Hello,
I'm Joni with Healthy Body,
Peaceful Soul.
Welcome to patterned and conscious breathing.
This practice will help you to manage stress.
It will help you to cultivate greater focus and awareness,
Both so that you can be more mindful in your meditation practice as well as in your life.
Let's get started.
Find a comfortable seated position either on the floor cross legged or kneeling with a cushion underneath your sitting bones or sitting in a chair both feet flat on the floor,
Spine nice and long,
Crown of the head lifting toward the sky.
Take a deep inhale and exhale with a sigh.
Let's do that again.
Deep inhale,
Exhale with a sigh.
We're going to begin with four eight breathing.
This is inhaling fully and deeply to a count of four,
Exhaling slowly emptying the lungs completely in a count of eight.
I'll guide you for the first few breaths and then I'll be quiet allowing you to adjust the pace on your own as you need.
Then we will change the breathing practice.
Let's begin by exhaling completely empty the lungs.
Now deepest inhale through the nose two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Next inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Again inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Continue breathing this way on your own.
Inhaling to a count of four,
Really filling your lungs in that four count and then exhaling slowly to a count of eight.
Try to just breathe through your nose but you could always exhale through your mouth if that's more comfortable.
Another few breaths like this.
After your next exhale release the four eight breathing and just allow yourself to breathe naturally for a few rounds,
Breathing consciously without controlling the breath.
Notice how subtle the natural breath is compared to four eight breathing.
Let's step into another pattern of breathing.
This pattern is two and three.
That is two long slow deep breaths and then three natural breaths allowing your body to breathe when you're just the observer.
Let's begin by exhaling completely empty the lungs and now a long slow deep inhale fill the lungs.
A long slow controlled exhale.
Another full deep breath like that.
Not worrying about counting the inhale or the exhale but just really trying to take a full slow breath.
After that second controlled breath now let go of all control.
Just breathe naturally paying attention to the sensations of your natural breath for three breaths.
And begin again two long slow deep breaths and three natural breaths.
Do on your own.
One more time.
After your next exhale,
Go ahead and release the technique.
Release the counting of breaths and just sit and rest in conscious breathing without any control where you're just the observer.
We'll do one more patterned breathing exercise.
This one really has to do with focus and concentration,
Focusing on the depth of your breath and where you feel it in your body.
So I invite you to exhale completely,
Empty the lungs and we're going to be continuously breathing really deeply and slowly.
So long slow deep inhale,
Long slow controlled exhale and just continue those long slow deep breaths and I'll begin to direct your awareness and invite you to direct the breath to different places in your torso.
So allow your next few deep breaths to be focused in the right side of the torso.
So this means imagine that you can feel as if you could just breathe into that right lung.
Feel as if you can expand the right rib cage a little bit more with each deep inhale.
Imagine that right side of the chest could expand a little bit more with each deep inhale.
Long slow controlled breaths just breathing into that right side of the torso feeling it expand.
And now direct your breath and your attention to the left side of the torso.
Imagine you could just breathe into the left lung,
Expand through that left rib cage a little bit more deeply.
Left side of the chest expands a little bit more.
Breathing into the left side of the torso for the next several breaths.
And now breathe a little deeper into the front body.
Really allow your chest and your belly and the front rib cage to expand with the next few breaths.
Focusing your attention,
Focusing on sending the breath into that front body a little bit more evenly right to left expanding more through the front body.
And now send the breath into the back body.
Feel the breath expand in the back rib cage,
Maybe feeling the shoulder blades broaden with each deep inhalation.
Sending the expanse of each inhalation a little more into the back side of the body,
The back side of the torso.
And now letting that go and taking the next three breaths evenly from right to left,
From front to back,
Filling the whole torso with breath.
Slowly as you fill with the inhalation and as you empty with the exhalation,
Feel the sensations in the whole torso,
The rib cage,
The chest,
The belly.
Allow everything to expand with each inhalation and to come back to center with each exhalation.
Release the deep breathing all together.
Allow your body to take control over the breath and step into the role of observer,
Of witness.
So conscious breathing now,
Not patterned breathing,
Not changing the breath anymore,
But rather allowing the natural breath to take center stage of your attention and your awareness and you're just going to sit and watch and feel the subtlety of each natural inhalation and exhalation.
Focusing your awareness on just one breath at a time,
Fully feeling and being present with what the inhalation feels like and what the exhalation feels like.
Letting go of all else and just focusing on that natural breathing in,
Natural breathing out,
Refreshing your attention with each breath,
Coming home to each breath.
As you feel ready to take a deep inhale,
Exhaling with a sigh and allowing yourself to open your eyes to come back to the room that you're in,
To come back to awareness of your body.
You might stretch a little,
Bringing this practice to a close and going back to the rest of your day.
Feel free to practice this anytime you need to clear your head and practice it daily to just cultivate a greater sense of mindfulness to sharpen your ability to be aware and present.
Take care.
You
