Today we are going to practice a pranayama called abdominal breathing.
So you can use this at any time of the day.
You can use it in the morning,
In the afternoon or even to help you go to sleep.
So choose your comfortable seat.
This may be sat on the floor,
Sat on a chair or lay down on a bed or on the floor.
Once you are in your comfortable seat allow yourself to relax.
Allow yourself to notice your surroundings.
If you are sat upright I want you to place your hands either on your knees or in your lap.
Whatever feels more comfortable and if you are lay on the floor or on a bed I want you to bring your hands by your side so your palms are facing the ceiling.
And now I'd like you to take a moment to send your awareness outside of the room that you're in.
Noticing anything in your surroundings,
Anything in your awareness.
Just holding it there without attaching a story to it.
And gently bring that awareness into the room that you're in.
Again holding anything in your awareness,
Any sensations that are present.
And now slowly move your awareness into your body.
Just noticing how your body is feeling in this moment.
And finally bringing your awareness into your breath.
How is your breath feeling today?
We're not altering it in any way we're just noticing it.
Is your breath long or short?
Is it deep or shallow?
How does it feel to bring some awareness to your breath?
Breathing is something that we do without even thinking.
It's an automatic response,
An automatic action and not something that we often bring a lot of presence to.
So how does it feel to bring some presence to your breath?
And whatever you're feeling is completely okay.
Just allow it to be without judgment,
Being kind to yourself.
And now we're going to practice abdominal breathing.
So I'd like you to bring your right hand onto your stomach and your left hand onto your chest.
And we're going to breathe into our abdomen,
Into our stomach.
So as you inhale I want you to allow your tummy to fill with air.
And as you exhale allow the air to leave the stomach.
So we inhale filling the belly with air.
Exhale air leaves the belly and the body.
Inhale right hand moves up or out.
Exhale right hand moves in or down.
Inhale and exhale.
If we imagine that our belly is filled with a balloon we inhale the balloon inflates.
We exhale the balloon deflates.
Inhale balloon inflates.
Exhale balloon deflates.
Now I want you to keep going at your own pace.
And just make sure as you're filling the stomach with air you're just filling it as far as is comfortable for you.
So we don't want to strain here.
We don't want the shoulders to be lifting towards the ears.
We want it to be nice and comfortable.
And as you exhale same again nice and comfortable.
So our right hand is the one that's making the movements,
The hand on the tummy.
And our left hand,
The hand on our chest is as still as possible.
And if you find that your left hand is moving a little that's okay.
With regular practice of abdominal breathing your left hand will become completely still.
So I'm going to leave you to have a go at this for a few breaths on your own.
And if at any point you find that your mind wonders just know that's okay.
It's the nature of the mind to want to keep busy.
As soon as you notice just gently with love kindness and acceptance bring your breath,
Bring your attention back to your breath.
Bringing your attention,
Your awareness back to those deep inhales and exhales.
If it helps you could mentally say the words inhale and exhale as you do them.
Or you could even count your inhales and exhales.
Counting one on the inhale,
Two on the exhale.
All the way up to a count of ten and then beginning again.
And feel free to experiment with these to find what works best for you.
I'm going to leave you for a few moments again to practice this deep abdominal breathing on your own.
Okay.
And whenever you feel ready I want you to gently let go of the breath.
Allow your hands to fall apart naturally.
Allowing them to fall by your sides or on your knees or on your lap depending on the seat that you have taken.
And just take a few moments now to check in.
How is your body feeling compared to when you first sat down at the beginning of this practice?
How is your mind feeling?
So abdominal breathing is such a powerful and simple breathing technique that can be done anywhere.
Even when you are around other people you can still practice this breathing technique.
And it's actually the correct way to breathe.
This is how if you look at a baby they will be breathing.
But as we get older and we become more stressed we start to breathe much more shallowly.
And when we breathe shallowly it can make us feel more stressed and anxious which then causes us to breathe shallowly.
And this cycle continues.
So if we can bring some awareness to our breath and some abdominal breathing into our day with regular practice we can begin to correct our breathing.
So I really encourage you to use this breathing technique as and when you can.
So now I'd like you to slowly slowly wiggle your fingers and toes as you bring the awareness back into your body.
Perhaps you want to make small movements with your wrists and your ankles.
Maybe have a nice full body stretch here.
And if you are lay down I want you to gently roll over onto your right hand side and just stay there for a few breaths.
And then slowly come up to a comfortable seated position.
And whenever you're ready you can open your eyes and enjoy the rest of your day or evening.
