Welcome to this guided breath practice to soften and surrender.
Surrender can feel like a very difficult concept for most of us.
It seems that to surrender means to give up and when we are going through something difficult,
When we are faced with life's challenges,
Why would we want to give up?
Surrendering is not about giving up.
Surrendering is about being with what is so you can move through it with greater ease.
To soften and surrender in difficult times,
Through difficult emotions,
Is a strength.
It is an act of self-love.
When we fight against what is,
We can inadvertently end up shutting out solutions.
When we are closed off,
We are not open to other possibilities or other ways of being.
But when we move into the energy of surrender,
We allow ourselves effectively to flow,
To let life flow through us.
Instead of battling up that stream,
Exhausting ourselves by trying to swim against a harsh current.
When we allow ourselves to flow on our back and move with the water,
Then we can come to a place of peace,
A place of resolution.
Our mantra for this practice today is,
I let life flow through me.
I let life flow through me.
This is not about achieving or accomplishing.
This is about being with the softness of our breath and allowing that exhale to remind us that when we let go,
We feel a deeper sense of relief and release.
We will be using a gentle,
Conscious,
Circular breath.
The depth and the speed is completely up to you.
But I would encourage you to allow yourself to slow down with the breath.
So breathing in softly,
Gently through the nose.
Breathing out passively through the mouth.
Finding a comfortable spot to sit or lie down,
Making sure that you are feeling safe,
Feeling comfortable,
Feeling cozy.
Nurturing yourself through this practice with your environment.
When you are ready,
Closing down the eyes,
Arriving into a place of stillness,
Allowing the weight of your body to be supported by the surface beneath you.
Dropping those shoulders,
Relaxing those muscles and unclenching that jaw and maybe just giving yourself permission to sink a little bit deeper into that support.
Nothing to do and nowhere to be but right here in this body with this breath.
Begin by taking a nice long deep breath in through the nose and as you do so,
Really squeeze and clench those fists.
So making a fist and allowing that tension to spread up those arms as you hold your breath at the top.
Holding it all,
Holding that tension and as you exhale out through the mouth,
Releasing that grip,
Releasing your hands,
Letting go.
That sense of relief that comes from loosening our grip,
From releasing our breath.
This is the energy of softening and surrendering.
Whenever you are ready,
Beginning that soft conscious circular breath,
Breathing in through the nose,
Expanding that belly,
Exhaling passively out through the mouth.
Finding your unique pace,
The depth,
The speed that feels right for you in this practice.
Inviting more space into the body through that inhale and as you exhale,
Passively letting go,
Letting that stomach fall back towards the spine,
Emptying those lungs.
I let life flow through me and allowing that breath to flow through you.
Allowing anything to flow through your body,
Your breath.
Knowing,
Trusting that you are safe to feel.
You are safe to be here.
You are safe in this moment.
I let life flow through me.
And if there is any resistance to surrendering,
To softening,
To being here with this breath,
That's okay.
Can you allow it to be here?
Can you breathe with it?
Can you give it space?
Resistance is the biggest block to surrendering and instead of trying to push it away or fight it,
Can we just give it permission?
Can we breathe alongside it?
Staying with that conscious,
Connected,
Circular breath.
Remembering that you control the speed,
The pace,
The depth.
There is no right or wrong here.
I let life flow through me.
Where in your body can you soften?
In what areas of your life can you soften and surrender?
Can you give yourself that permission to move with the current?
Knowing that when we hold on,
When we fight against,
When we struggle,
We create more suffering,
More tension in our body and in our lives.
Using that exhale as permission to release.
Releasing that tension,
Releasing that gripping.
I let life flow through me.
Can you trust that you are supported?
That you are safe to soften,
To slow down and to allow it all to move through you.
Beautiful job and whenever you are ready I'd love to invite you into a short bottom hold.
So perhaps taking one last deep breath in through the nose,
Exhaling out to a neutral lung.
Just taking a moment of pause,
A moment of stillness here in this hold.
As if you were floating downstream,
Allowing your body to sink into this pause.
Allowing yourself to float and whenever you are ready,
Taking a breath in and coming back to your natural breath,
Your normal way of breathing and placing one hand or both hands on your heart.
I let life flow through me.
Allowing it all to flow through you,
Your emotions,
Your experiences.
It is all subject to change.
We are constantly in motion and trust that you are safe to experience it.
There is so much strength and growth when we grant ourselves radical permission to soften and surrender.
Taking in a lovely deep breath in through the nose and sighing it out through the mouth to seal in this practice.
Whenever you are ready,
Gently bringing some soft movement back into the body.
Gently becoming aware of your surroundings and in your own time,
Slowly opening your eyes and coming back to this present moment.
