This is a grounding meditation meant to bring you back into your body,
Into the present moment.
We'll focus on the breath.
And that the mind is almost always in the future thinking about what if or what might happen.
Or it's focused on the past of what did happen.
But the breath,
The breath and the body are always in the present.
And so you can always know that when you come back to your awareness on the breath,
You're coming back to the present moment.
So making sure that you're sitting comfortably with your spine straight.
And do make sure that you're sitting comfortably.
You don't want to spend these next few minutes thinking about how uncomfortable you are.
So if you need some padding,
Or even if you need to lean up against a wall to begin,
As long as your back is straight and you're able to sit.
Placing your hands on your thighs or your knees.
And if you're sitting on a chair,
Making sure your feet,
Preferably barefoot or without shoes are resting on the floor.
And breathing in and out of the nose with your eyes closed.
Just begin to bring your awareness to your breath.
You might notice that when you breathe,
Your chest rises with the inhale,
Falls with the exhale.
Or perhaps you're already breathing a little deeper and your belly rises and falls with the inhales and the exhales.
You don't need to change anything.
You don't need to judge it as whether it's right or wrong or good or bad.
Right now,
We're just bringing our awareness to the breath.
Perhaps swallowing to loosen up the tongue and the throat.
If you need to move your jaw a little bit in order to make sure that it releases and relaxes.
And then come back to the breath.
And if you want to deepen this meditation,
I'd recommend that you go into the Ujjayi breath.
And the Ujjayi breath is through the nose.
And it's almost as if you're trying to fog up a mirror or to clean your glasses.
And you may need to start with your mouth open in order to create the formation in your throat,
In your mouth.
And if you do that,
Take an inhale and on your exhale,
Make a sound as if you were fogging up a mirror.
And then continue with that practice but close the mouth so you still get that same sound in the same formation in your throat.
It's slightly constricted.
And you want to continue exhaling and also inhaling with that same formation.
So it sounds a little bit like the wind or the ocean.
But there's a sound on the inhale and the exhale.
So it's lower in the throat.
Almost as if you had gills at the base of your throat and that's where you were breathing out of.
The Ujjayi breath is known as the victorious breath.
And where there's a little effort in the inhale,
You're pulling in the breath and then you're surrendering with the exhale.
Sometimes it takes a little practice to get this breath.
And if you can't get it right now,
You can just do a regular breath in and out of the nose as well and just practice as you can.
And so we're going to begin with a common count of the breath.
We will inhale for four beats,
We will retain the breath for four beats,
We will exhale for four beats,
And we will hold the breath out for four beats.
We'll continue to do a few rounds of that and then we'll inhale for four,
Retain for four,
Exhale for eight,
And hold out for four.
And we'll do a few rounds of that as well.
I'll count the breath for you and then I'll ask you to continue that on your own for a few minutes in silence.
So we'll begin taking a full inhale and a full exhale.
And beginning again with your inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One more round,
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale for eight,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One more counting.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Retain,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Hold out,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Now continue on your own with the four,
Four,
Eight,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
And doing one more full round on your own.
And if you'd like to continue,
Feel free.
I'll ring a bell to end this recorded meditation.
Thank you.
