Hi,
I'm Jenny Mayo.
Welcome to this short,
Simple breathwork practice to cultivate a little bit more calm and grounding.
It's suitable whether you're new to breathwork in pranayama or whether you're an experienced practitioner.
To begin,
Let's find a comfortable position for your body.
For this particular practice,
This could be seated or lying down comfortably.
Let's close the eyes,
If you like,
And start to let yourself land.
Feel your body landing on the earth,
Noticing all the points of contact you're making with whatever is supporting you.
Take a few breaths to soften just a bit more into that support.
Start to see if you can exhale some of whatever came before this session and whatever is coming after.
Maybe joining me for two deep clearing breaths just to help facilitate some of that release.
Let's exhale to prepare.
Long slow inhale through the nose,
Audible sigh out through the mouth.
Release and let something go.
Again,
In through the nose slowly,
Exhale with a sigh.
Returning now to your natural breath,
Just seeing for a few rounds how closely you can observe and feel your breath.
Gradually starting to move towards some deeper belly breaths,
Maybe even bringing your hands to the low belly so you can feel this gentle rising of your hands as the breath enters deep into the torso.
And this soft surrender as your hands,
Your torso,
Your lungs release the breath.
As you welcome the breath into the belly,
Imagine your energy grounding deeper into the body.
Your weight softening into the earth just a bit more.
You might also feel the breath softening through your whole torso,
Maybe even your whole body just making a little bit more room for the breath.
Staying here with your deep belly breath,
Softening,
So gentle,
No striving at all,
Just allowing the breath to come back into your whole torso.
In his book,
The Art of Living,
Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh refers to belly breathing as a way to shift our energy out of our branches that are blown about wildly in the breezes of life and back down to our trunk where it is stable.
Maybe feeling this imagery,
Kind of seeing it in your body as you stay with this beautiful grounding breath.
You're welcome to continue these simple belly breaths,
Or you might add on to them with me as we move into our Durga Pranayama or yogic three-part breath.
If you'd like to shift into the Durga breathing,
Next time you fill your belly,
Continue allowing the breath to spill up in through the ribs,
All the way up through the chest,
Emptying out chest,
Ribs,
And belly.
So softly filling from the bottom first as the breath spills into belly,
Our whole rib cage,
Our chest,
Our heart,
And empties out chest,
Ribs,
Belly.
Staying with a pace for that three-part breath that feels natural in your body,
Or just staying with the belly breathing,
I'll let you know when it's time to come out of our meditation.
Softly welcoming the breath and softening the body.
We'll stay here for just another three to five breaths.
The bottom of the next exhale,
Release any shaping of the breath,
Return to your natural inhale and exhale.
We'll just take a moment here and check in with ourselves.
Just notice how you feel,
What you feel,
Where you feel it.
There's no right or wrong,
Just observing.
Noticing any space or softening,
New sensations swirling.
Let's take one last deep breath into the belly,
Holding onto and feeling whatever is good in this moment right here.
Exhale,
Gently release.
Start to wiggle fingers and toes,
Maybe rolling out wrists and ankles,
Roll head left to right if it would feel good.
Taking any other stretches that call to you as you softly open the eyes and come back to this moment.
Thank you so much for breathing,
Landing and softening with me.
