Hello,
My name is Kelly Villarreal.
This guided meditation practice is intended to utilize your breath as a touch point or an entry point to connect to a moment of rest and spaciousness in your body.
You could begin by finding your way to a comfortable seat and allow your spine to grow tall.
You may allow yourself to rock slightly forward on your sitting bones so you can connect to the natural curve of your low spine.
You could identify a soft gazing point inside of your space or let your eyes settle closed if they haven't already.
You could begin by feeling around for any obvious areas of tension in your body,
Noticing anywhere you're holding on tightly,
Any sense of gripping.
Notice if you could allow those spaces to soften.
You'd begin to notice the natural rhythm of your breath.
You'd watch and feel each part of the breath moving in.
Notice the sensations that accompany your breath out.
You notice if the breath feels spacious or notice if it feels restrained or constricted in some way.
Allow yourself to step into the space of observer,
Just watching.
As you continue to watch your breath,
You might allow your low belly,
The space below your navel,
To soften and spill out into the container of your clothing.
You'd feel for the band of your diaphragm muscle moving in that space.
Notice where you can connect to the sensation of your main breathing muscle moving as you inhale and as you exhale.
Begin to notice the inhale drawing down into the very lowest part of the belly and notice the exhale originating from that same space.
Watch a few more cycles of breath come and go.
Complete one more cycle of breath in this way in your natural rhythm.
As you find this next breath in,
You hold that breath and take another big sip of air in through your nose.
Open your mouth and let the breath flow softly out.
Take another deep breath in through your nose and hold the breath at the top.
Breathe in again.
Open your mouth and let the breath flow back out.
Breathe in through your nose,
Hold,
And sip in again.
Open your mouth and let the breath move out.
Do that twice more on your own count.
Breathe in again and out.
One more time on your own.
As you let that breath pour out,
Allow your breath to settle back into its natural rhythm.
Watch the movement,
The sensation of your inhale.
Feel the sensation and quality of your exhale.
Notice your body ever in the rhythm of expanding and settling.
Notice again for any areas that the body feels tense or like you're holding on.
Let that go so that each time you breathe out,
The sense that that is being carried away with the exhale.
Anything you're holding on to,
Let it go with the breath out and then let the next breath move softly in.
You can return at any time throughout your day to this practice of interrupted breathing and imitation of the body's natural sigh reflex and a moment to re-center,
To reset,
To find a little spaciousness in both breath and body.
