Nourish 5: An Open Heart

The Nourish Series is a 7-part series of 30 minute practices intended to connect you back home to yourself. To find a place of Ease, Calm and Peace in this busy life. These practices invite you to move into a gentle and nurturing shape and connect to breath. This is a time of deep relaxation just for you! It is not necessary to move into the suggested shape to benefit from this practice. The breathwork is very calming and a gateway to inner tranquility and release from stress, tension and anxiety.

At all times, listen to your body and your inner guide. If you have any health issues extra caution should be taken and a doctor’s approval given. Be kind and caring towards yourself, you deserve it. This is Nourish 5 An Open Heart. Have some pillows and blankets handy to support you as required.

Transcript

Welcome.

I'm Diane Harris and I would like to say thank you for choosing to spend some time with me today and some time with yourself.

It's a great privilege for me to get to share with you today.

This is part five of the Nourish series and in today's practice we're going to be doing a gentle heart opening.

So if it's evening time for you,

I recommend that you practice something else from the series as heart openers can be energizing and may affect your ability to sleep.

This series is a place for you to restore,

To rejuvenate and to come home to yourself and to your wholeness.

Today we're going to start with a breath,

Come into a shape and connect inward as a method for learning to listen in and to care for our whole being.

Gather some pillows around you and a blanket and let's start by coming into a comfortable seat.

I like to just sit on the edge of a pillow to just prop my sitting bones so I'm a little forward.

It's a nice way to help to feel upright through your body.

Sitting cross-legged you might even enjoy having a pillow under each leg as well.

Take a moment to set up in a place where you can feel completely relaxed with your lower body anchored to the ground,

Your head yearning upward,

Your chin might be slightly tucked.

Let your hands rest comfortably on your lap or maybe on a fourth pillow.

Sometimes the reach of the arms feels too long so it can feel good to have a pillow on your lap.

We're going to practice a cooling breath,

A breath that will cool and calm the physical body and the mind.

To do this you will extend your tongue slightly letting it rest on the lower teeth and you're either going to curl the sides of the tongue or for some people you will just visualize the sides of the tongue.

It's one of those genetic things that some people their tongue curls and some it doesn't.

Either way the breath is equally effective.

So you're either curling the sides of your tongue or visualizing it so that it's like you're creating a channel or a straw that you're going to inhale the air up through the straw.

So now reducing the speed of your inhale draw the air softly in and over the top of the tongue.

Close your mouth and slowly exhale through the nose.

On the inhale your tongue comes back out possibly curled.

Slow inhale draw the tongue in close the mouth,

Soft exhale.

Inhale the breath crosses the tongue,

Exhale through the nose.

Continue this soft and rhythmic breathing with a slow and gentle touch.

On the inhale the tongue comes out drawing the air up,

Exhale the mouth closes,

Air softly leaves the body.

On your slow inhale sense the moist cool air coming in.

Feel release in the body with the exhale.

Coolness entering the body as the inhale crosses the tongue.

Exhale body softens.

Continue like this for a few easeful breaths.

Soft on the inhale,

Soft on the exhale.

Soft breath,

Soft body.

Feeling the relaxation come in.

Release now the breath practice.

Let your breath be unshaped as the practice fades away.

Maybe feeling the coolness and some ease that you've created in your being.

Moving carefully now move to come down to lying on your belly.

Land on and feel the stability of the ground as you bring your arms forward with the elbows bent.

Place one hand on top of the other with the palms face down.

It makes a pillow for your head and you can rest your forehead down on your hands.

In this resting shape you may already feel some sensation starting to form in the curve of the low back.

Send your attention and your breath there as you let your body commit to the support of the floor below you.

Feel your muscles continue to soften.

Feel the next layer of release come.

Bringing your attention back to any sensation you may have in the low spine,

The lumbar spine.

And if that feels like enough for you today,

Stay right where you are.

If it feels okay for you to move into a bit of a deepening of that backbend,

Lift your head and chest as your fingertips slide towards the elbows of the opposite arms.

Your elbows will be approximately shoulder width apart.

You can adjust them the width is needed.

Here you let your low ribs stay on the ground to help carry your weight.

Willfully relax your muscles and in particular relax the muscles of the glutes and the legs.

Can you feel that?

As you soften more into the ground,

Be aware of changing sensations.

If any of the sensations you're feeling in your back feel sharp or electrical,

Lower down to that first position or engage through the thighs or play with the width of your legs.

Make sure that you're caring for your body so that what you're feeling is interesting,

But not sharp or stabbing in any way.

Connect to the stability that the floor provides your body as your heart like an opening flower starts to lift.

Again,

Bringing your interest to the inside of your body to check in with your sensations,

Check in with what you're feeling.

Decide if you want to stay right here,

If you'd like to dial back by releasing down to the first position,

Or if you'd like to lift the heart a little more.

And if you'd like to lift the heart a little bit more,

We're going to move towards the shape of a sphinx.

It might be helpful to bring your elbows a little closer in towards your torso,

But not so far that the elbows are under the shoulders.

This will lift your chest and leave less weight on the low ribs.

You can bring your palms together here in prayer pose or bring them straight out from the elbow like a sphinx.

Adjust how far your elbows come out from the shoulders or how wide the arms and hands are to find a place where you can allow yourself to rest and let the torso soften with the shoulders neither lifted nor slumped,

Creating this gentle curve that lengthens the front of the chest and a gentle compression along the back spine line.

Continuing to relax your muscles again and again,

Continuing to assess what you're feeling in your body and adjusting to care for your body accordingly.

I want you to right now let your breath and your body land in an easeful place,

Perhaps letting your eyes turn inward.

Soft body,

Soft presence.

I love this pose because it makes me think of a flower with part of your body grounded,

Connected and supported by the earth and your heart and head raised to the sky,

Radiant and shining,

Open to whatever comes.

Try tying this thought to your inhale and your exhale.

Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.

Breathing out,

I feel fresh.

Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.

Breathing out,

I feel fresh.

This flower fresh breath is taught by Thich Nhat Hanh who's a well-known Buddhist monk,

Author and poet.

Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.

Breathing out,

I feel fresh.

Continue with this breath.

Thich Nhat Hanh talks about how he sees people born as flowers.

He says,

When I look at a child,

I see him as a flower,

Very fresh,

Very beautiful.

Eyes bright like flowers.

Lips smile like a flower.

Whenever we smile at someone,

We are offering them a flower.

We are born as flowers,

But if we don't know how to care for our flowers,

He says,

Our flowers may be tired and wilted.

When you breathe in deeply,

You make every cell in your body smile like a flower.

Fresh again for your own sake,

Your own happiness and the happiness of those around you.

Rather than being grumpy or irritated,

Practice flower fresh.

Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.

Breathing out,

I feel fresh.

Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.

Breathing out,

I feel fresh.

Start to lower yourself back down,

Finding our first position with your hands,

Palms down on top of each other to make a pillow for your forehead.

Rest here,

Your whole body connected to and committed to the earth,

Committed to surrender.

This breath and body are unified here.

It might also feel good to bring your palms underneath the creases of your hips and have your head turned to one side.

Maybe saying these words to yourself,

I invite my body to rest and relax.

I feel the tension unravel from my body.

I'm relaxed and easeful.

Even while I can feel the expansion of my breath,

I'm able to be here right now.

Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.

Breathing out,

I feel fresh.

Perhaps you're a morning glory,

Those beautiful flowers that open with their color and brightness and their radiance to the sun.

And close up again and take rest and refuge at evening time.

To push back to child's pose,

Bring your hands down or up to be by your shoulders,

Put your weight into your hands,

Lifting up into a table position and then letting your hips come back towards your heels.

You can use pillows under your belly,

Under your head or in the crease of your knees as you once again make yourself comfortable in a shape where you can soften.

Maybe like that morning glory now,

Closing up to reconnect inside.

Feeling now the spine curve the opposite way.

And just like that little flower,

Here you take rest and refuge.

Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.

Breathing out,

I feel fresh.

Let your connection to your body and your breath release the clutter in your mind.

Release any worry,

Any anger,

Imagine any frustration or irritation releasing into the ground.

And then like that little flower,

Awakening or a fern unfurling,

Start to slowly rise up,

Extra slow,

Imagining whatever kind of flower you are today coming to life.

As your spine comes towards upright,

If it doesn't feel okay to be sitting on your heels,

Adjust your legs to a cross-legged shape.

Feel your crown reach towards the sun,

To the universe and to all the wisdom it holds.

Breathing in,

I feel like a flower.

Breathing out,

I am fresh.

And now guide your attention into the space in your heart.

Can you let the air in your chest feel fresh and cool?

Let's come back to the cooling breath,

Just for three breaths.

Your tongue comes out and rests on the teeth,

Maybe curling.

Slow inhale,

Pause as the tongue comes in and the lips close.

Slow exhale.

Deep inhale,

Feeling the cool moisture pass over the tongue and come right into the heart.

Exhale through the nose.

One more inhale like this.

As you exhale through the nose,

Let all the attention stay now in the heart.

Feel the expansion of the inhale and the settling contraction of the exhale in the chest.

Connect that breath to the pulse of your heart.

The pulse of your breath and the pulse of your heart united.

And in every second,

In every breath,

You're new and start again.

And feeling like your fresh flower may be new and revitalized.

Can you give a blessing to yourself?

May I be happy and free.

And know that your smile is your flower to other people as we give them a blessing.

May you be happy and free.

And together,

Let's make a wish that all beings everywhere are happy and free.

May we all know and cultivate genuine happiness.

And may you know your own goodness.

And please let it shine brightly.

Namaste.