NSDR In The Forest ~ Savasana & Breathwork

This is a longer savasana with more pranayama--a longer and more advanced variation on the shorter extended savasana previously published.

With the soothing sounds of the forest, immerse yourself in nature while breathing intentionally for self-connection, stillness, and health.

We'll practice Ujjayi (oceanic breath), Anulom Vilom (alternate nostril breathing) and Viloma 1 and 2 (inhaling and exhaling in stages).

Make sure you won't be disturbed, lay your body down in a compassionate and careful way--not too cold, not too hot--and enjoy this long savasana. You may need some blankets and bolsters of pillows.

Never do breathwork in or next to a bathtub or a pool or a lake, etc. Always contact your physician before doing breathwork if you have any medical issues.

image: Ales Krivec

Transcript

Let's lay down in Shavasana and do some non-sleep deep rest practice for complete relaxation.

So to lay yourself down properly in Shavasana,

You want to make sure that you're completely straight.

So make sure when you lay down that you have one single line,

Your center line,

That is completely straight.

A good way to do this is to first sit up with your knees,

Your legs bent,

And then vertebrae by vertebrae slowly roll down,

Supporting yourself with your hands on the floor.

And really make sure you intentionally lay every vertebrae down.

And then when your back is completely on the floor,

You can use your hands to lift up your buttocks and extend your lower back.

So you want to extend your lower buttocks away from your lower back.

You have a natural curvature in the lower spine,

But you want to somewhat minimize that.

And when you've done that,

You can extend your feet,

Your heels,

Away one by one.

And you really want to make sure you feel this extension on the back part of your legs to create even more length in the back body.

And then have your feet and legs completely together.

And when you have extended both legs,

Both feet away,

You can slowly and evenly relax the feet outward to the side.

And then using your elbows in the floor,

With your fingers pointing up towards the ceiling,

You can press down and then tuck your shoulder blades more under.

So you want to pull your shoulder blades more down towards your hips to create a nice lift in your chest to give maximum space for the lungs.

And then roll your arms out so that your thumbs face away from your body.

To create even more space in the chest area.

But make sure that you don't contract too much your shoulder blades.

So you want to have a balance of a maximum open chest,

But don't sacrifice the space in your back for this.

And if it's possible,

Have some space between your arms and your flanks.

You want your armpits ideally to remain open.

If you notice that your head is rolling a bit more back,

And your chin isn't straight up,

You might want to place something underneath your head.

So you want your throat to have space,

But not to extend your chin too much away from your chest.

There has to be some kind of connection of the chin and the chest.

And a good measure is to have your chin,

The bottom of your chin,

Face straight up to the ceiling.

And extend also the back of your neck to have space as well there.

And if you do have a blanket or a pillow under your head,

Make sure it touches your shoulder heads,

But it's not under your shoulders.

Just touching,

Supporting the neck and the back of the head.

But the shoulders,

The whole back,

Is on the floor.

And allow yourself to settle in into a pleasant Shavasana posture.

And allow yourself also in the next few minutes to make some minor adjustments.

And at the same time you have to let go of adjusting yourself at some point.

At some point there will be some discomfort,

And that's also part of the practice of letting go.

To allow your body to deal with that.

There will be relief.

It can even be that you might have a muscle spasm somewhere.

Sometimes when I sit in meditation there will be a muscle spasm in my foot.

And you can actually just let that happen.

It can be intense,

But if you just allow it,

It will relax by itself.

Of course don't suffer.

You don't have to suffer in Shavasana.

But just be mindful that you don't keep on adjusting yourself all the time.

This is not restful.

And it's actually often the mind wanting to take control.

Where we want to go more towards letting go of the control of the mind.

So breathe a bit more in your side ribs.

To make your body even more flat to the floor.

So when you inhale you don't have to do this the whole time.

But just for now take a few breaths where you mindfully expand your chest more at your flanks than at the top.

So that you want to keep your chest a bit down and just exhale more laterally in your side ribs.

Inhale and exhale there.

And slowly allow gravity to settle your body.

Sense into the feelings that you have.

You're all back,

The entire back side of your body.

This is an inherently calming feeling.

We're often not aware when we are up and about.

We're not aware of the backs of our bodies.

And it's very pleasant to actually spend some time with it.

Noticing any tension,

Specifically in the face.

And without doing anything,

Just noticing it and allowing it to dissolve.

Let your tongue and lips become soft.

All the facial muscles in your cheeks,

Around your nose,

Around your mouth,

Around your eyes.

Let it all relax.

You can even let the corners of your mouth fall down a little bit more.

So let the eyeballs become softer and rest in the sockets.

You can actually feel them go down a bit towards the floor,

Away from the eyelids.

Let even your brain sink more to the back and rest in the skull,

Close to the floor.

And have an intention to stay awake,

Though very,

Very,

Very relaxed.

But the most benefit is we stay aware,

Stay awake.

And just stay where you are,

Breathing as you are,

While I give some preliminary instructions for the pranayama coming up.

So,

First off,

Don't do anything you don't want to do.

If I give an instruction that you don't like,

Then just ignore it.

It's only a suggestion.

And secondly,

Listen to all the instructions first before doing the pranayama.

I will,

For each of the three pranayamas,

Will be doing actually four.

I will first give complete instructions and then I will invite you to practice the techniques,

But first listen.

And also take it slow.

We want this to be a relaxing practice.

It's not an effortful practice,

Even though we're doing techniques.

The idea is to carry the techniques to more stillness,

More self-connection and less self.

So,

Really have this attunement to everything you do being very calm,

Very relaxing.

The opposite of effort.

And lastly,

With all the pranayamas,

It's likely to happen that you will strain your face a little bit while doing it,

Or brace some part of your body.

This is normal,

This is fine,

But try to minimize it.

Try to be completely neutral in all your muscles,

Except for the ones you use completely neutral in all your muscles,

Except for the ones you use for breathing.

This is also good for focus.

And mostly it's just better for the pranayama to do its work.

If we're contracted,

We kind of work against ourselves.

And this goes well with not forcing.

So,

If you notice yourself efforting and being sort of intense in your muscles,

Then this is a good sign that you're going a bit too hard at it.

So,

I will first explain Ujjayi breath,

The oceanic or the victorious breath,

The first pranayama.

So,

When I say to start,

This is what you'll do.

First,

You'll empty out your lungs completely,

But not insanely.

You know,

Give it a bit of a realistic boundary,

But exhale completely,

And then the in-breath is an intentional,

Full,

Deep,

Long,

Gentle,

Complete inhalation.

And the idea is that you really sense into your lungs,

And have an idea that you're really touching with your inhalation the lower lungs,

The middle lungs,

And the upper lungs,

As if you are emptying out one bucket of air into another.

You want to feel first the lower lungs,

Then the middle lungs,

And then upper lungs,

All the way to your collarbones.

Again,

Within reason.

And also,

I can have this 3D scan when you're doing that.

So,

Not just the lower lungs,

But also the front and the back of your lungs,

And the inner part,

Closer to your spine.

And so,

With an inhalation,

You fill up your lungs in this 3D scan upwards,

All the way to your collarbones.

And then,

When you've inhaled completely,

You do the reverse.

You exhale from the collarbones,

Down to the middle of the lungs,

Down,

Including the front,

The sides,

And the back of the lungs,

Down,

Down,

Down,

All the way,

Until you have exhaled close to your navel.

So,

That is one cycle.

And one more important thing to keep in mind with all the pranayamas we'll be doing in this session,

Is you don't want to breathe too lightly.

And what I mean with that is,

You want to constrict your throat a little bit,

As if you're breathing a little bit like Darth Vader.

I hope that that reference makes sense.

But you want to have a kind of this breath control.

So,

It's not simply letting air flow in and out of your lungs,

But it's guiding it in and out of your lungs.

And there you have this kind of slight contraction.

So,

Don't make it too much for yourself,

But have the slightest of strains that makes you breathe a little bit like Darth Vader.

Can you feel it in your throat?

This slight tensing that makes the breath just more intentional.

So,

It doesn't sound like this.

You want it to sound more like this.

I hope that that makes sense.

If it doesn't make sense,

Just do as it feels good for you.

Okay,

So just do that if it doesn't make sense what I just said.

So,

Do about five,

No,

Do exactly five cycles of this Ujjayi breathing in your own pace.

Five cycles of this Ujjayi breathing in your own pace.

So,

So,

And then we're going to go towards the next Pranayama,

Which is Anulom Vilom,

The alternate nostril breathing.

I will first explain again,

So you can just remain where you are breathing normally.

So,

What we're going to do is we're going to use our right hand,

That you can already do right now,

And just fold back as if you're making a fist,

But only with your index and middle finger.

So,

Then that means you have your ring finger and your pinky finger still extended,

And you can also extend your thumb.

And so,

That will be the instrument you use for alternate nostril breathing.

The sequence is always inhale through the left nostril,

Then exhale through the right nostril,

Inhale again through the right nostril,

And then exhale through the left nostril.

So,

It's left,

Right,

Right,

Left.

That's one cycle,

Left,

Right,

Right,

Left.

And you always begin with an inhalation.

So,

I will explain now one more time a bit slower,

Because it can sound a little bit complex.

So,

With some more detail,

You begin with your thumb on your right nostril,

You do a full inhalation,

Then you switch fingers,

So you release your right nostril and place your ring finger and pinky on your left nostril,

You do a full exhalation,

You keep your fingers there,

Full inhalation,

Then you switch again.

So,

Your thumb on your right nostril,

Release your left nostril,

And exhale through your left nostril.

That is one cycle.

So,

Do five cycles of this at your own pace.

Again,

Taking it easy.

And when you're done,

Or when you're complete,

You know,

If it doesn't feel right anymore,

Just stop earlier.

Otherwise,

If you did five cycles,

Then just return to normal breathing.

So,

Start now,

First exhaling completely,

And then start with the left nostril in.

And really hang out on the pleasant,

And easy,

And enjoyable,

And relaxed side of this.

So,

Your face is completely relaxed,

Your body is completely relaxed,

You're just helping your nervous system to regulate with some pranayama,

Helping to relax.

To regulate with some pranayama,

Helping the energy in your body to balance.

So,

So,

So,

So,

And I imagine everybody is breathing normally again.

So,

We're going to slowly go towards the next pranayama,

Viloma one.

So,

First I'll explain again,

This is a variation of ujjayi breathing.

And what we're going to do is breathe in in stages.

So,

You basically have the same instruction as ujjayi.

So,

This full oceanic 3D scan,

Filling of the bucket,

Inhalation of the lungs in 3D.

But now you're going to interrupt the inhale.

So,

If you imagine,

So,

When you start in a bit,

You will first inhale one third of your lungs,

And then really stop completely.

And there's no forcing or anything,

You're just stopping.

Only stopping.

Nothing like,

You don't have to hold anything,

Or strain anything,

You just pause for a second,

A second,

Or one count.

Then you do the middle lungs,

And then you do the top of the lungs.

That's one inhalation,

And you do a normal long ujjayi extended pleasant out-breath.

And then,

You could take a tiny moment before you do the next cycle.

So,

Inhale one third of your lungs.

Go,

And imagine going again from from bottom to top.

So,

Bottom of your lungs,

And then wait a moment.

Middle of your lungs,

Full deep 3D,

Middle of the lungs,

And then wait a moment.

And then you complete the in-breath with a full deep 3D inhalation up to the collarbones.

And then you exhale again,

Completely,

Calmly,

Gently,

Pleasantly.

And so that is,

So one cycle is in and out,

With retention on the in-breath at three points,

At two points.

So,

You divide your lungs in three parts.

And so,

Again do five cycles of the viloma one,

At your own pace,

With ease,

And enjoy it.

Keeping your face completely relaxed as you do this.

Being aware,

Remaining aware of your body,

And remaining completely relaxed and aware.

So,

So so um so and then we're going to go towards the last pranayama of this session,

Which is viloma two.

It's the reverse,

So we're going to do the same ujjayi in-breath as we did in the beginning,

The very beginning.

And then we're going to do pauses in the exhalation.

So,

When you've inhaled completely,

You want to wait a few milliseconds before you start exhaling,

And then exhale only the top of your lungs,

From your collarbone to the middle of your lungs.

And then pause,

And then exhale the middle of your lungs,

Full ujjayi 3D downward scan exhalation,

Until you reach the lower part of your lungs.

Pause,

And then complete the exhalation by emptying out the lower part of your lungs.

And so,

Again,

I invite you to do five cycles of inhalation,

And then a paused exhalation.

And when you are in the exhalation,

Don't exaggerate it,

Don't stay too long on pause,

But just have a look around there,

In your in your pause,

In the middle of the pause,

Sense into the stillness that is there.

So,

Taking it easy,

Not forcing anything,

At your own pace,

Do five cycles of this philoma too,

Where you pause the out-breath.

And when you have completed five cycles,

Just return to normal breathing,

And let go completely in shavasana.

Letting all the effort dissipate into complete stillness and silence.

So,

And then,

Without changing anything immediately,

If you want to stay longer,

You can stay longer,

But this is,

I will guide you through the official ending of shavasana.

So,

First,

You can place your hands on your body,

And then on the next inhalation,

Very gently,

Open your eyes.

Don't start looking around,

Just open your eyes,

Not focusing on anything,

Allowing vision to become part of your world again.

And then,

Slowly,

One by one,

Place your feet on the floor,

So your knees are pointing to the ceiling.

And then,

Simply,

Slowly,

Roll onto your right side.

You can use your right arm as a pillow,

And first just lay on your right side for a moment,

This is good for the heart.

Do not immediately jump up,

So just lay there for a few moments.

Looking at the floor.

Not really looking at all.

And then,

When it feels right for you,

You can continue rolling more to your right,

So to speak,

To sit up.

So,

Use your left arm to help you push up your right arm as well.

And let your head be the last to come up,

And make sure you don't rush into the next thing of the day,

But be with this calm,

Be with this stillness.

Gently go on with whatever is next for you.

Gently go on with whatever is next for you.

Thank you.