Welcome to this guided breathing practice.
Begin by bringing your body into a comfortable position where you can rest and find ease and yet feel and focus on the movement of your breath in your body.
You might choose to sit in a comfortable seat with your spine reaching long and tall,
Or you might choose to lie on your back and rest comfortably here with your body completely at ease.
Once you get settled in your position,
Let your body rest,
Relax into stillness here.
You can close your eyes or leave them open.
Just let them rest gently on a focal point somewhere in the room or the space around you that is still.
And then begin to notice that you are breathing,
That your body is naturally inhaling and exhaling.
Do your best to just observe your breath without trying to change or alter the natural flow and pattern of your breath.
As you're watching your breath,
Notice how smooth it is,
How smoothly your breath flows in and out on a spectrum of smooth to choppy.
Where is your breath?
How is it flowing?
If your breath feels a little choppy,
Jagged,
Invite it to gradually smooth out,
Just flow gently.
Like little ripples in the water,
Just gentle waves.
Your inhale flows in smoothly,
Makes a smooth transition to your exhale,
Which also flows out smoothly.
Your exhale transitions smoothly back to your next inhale.
And then invite your breath to be continuous,
Letting it flow seamlessly from inhale to exhale and exhale to inhale.
Focus on these transition points between the parts of your breath.
What happens as your inhale ends and your exhale begins?
And as your exhale ends and your inhale begins?
If you happen to notice that there are any pauses,
Gaps,
Or space between these two parts of your breath,
Invite these gaps or pauses to gently close so that your breath becomes continuous.
And now shift your attention to the length of your breath.
Just silently in your head,
Count the length of your inhale and the length of your exhale.
Again,
Without working to change them at this point,
Just observe how they naturally are.
And now after a few rounds,
Compare your breath to the length of your inhale.
Notice if one part of your breath is longer than the other,
Or if they're about the same.
If your inhale is longer than your exhale,
Or your exhale longer than your inhale,
We'll work now to very gently even out the length of both parts of the breath.
So as gently and gradually as you can,
Adjust the length of your inhale or exhale as needed so that they both are about the same length,
Same number of counts for inhales and exhales.
After you've tried this for a few rounds,
Observe how it feels.
If you can sense that this has some calming effect or bring some ease into your body,
Continue breathing in this way.
If altering your breath has created some increased tension or feelings of anxiety,
Invite your breath to continue flowing in its own way.
Release awareness of the counting.
Just let your breath go back to its natural rhythm.
Now pay attention to your breath in a cohesive way.
And in general,
Notice how your breath feels now.
How you feel now,
Breathing a little longer,
Slower,
More mindfully than when we began this practice.
And observe here if you can sense that your breath has deepened.
When our breath is deeper,
You might feel it flowing in and out a little longer or slower.
You might also feel your breath flowing in a deeper part of your body.
When we began,
Perhaps your chest was moving a little more and now your breath has deepened down to the space of your upper abdomen,
For example.
So in a way that makes sense to you,
See if you can connect with a depth in your breath.
And now shift your attention to the sound of your breath.
Observe if there is any audible noise that you can hear as you breathe in and out in this relaxed way.
As we practice diaphragmatic breathing and cultivating these qualities,
Our breath naturally tends to become quieter.
As we breathe in more deeply,
A little bit longer,
Slower.
As the air flows in,
The stream of air becomes thinner,
Causing less friction in the nose and causing less sound.
Observe here if this is present in your breath.
If you can notice that your breathing has become quieter during the course of this practice.
Perhaps you find that is true and perhaps you find that your breath was quiet when you began and that that has not changed during this time.
Now release the awareness of the sound of your breath and come back to the physical sensation,
Awareness of your breathing in your body.
Take a few more relaxed breaths here,
Just gently breathing in and out at your own pace.
On your next few breaths,
Deepen both your inhale and exhale.
Make them intentionally longer,
Slower than usual.
And after just two or three of these deeper breaths,
Let your breath go back to its natural rhythm.
Gently start to move your body again.
Wiggle your fingers,
Your toes,
You might rock your head.
Stretch your arms,
Your legs,
Roll your shoulders.
And then bring your hands together,
Palms touching.
If they are a little chilly,
Rub your palms together to warm them up.
And then cup your hands over your eyes.
You can let them hover in front of your face or let your hands rest on your head.
Either in stillness or give yourself a little facial massage.
And then take your time slowly opening your eyes into the darkness of your hands.
Gradually spread your fingers,
Lower your hands down and make your way back into the space around you.
Thank you so much for joining me for this breath awareness practice today.
I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day.
