Hello beautiful soul and welcome to today's practice.
I invite you to find yourself in a comfortable seat,
Perhaps sitting on a yoga block or a cushion,
Something that's going to lift the hips up a little bit higher than the knees to open the energy channels.
Close all the doors,
Close the windows,
Ask your roommates,
Whoever you're living with,
For a little bit of space and time for yourself.
Put your phone on silent,
Do not disturb,
And get ready to settle in.
Take a sip of water,
Some tea,
Take whatever you need,
And then start to really feel your body in your seat.
Start to sense the weight of your muscles,
The heaviness of your bones,
And just feel all of you arrive,
And start to connect in with the natural rhythm of your breath.
Noticing how the inhale moves in through the nostrils,
Maybe you can sense the temperature around the nostrils,
And then just trace that natural breath with your felt-sense experience as it moves down the throat,
Down into each lung,
And maybe for now you simply feel the breath at the top of the chest.
And that's okay,
We're simply sitting here witnessing,
So we're not trying to force anything,
To put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to perform in some sort of way.
We're simply noticing where we are right in this moment.
On your next inhalation,
See if you can grow the spine a little bit taller,
Feeling some space between the vertebrae,
Feeling the chest lift,
And as that happens,
You might notice how the hips and the lower body stays beautifully anchored in the space that you're in.
And so with each inhalation,
Just continue to feel that lift,
That rising of the chest.
And on your exhalation,
See if you can the shoulders down,
So allow them to really sink and melt into the room.
And as you do this,
Perhaps your breath naturally starts to deepen,
To lengthen and widen,
And you start to feel it expanding throughout the ribs,
Perhaps even the back of the body,
And maybe even down to the belly,
As we naturally create a little bit more space for our breath to be present within us.
And together we're going to take a nice breath in through the nose,
Deep down to the belly,
Inhaling now,
And exhale with a big sigh,
Just letting everything go.
And if that felt really good,
Maybe you want to try that another time.
And then from here,
Calling back all of your energy and all of your power back into your body.
For many people,
Places,
Or things that may have leaked,
Just call your power back.
And feel that arriving back in through the crown of the head,
Through the palms of the hands,
The soles of the feet.
And if you like visualizing your power and energy as a color,
A vibration,
And allow it to fill you up as it pours back into your cells,
Into your fibers,
Making you stronger,
More certain.
And then asking yourself from this place,
When do I feel most like myself?
Who are the people that I'm with?
What activities am I doing?
What are the thoughts,
The feelings?
What's the experience of being most like yourself?
If you had to describe that to someone,
What might you say?
And reflecting now on a time where you felt that last,
Where you came as close to it as you could.
And trying now to connect in with that feeling,
That experience.
We're going to breathe with that today.
We're going to use our breath to direct ourselves,
Direct our energy,
Our attention,
Into the feeling of what it's like to feel most like yourself.
Because our breath touches every part of us,
And every inhale brings a new opportunity to choose something a little different.
And in today's breath practice,
We will be taking 20 conscious connected breaths.
I will count you through for all of the breaths.
And then we will be taking a breath retention.
It will be a full inhalation followed by a full exhalation.
You will go empty.
We're going to stay here for 30 seconds.
You'll take a full inhale,
Hold the breath at the top for 10 seconds.
And then we'll repeat that two more times.
Please read the contraindications in the description below.
And if any of those apply to you,
You will simply breathe in gently through the nose and gently exhale through the mouth.
No squeezing of any muscles,
No intensity in the body,
Just really supporting a parasympathetic exploration.
And so as you're ready,
Start to find your seat once more.
And maybe as you've now connected back to your energy and feeling into what it feels like when you're most like yourself,
Maybe you just want to shake the arms a little bit,
Bring some movement into the legs,
Maybe open wide the face.
Just take a moment to feel your body.
And let's begin.
In,
Out,
Out.
Inhale,
Release.
In,
Out.
Keep breathing and follow the rhythm.
And notice as you breathe what might be presenting itself to you.
How is the breath guiding you into your own body?
And as you try to stay connected to the feelings of feeling most yourself,
Notice if any resistance rises up to meet that.
Take this final breath and breathe in up the spine and exhale going empty.
Find some strength and stillness in this first breath retention.
We're holding here for another five,
Four.
Allow each breath to create more space,
More space for you to flow with the truth of who you are.
With that freedom that you find when everything feels so aligned.
When you feel most like yourself.
What you need as we begin the next cycle.
Feel into your heart space while you're here.
Maybe your heart has a beautiful bright color or maybe it's feeling a little closed today.
But let your breath act as this soothing balm.
Doesn't need to be for anybody else.
It can simply just be for you to take this moment to feel this for yourself because you deserve your own love and your own wit.
So witness your heart,
Feel your heart.
Take your final breath and a full inhalation and exhales off and soften.
Holding here for five,
Four.
Hold it here at the top if you like with the eyes still closed.
Look up to the third eye chakra and just return to your natural rhythm of breathing.
With your truest most beautiful authentic self.
That self where you feel that life is in flow.
Where you feel that aliveness.
Where you remember who you really are.
And let's close this session together with a final inhalation through the nose deep down to the belly.
And exhale with a sigh.
And have the most beautiful day in gratitude always.
