Hello and welcome.
Today I'm going to take you through an exercise that will teach you how to use your breath as the foundation of a mental practice.
To start,
You'll find your comfortable seat.
The first thing I want you to notice here is that inner state of your mind.
Getting a sense of if your thoughts feel fast or slow.
Making a note of what these thoughts are.
Residual conversations,
Memories,
To-do lists.
And by the end of this practice,
We're going to see if the speed of these thoughts gets a little bit slower.
Let's begin.
I'll get you to take three deep breaths.
Breathing all the way in and all the way out.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Last one.
Breathing all the way in,
Fully inflating.
And fully emptying your breath with the exhale.
And start to check in with how you're sitting.
Let your feet land on the floor.
Feel the base of your sitting bones pressing into your chair,
Starting to create a little bit of length in the low spine.
You'll find the tuck of your chin and make sure the shoulders are nice and heavy.
You'll start to shift your awareness to your breath.
You feel the breath moving in through the nostrils,
Starting to create a little bit more space in the front and back of your lungs.
We're going to move into the first part of this exercise.
You're going to come into that counting breath.
Breathing in for four,
Holding for four,
And exhaling for six.
We'll do this together.
Taking a breath here for four,
Three,
Two,
One,
And holding it for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale for six,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhaling for four,
Holding for four,
And exhaling for six.
Inhaling for four,
Holding for four,
Exhaling for six.
You're going to continue breathing like that,
Counting your inhale,
Counting the pause,
And counting your exhale.
I'm going to let you practice this for about a minute or so without me talking.
You have about three more rounds like this.
Okay.
Great work.
We're going to continue breathing like this for a couple of moments.
And this time,
As I leave you in silence to complete a couple of rounds,
You'll continue imagining that relaxation for each round.
So as you breathe in,
You notice the shoulders actively relax away from the ears.
As you hold the breath,
You might release the tension in your jaw.
And as you exhale,
You might feel that heaviness of the body melting towards your seat and the floor beneath you.
You have about three minutes this time to try the breathing and relaxation technique in your own time.
Take your time and know that there's no perfect way to do this exercise,
That you're just starting to get a feel here.
So if the mind starts to run away with the thoughts and you lose the count,
Know that that's okay and part of the practice.
As soon as you notice your mind wandering away,
You're simply going to re-relax and come back into that breathing count.
You'll start to allow that focus to relax now.
And as you continue to breathe slowly and fully,
Bring your awareness back into your mind,
Just noticing how the mind feels and getting a sense of if the mind feels busy or slow,
Or perhaps if it feels like you have a bit more clarity or space.
There's no right answer to this and we're simply starting to build our awareness to enhance that cognition about what is happening.
This might be challenging and you might need to practice this a number of times to be able to start to create space in the mind and that's completely normal and part of the practice.
Great job today and well done in making it this far.
I hope you enjoy that little bit of space and peace we've created in the mind and I look forward to seeing you back here soon for your next session.
