the visualization we practiced at any time during this stair-step breath.
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
.
.
.
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