Hello and welcome.
My name is Katie May and I'll be guiding you in a breathwork practice today.
I encourage you to make yourself a cozy and safe space to either lie flat on your back or with a few pillows propped up beneath your lower back and your chest on an incline.
This will be a breath practice of breathing with an open mouth and it's a practice that can help us tune into our bodies and explore that connection between the breath and the emotions that we are experiencing.
Starting to bring your awareness and your attention to your inhale,
Sensing the air and following its path as it flows in through your nose,
Down your throat,
Into your lungs.
And on your next inhale,
See if you can imagine pulling that breath all the way down into the center of your belly,
That spot two inches below your belly button as you inhale and as you exhale,
Feeling the belly relax back towards the spine as you simply,
Easily,
Gently allow the air to pass out of your body on your next exhale.
I invite you to deepen the next inhale,
Seeing if you can expand the belly,
Softening,
Receiving more air and allowing more air to pass out of the body as you exhale.
And can you become aware of that moment between the exhale and the inhale,
Following the breath in,
An even bigger breath,
Maybe the belly expands and the ribs to the side.
And as you exhale this time,
I encourage you to exhale with a little sound,
A sigh,
An ah.
Continue in this way,
Breathing in big inhales,
Filling the belly,
Drawing the breath all the way down into your hips.
And as you exhale,
Exhaling with a little sigh,
A little sound,
Enough that you hear the sound of your exhale.
You may want to introduce some of your voice,
Remembering that the sound of your own voice,
There's no other sound like it in the whole universe.
And so,
Perhaps the sound of your own voice is the most powerful sound for you to hear.
Understanding the focus and awareness to the breath,
Bigger breaths into the belly,
Exhaling through the open mouth.
And now,
We're going to focus on warming up for the second part of the inhalation.
The second part of the inhalation that we'll be doing in the practice is an inhalation into the upper part of the lungs,
The upper part of the chest.
If you would like to,
You can place your hand on your own chest over your heart with a thumb and a finger touching your collarbone and try breathing just into that hand,
Making the hand lift with an inhale and fall on an exhale.
Breathing on the inhale,
Falling on the exhale.
Beautiful.
So now,
Lying flat on our backs,
We're going to bring it all together,
A double inhale,
So breathing into the belly first,
And then a breath into the heart,
Into the chest,
And allowing the exhale through the open mouth to be completely relaxed.
Breathing in again through the open mouth into the belly,
Into the heart,
And release.
Starting to find your own rhythm and your own pace,
Allowing the breath to fully fill the belly,
And then taking in that second inhale and filling the lungs,
Filling the chest,
The upper part,
And release.
I encourage you to surrender to this experience,
Allowing it to be whatever it may be.
This breath has the powerful capacity to connect us to the innate wisdom of our bodies.
And so if you experience emotions or memories,
If you experience tingling sensations in the body,
I encourage you to simply surrender to the experience.
See if you can allow whatever arises.
When you accept whatever arises and say,
Oh this,
This too is part of my lived experience.
This too is part of me,
Part of my life.
Embracing what is,
Embracing all of the parts of ourselves,
Every piece of us,
Every piece of this belongs,
Deserves to be here.
Bring your breath pattern,
Your practice deeply into the belly,
Deeply into the heart,
And release.
Into the belly,
Into the heart,
And release.
If you'd like to,
You can give yourself any encouragement,
Any words you would like to focus on during this practice.
Words like I am.
As you breathe in and breathe in again,
And exhale.
I am.
I am here.
I am safe.
I am loved.
I am lovable.
I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
Breathing deeply into the belly,
Into the heart,
And release.
That's it.
Breathing into the belly,
Into the heart,
And release.
If you would like to increase the sensations and increase the experience,
I encourage you to take bigger breaths.
I invite you to increase your pace.
If this is good right where you are,
Stay there.
And if this experience is overly stimulating,
I encourage you to return to just the belly breaths.
Breathing deeply into the belly and into the heart.
Surrendering to the experience.
Accepting what arises.
And releasing.
Beautiful.
And now I encourage you to count yourself through five more breaths into the belly,
Into the heart,
And release.
Into the belly,
Into the heart,
And release.
Belly,
Heart,
Release.
And when you've breathed five more breaths,
Now completely let that breath practice go.
We're going to give ourselves the gift of stillness.
Allowing your body to come to rest.
When you sense into how does it feel to be in this body right here,
Right now.
Pouring your awareness throughout the whole body,
Allowing the breath to come however the body would like to be breathed.
You can breathe through the nose,
Through the mouth,
Or perhaps it feels like you have completely melted into the air around you,
And you're breathing with every pore of the skin on your body.
Resting in this stillness.
In this body.
In this moment.
In this moment.
In this moment.
In this moment.
Welcome back.
I encourage you to drink a large glass of water after this practice.
And to check in with yourself throughout the rest of your day or evening.
Simply asking how does it feel to be in my body right here,
Right now.
Thank you.
Thank you for your practice today.
