Let's make ourselves comfortable for full yogic breathing.
Either coming to a cross-legged position or lying on the floor in Shavasana.
Feel the spine straight and the body even as we settle and close our eyes.
Beginning to watch the body,
Start to feel yourself relaxing.
Letting go of all tightness through the body as you exhale and relax.
Let's bring our awareness now to the tip of our nose.
Watching the air as we inhale and we exhale.
Notice that temperature of the air,
Slightly cooler on the inhalation and slightly warmer on the exhalation.
Those two steady streams flowing smoothly,
Evenly.
As we watch the breath,
Let's now take our awareness down to our navel.
As the diaphragm lowers to allow air in,
Watch as the belly pushes forward gently.
And as we exhale,
Feel the navel dropping back down into its natural position.
Inhaling,
Filling the air all the way down to the belly.
And exhale,
Relaxing,
Letting go.
Watching this for a moment,
Encouraging the breath in that full diaphragmatic rhythm.
Once we become aware of this first component to the breath,
Let's also bring in the second component of the full yogic breath,
Which is watching the lungs as they expand.
We may now start to notice that as well as the belly moving forward and backwards,
We can also feel the lungs moving out to the sides and opening to allow a little more air into that chest cavity.
Feel this smooth rhythm like waves washing up,
Lapping against the shore.
Inhaling belly into the ribs and then releasing ribs and belly.
Once we feel that we're comfortable with this new rhythm,
Let's bring in that third and final component of the full yogic breath,
Which is breathing to our maximum capacity all the way up to the very top of the lungs.
Imagine that we're filling from the base of the lungs first as the belly pushes forward gently,
We expand into the ribs and all the way up to the very collarbone,
Filling the lungs with air.
As we exhale,
Release in the reverse order,
Collarbones,
Ribs,
Belly.
Try to feel this flowing smoothly rather than as three separate parts,
Belly,
Ribs,
Collarbone,
Collarbone,
Ribs,
Belly.
Take a moment now to count another five breaths in this rhythm.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Notice how peaceful the mind's becoming.
Feeling ourselves relaxing deeper and deeper.
After we've counted our five breaths,
Bringing our awareness back to the tip of the nose,
Watching as the air passes in and out evenly through both nostrils,
Feeling that temperature of the air once more,
Cool on the way in,
Warm on the way out,
Starting to allow our natural breathing rhythm to return.
Then you feel ready,
Gently opening the eyes and let's try to maintain our awareness on the breath even as we go on throughout the rest of our day.
