Healing Yourself - Breathwork & Meditation - Live

Healing requires space. When we can’t find that space in time, when we are waiting for the weekend or that vacation, we fall sick. Like our external space, our internal space can become crowded with stuff that might impede our ability to move around and do things efficiently. In this session, you will experience 30 minutes of breath work and guided meditation for complete rejuvenation of mind, body, and soul. You will come away feeling great relief and deeply healed.

Transcript

Thank you for joining me.

This is Sunday morning here,

9 a.

M.

In California.

Joy with Jay,

I appreciate you being here.

Oregon,

Illinois,

Nevada,

New York,

Los Angeles,

Michigan,

Look at that.

Seattle,

Oregon,

San Francisco,

British Columbia,

Philly,

Wales in the UK,

Mexico City,

Buenos Dias,

Jenna from Washington,

San Juan Capistrano,

Julie I recognize you,

You seem to be a regular here,

Sarah from Wisconsin,

Neela from Sussex,

Fantastic,

Welcome,

Welcome,

Welcome.

Thank you for being here.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and get some music going and I'll tell you what we're gonna do today.

So folks,

Welcome to Joy with Jay.

This is Sunday morning,

We've been doing this for months now and I've been live on Inside Time or since the beginning of the pandemic.

And all of my sessions,

I record,

Especially the Wednesday nights,

I record them.

It's up on my YouTube channel for those of you who want to revisit or cannot attend some of my sessions for some personal reasons.

It's on my YouTube channel,

Jaychodhagam.

So it's youtube.

Com slash jaychodhagam.

And those of you here for the very first time,

I welcome you to my soul tribe.

This is our gathering,

Like I said,

We've been bonding,

We've been coming together,

We've been supporting each other from the beginning of the pandemic.

And I have been a meditation practitioner myself for about 22 years.

And I've been,

I was a monk with the Brahmacumaris.

I stayed at Nashram for 18 years and I have been teaching retreats and workshops and things like that for about 15 years now.

This online thing is a new feature.

It's a necessity of the times we're living in right now with the pandemic and quarantine and stay at home orders.

But the beauty of this is that it has exploded the reach.

There are so many,

There's hundreds of you who come to these live sessions every week.

And that's kind of reach that I would not have in the in-person format.

So this is a blessing in that sense that yes,

It's been a hard time for so many of us,

But it's been a time for us to reflect on what's important and how do we create this new normal?

What are some of the things that need to be left behind and what are some of the new attitudes and practices that we need to adopt?

So this has been a continuous inquiry for the last one year that we've been gathering and basically supporting each other.

So welcome you,

Especially if it's your first time.

Thank you,

Molly.

Thank you for those of you joining for the first time.

I appreciate you being here.

So,

Especially those of you who first time,

The format of the Sunday mornings,

Now I know it's different time zones for all of you across the world,

But for me here at 9 a.

M.

So when I refer to Sunday morning,

I'm referring to my time zone.

This session will consist of two parts.

I will do a breath work,

Pranayama,

The ancient Indian wisdom of the art of channeling prana,

Which is life force.

And the second half of it will be the meditation.

And the meditation will lead into inquiry.

And then I will finish my official set and open it up from questions.

And then you're welcome to stay or welcome to drop off,

Participate as you choose to.

But the official set is the breath work and the meditation.

So today I'm gonna teach you some of the foundational practices of pranayama.

As you know,

I've been teaching a number of different techniques,

But today I'll be talking about four literally pillars of pranayama.

And the first one is called anuloma viloma.

And now for those of you who are here for the very first time and new to the practice of pranayama,

Which is the art of channeling life force.

And as you allow it to enter into your body through the nostrils and in down to three windpipe into your lungs,

You're creating what is like a river,

The wind is like a river,

And you're channeling that and using a dam.

So we're gonna do something called bandhas,

Which is like creating a dam to harness the power and then use that power to disseminate across the body to every cell of the body.

And the way that we do it is through the nervous system.

Now,

In pranayama,

We have the model of the inverted tree.

The brain is where the roots are.

And as you go down through the spinal cord is like the trunk,

The solid trunk.

And then as the nerves start emerging from the trunk and going to the different parts of the body,

Those are your branches.

So that's how we go into channel and then disseminate the energy that we're gonna tap in through life force prana.

Then you'll find your body will be tingling,

Come alive,

Oxygenated,

And the mind and the heart will slow down.

The blood pressure will reduce.

So many benefits of it.

So let's go ahead and start with the practice.

And I want you to attain Vishnu Mudra.

So this is a mudra between,

We're gonna use two fingers,

The ring and the thumb.

And you will use that for alternate nostril closure.

And it looked like this.

When I say start,

I want you to go ahead and use your ring finger,

Breathe in,

In my case from my right nostril,

Exhale from my left,

Inhale from the same side,

Switch fingers,

Exhale from the opposite.

You get the rhythm,

Five in,

Five out.

Five in,

Five out.

And then I'll ask you to do a pause as once we get past the basic and getting the familiar hang of it,

I will go ahead and kind of add to these steps.

Let's go ahead and do this together.

Now,

In pranayama,

The eyes are closed,

The ears are very alert.

You're trying to hear the sounds of your breathing.

So let's go ahead and start this using your ring finger,

Closing your left nostril,

Inhale through the right for a count of five,

And exhale through the left for a count of five.

Switching with by using your thumb to seal,

And then now same side,

Inhale for a count of five.

Switching fingers,

Opposite side,

Exhale for a count of five.

Inhale for five,

Exhale from the opposite,

Inhale for five,

Exhale for five.

Exhale for five,

Inhale for five,

Exhale for five.

And this time when you inhale,

And then exhale at the bottom of the exhale,

I want you to hold for five.

Inhale,

Exhale,

And then hold for five,

Holding with empty lungs.

Inhale,

Exhale,

Hold,

Inhale,

Exhale.

Hold,

Inhale,

Exhale,

And hold.

Inhale,

Exhale,

And hold.

Inhale,

And we settle,

And this is the end of this exercise.

Go ahead and drop your hands to your legs,

Onto your lap,

Or onto the armrest.

If you're seated on a chair,

Or if you're lying down,

You're welcome to drop it next to you.

And just notice,

Notice what's this,

Anuloma Velloma.

This is the first exercise that we did.

How you feel,

And this is a tremendously powerful exercise to harmonize the left and the right hemisphere of your brain.

And just a few minutes of this practice can yield powerful results.

Now,

This next exercise is called the Brahmari.

The Brahmari is the buzzing bee.

Again,

A foundational exercise,

And in this exercise,

I just want you to first listen,

And without doing it,

And once I finish the instructions,

You're welcome to join.

You will be breathing in deep into the lungs,

Filling your complete abdominal cavity with air,

Using your diaphragm to allow that air to go into the very bottom of your lungs.

And then when you exhale,

You will close your mouth,

The nostril will be used for inhale when you exhale,

You will keep your mouth closed,

And you will release the air with a hum that looks like this.

Mmmmmm.

Okay,

So that's the exercise,

That's Brahmari.

Now,

With that,

I want you to use three fingers.

You're gonna go ahead and use your thumb,

Middle and ring finger,

So the middle and ring finger will be together,

The thumb will be acting on their own,

So you will be using the two thumbs to seal the ear,

The ring and the middle finger will be used to seal your eyes,

Okay,

And you inhale through the nostril,

Don't do it just yet,

Because you can't hear me if you do it.

You inhale through the nostril,

With your ears and eyes sealed,

You will exhale with a hum,

Inhale for a count of five,

Exhale for a count of 10 or longer.

However long you make it,

The more beneficial.

The focus,

By the way,

In pranayama is the exhale,

Always the exhale.

The exhale is where the benefits are,

So that's what we're gonna do,

Extend the exhalation.

So together,

Let's do three rounds of it.

Inhale for a count of five,

10 or more for the exhale,

Together.

Mm.

Second round.

Mm.

Third round.

Mm.

Go ahead and drop your arms,

Rest them on your lap,

Or wherever you feel comfortable,

And just love the sensations that you're experiencing right now to fill awareness.

This is like a massage for the sinuses and all of the organs inside the head space.

And the focus of the mind,

While the body knows what it needs to do,

Is on the third eye.

Let your mind rest in the place of the seat of consciousness.

If your mind gets distracted for any reason,

Gets carried away,

Just use breath as an anchor to go ahead and bring it back to the here and now.

This next exercise is we're gonna do,

Which is stomach flapping.

Now I know that my camera here is pointed at my face,

So I want you to listen to this carefully so you can do it accurately.

You're going to go ahead and exhale,

Like I said,

The focus of your mind,

And then you're gonna exhale.

Now,

I want you to do this carefully,

And then you're gonna exhale,

And then you're gonna exhale,

And then you're gonna exhale,

And then you're gonna exhale,

Like I said,

The focus in all of Pranayama's exercises is the exhale.

You focus on the exhale,

And then with your empty lungs,

I want you to go ahead and flap your abdomen,

Just like a butterfly,

Just goes in and out,

In and out.

I want you to flap it using,

You're flexing the muscles of the abdomen,

And I want you to do that for eight times.

So we're gonna do three rounds of this.

Exhale,

Hold your breath,

And then flap your abdomen eight times,

Okay?

Let's go ahead and do that together.

And then let go,

Breathe in,

Breathe out,

And second round,

And let the air come in,

Exhale,

And third and final round,

Eight flaps of the stomach,

Using the muscles of the stomach together.

And inhale,

This round is over,

A loving,

This sensation's dropping.

By the way,

This is an excellent exercise to tighten your core.

It's an excellent exercise for Bandha.

Bandhas are a foundational practice of Pranayama,

Which actually increase the oxygenation of your bloodstream.

When you hold your breath like that,

You're able to actually exchange,

Give out more carbon dioxide,

And take in a whole lot more oxygen than when you're just doing short,

When you're just doing shallow breathing,

When you're doing your regular breathing during the course of the day when you're distracted,

Multitasking,

Et cetera.

So Bandhas are very powerful in this way.

Kumar,

We're gonna get to your request now.

So we're gonna do Kapalbhati.

That's my next and fourth exercise,

Final exercise for today.

So Kapalbhati looks like this.

The focus again is on the exhale.

I want you to take what is called Vayu Mudra.

Vayu Mudra is where the tip of your index finger is touching the tip of your thumb.

And I want you to go ahead and rest that palms facing upwards on your lap,

On the armrest,

Or on the floor next to you if you're lying down.

Now in this exercise,

Your spine is gonna be straight,

Your back is going to be intact.

You're not going to be swaying,

You're not gonna be rocking front and back.

Head is not gonna be bobbing,

Shoulders are intact.

The only thing that I should be feeling is that my stomach is feeling like there is a flapping motion going on.

Sort of similar to what we're doing,

But in this case we're gonna use the diaphragm to exhale the air,

Causing the flapping to happen.

This is what it's gonna look like,

Eyes closed.

Now I don't want you to close your eyes just quite yet so you can follow me,

But when you do it,

Eyes closed.

Inhale,

Three quarters of breath out,

And then I'm gonna say start.

We're going to do a round of 14 Kapalbhatis.

14 exhales comes out as a sharp burst through my nostril,

Which is then accentuated by the movement of the diaphragm.

So as I'm pushing the air out from a diaphragm,

I notice that my diaphragm,

The belly is flapping.

Thump,

Thump,

Thump,

Thump,

Thump,

Thump.

Okay,

See that?

That's how you do it,

Kapalbhati.

Now,

Word of caution.

If you are an expectant mother,

I ask that you abstain from this.

I want you to go ahead and do this thing called five,

Seven,

Three breathing.

So that's a different exercise.

That's your option B,

And that is five,

Inhale,

Seven,

Exhale,

Extended,

And three,

Hold.

Okay,

So that's gonna be a practice for those of you.

Or if you're a woman at that time of the month,

Then you do not want to be doing this as well.

Or for some of the reason,

If you don't feel comfortable doing this,

I want you to go to the option B exercise five,

Seven,

Three.

For the rest of us,

This is yes,

This is the same as the breath of fire.

Kapalbhati is a very powerful exercise.

And this actually does a lot of benefits to so many of your organs in your body.

But here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna take in a round of 14,

21,

And then we're gonna do 42,

Okay?

And if at any time you feel dizzy,

Feel uncomfortable,

Go ahead and abort from this exercise.

You can go ahead and do the one I told you,

The other option that you have,

All right?

So for the rest of us,

Remember,

Vayu mudra hands,

Index finger touching the tip of your thumbs,

And your eyes closed.

Let's take in a deep inhale.

When I say inhale,

Always into the diaphragm,

Into the bottom of your lungs.

Three quarters of breath out,

And first round of 14 together.

And we're finished,

Go ahead and just inhale regular,

Exhale.

Take an inhale.

Three quarters of breath out,

And second round of 21 together.

And inhale,

Exhale,

Inhale.

Three quarters of breath out,

And final round of 42 together.

And we are done,

Just allowing yourself to keep your eyes closed and sink into this experience.

Noticing what you feel.

You probably find a revitalization of your entire being.

Notice the ease of your breath.

Notice the slower pace of thoughts in your mind.

Notice the lightness you may be feeling in your entire being.

This is the power of pranayama.

Just 15 minutes is like breakfast for the lungs,

Breakfast for your nervous system.

There's a deep correlation between breath,

Mind,

And body.

Now the body and the mind tend to be overactive,

Hypersensitized,

Distracted.

And the mind is just that constant generator,

The factory.

And it's very hard to try to rein in the mind by itself.

Yes,

Meditation can help,

But sometimes it takes a long time before even the meditation sinks in.

And therefore,

Breath work is a beautiful precursor to the meditation practice.

Because you cannot control the mind,

But what you can control is your diaphragm.

And that's what controls the breath work.

The breathing controls the mind.

The mind has a relation to the body.

Like I said,

Your heart rate reduces,

Your blood pressure reduces,

And you start feeling a sense of balance,

A sense of being present,

Calmness,

Centering.

And all of that begins with leveraging the power of prana.

Like I said,

The dam to control this massive river and harness the energy,

And then channel that energy into different nooks and crannies every cell of the body.

You can feel your muscles loosening up.

And notice as you scan your body from the top of the head,

All through the trunk,

Through the body,

Through the spine,

Through the torso,

Going down into your hip region,

Into your legs,

All the way down to the tips of your toes.

Breathing into every part of your body.

Let there be no tightness left.

And now I want you to bring your attention to the soles of your feet.

And as you're working your way through the ankles and up through the shins to your knees,

Feel your knees,

And follow that along all the way up through the thighs,

The hamstrings,

The quadriceps into your pelvis.

I want you to bring your awareness to the entire lower part of your body,

From your pelvic region all the way down to your feet,

To the soles of your feet.

Let no other part of your body attract your attention right now.

Just this lower part.

And visualize this part of your body,

The legs covered with an orb of white,

Irradiant light,

All the way from the feet to your pelvic region.

White,

Irradiant light.

Now create a strong thought that may only health reign within your legs.

May only health reign within my legs.

Now take your awareness upwards from the pelvic region until you cover the entire abdomen,

Everything below your rib cage.

And I want you to observe a white-blue light in the form of a nebula.

Let a white-blue irradiant light fill and cover this entire abdominal region.

And create a strong thought that may full health reign in my entire physical body.

May full health reign in my entire physical body.

And gently move your awareness upwards to your chest,

To the region of your heart.

And visualize both inside and around your chest a white-rose light.

A white-rose irradiant light in the form of a nebula fills your chest.

And create a strong thought that may complete health reign within your sentiments and emotions.

May complete health reign in your sentiments and emotions.

Keeping the awareness of the white-blue light in the lower part of your body,

The white-rose light in the upper part of the body up until the neck,

I want you to take your attention down your arms and see them covered in white irradiant light.

A white irradiant light covering my arms.

Complete health reigns throughout my arms and hands.

Now take your awareness upwards through the shoulders until you reach your head.

And I want you to visualize a white golden light covering both the inside and outside of your head.

A golden-white irradiant light.

And create a strong thought that may complete health reign in my inner being and my ability to use my thoughts in the right way.

May complete health reign in my inner being and the ability to use my thoughts in the right way.

And with your mind,

I want you to now see your whole body,

The golden-white light enveloping and surrounding your head,

The white-rose light around your chest,

The white-blue light in and around your abdomen,

And the white light shrouding,

Covering your entire limbs,

Your hands and your legs.

I want you to bring your attention to the luminous being that sits behind these eyes,

Somewhere between the ears and just below the brain,

This brilliant luminous being that animates this body.

Let my focus be completely on this being of light that I am.

I am a peaceful soul.

My form is a point of light.

My language is silence.

My religion is love.

And my home,

My true home,

Is a realm of light,

Far beyond the hustle and bustle of this physical world.

And I,

The eternal traveler,

Take on this costume that we call the body to play my role in this drama that we call life,

On this stage that we call planet Earth.

All of this is just a role.

There will be a time when I have to shed this costume and move on,

Continue to play roles in other chapters,

Other scenes of this drama,

Awaiting other costumes,

So I don't get attached to anything or anyone on this stage during this small sliver of my great act.

And it is one lesson that you want to master,

That there's one purpose of life.

It may be to see how much you live,

How well you love,

And how gracefully you let go.

I want you to please bring your palms together in prayer position at your heart center.

I want you to go ahead and rub your palms against each other,

Kindling the chi,

The prana.

The palms are an energy vortex.

Now when you feel a nice bundle of chi that you've ignited in this place,

You may apply that using one hand to cup each eye,

One on each eye,

Cupping both your eyes and blessing yourself,

Allowing this prana to soak in.

And then I want you to take your palms and face them outwards.

This is a practice that you may have learned in Reiki if you've heard that.

And through the center of your palms,

Visualize a beam of light going out towards the world,

Sending a blessing.

Let's send a blessing to Afghanistan,

Our brothers and sisters there facing unexplainable turmoil and fear,

Disillusionment.

May their obstacles be removed.

May they realize that they are precious and they are loved.

May they have calmness in the body,

In the mind,

And love in the heart to guide them through their challenges that they find themselves in right now.

Calmness in the mind and love in the heart.

Bring your hands back to prayer position at your heart center.

Let's take a moment to think of five things that you can be extremely grateful for right now in your life.

And as you come back,

Opening your eyes at your own pace,

I would like for you to share how you're feeling right now and summarize that in one word.

How do you feel right now?

And you may share an aspect of what you're grateful for,

Sensations,

The experience,

Blessed,

Peaceful,

Expansive,

Relaxed,

Inspired,

Calm,

Stronger,

Glorious,

Centered,

Fluid,

Grateful,

Tingling,

Water,

Relaxed,

Wonderful,

Wonderful,

Amazing.

I see this has clearly resonated with you all.

And I appreciate I see the donations and that's important folks.

Go ahead and hit the donate button.

Donate as best as you can.

This is what I do full time.

And your support means a lot to me.

There's many of us who,

For whatever reason,

Are here just to receive and may not be able to contribute.

And that's OK.

You're welcome.

Your participation is just as important.

And for the rest who can donate,

Please do so generously.

It helps to support the entire.

It's like a family.

We do what we can.

And this is an exchange of love.

Somebody mentioned water.

It's like that.

It flows.

We don't want to hold anything.

And this is my gift to you.

And you give to whatever best you can.

Better,

Grateful for running water than we can drink air going into my body.

Yes,

Indeed.

So much to be grateful for,

Especially when you take a moment to look at people,

10 blessings to people who are going through so many hardships right now.

We can see that all of those petty things that we thought were the most difficult,

Most unbearable things,

They tend to just disappear.

It just becomes irrelevant.

I ask that you go ahead and shine your light.

Keep sending those blessings out there.

I want you to go ahead and stay strong,

Be happy.

And until I see you all again,

Whether it's Wednesday night at 6 p.

M.

Pacific or Sunday morning at 9 a.

M.

,

I wish you be well.

Thank you.

Reviews

Just what I needed. I enjoyed the Bandas and will explore the techniques.

Lovely to reboot the body and mind.
Thank you 🙏🏾

Wonderful thank you