Guided Breath Awareness

This is a great baseline measure when starting a new pranayama practice, a marker to gauge progress as you go as well as the perfect tool for simply building up your mind-body connection through the most powerful natural tool, your breath.

How often do we sit and notice all aspects of our breath?

Use this complete breath awareness practice to connect back to your breath; the feel, sound, length, pace, pauses, movement through the body and impact on any tension, pain or discomfort you may hold.

Transcript

For this breath awareness exercise, Find a comfortable seat, Sitting with your feet flat on the ground, Hands resting gently on the thighs. Eyes open or closed, And if they're open, Pick a nice neutral spot to rest the gaze on. Now find a little bit of length in your spine, Like you're paying attention. Do you ever notice how when you're paying attention, You sit up a little bit more? So take your attention to your breath, And just notice your breath, Whatever you want to about it. Now what I want you to do is pay attention to the feeling of the air as it goes in, And the feeling of the air as it goes out. Focus your attention right there. Feel the air as it comes in, Nostrils, Sinus, Back of your throat, And feel the air as it goes out. Back of the throat, Sinus, Nostrils. Do your best to keep your attention focused on that. And then shift your attention from the feel of it to the sound of it. This can be harder to get, As you hear all the sounds happening around you. Listen all the way through the inhale, And all the way through the exhale. If you don't hear anything, Just focus and see if you can. Now shift your attention to the length of your breath. Notice how long it takes to breathe in, And notice how long it takes to breathe out. If you find yourself changing the pace of the breath, That's fine, We all do that. Let it go and come back best you can to just watching it and noticing the length of the inhale, And the length of the exhale. Maybe it changes breath to breath. And now notice the pace of your breath. How fast is the air moving as you breathe in, And how fast is the air moving as you breathe out? And does it change from the beginning of the inhale to the end, And the beginning of the exhale to the end? Comparing inhale to exhale, Is there any difference to the pace of your breath? Then shift your attention to that little pause at the end of the inhale, And at the end of the exhale. That place where you're shifting from inhale to exhale, Or exhale to inhale. Maybe there's a pause, Or maybe it feels like there's a smooth transition. Just notice whatever happens there at the end, Before the next one begins. Then expand your awareness a bit, And notice what's happening in your body as you breathe. Notice whatever movement you can feel in your body. Specifically, Check out what's happening in the sides of your ribs. What's happening around your belly. What's happening over top of your sternum, In your chest area. Notice the movement on the right side, And the left side. Maybe the movement is smooth, Maybe there's some catchy spots in there. And also notice if you can feel movement at the back of your ribcage. Then notice if you can feel any movements or anything changing beyond your torso. So as you breathe in and as you breathe out, Does anything change beyond your torso? Your neck, Your shoulders, Your head, Your arms, Hands, Legs, And feet. And if you have any tension, Discomfort, Or pain right now, Just notice if that changes while you breathe in, Or if that changes while you breathe out. And then take your attention back to the feeling of the air going in, And the feeling of the air going out. Let's quickly scan through each of those spots again so you're noticing the feeling right now. Now notice the sound. Notice the length of your breath, The pace of your breath. Notice that spot between inhale and exhale, And exhale and inhale. Notice the movement of your torso as you breathe, Ribs, Chest, Belly, Right and left, And at the back. Notice the movement beyond your torso, Neck, Shoulders, Head, Arms and hands, Legs and feet. And if there's any tension, Discomfort, Or pain, Notice if anything changes in that while you breathe in and while you breathe out. And then again, Take your attention back to the feeling of the air coming in and the feeling of the air going out. And when you're ready, You can just blink your eyes back open again. And if it would feel good to have a little bit of a stretch, Move around a bit, Go ahead and do that. Wake back up. If you feel a little drowsy, Maybe look out the window. Put the sunlight in your eyes and bring yourself back to the space around you again.