Hello and welcome to this elemental breathing practice.
This is a beautiful grounding practice that supports you in connecting to earth,
Water,
Fire,
Air,
And ether as the elements around you,
As the elements that make up this earth,
And as the elements that make up you,
Yourself,
As an elemental being.
So for this practice,
Find yourself in a comfortable position.
Perhaps you'd like to close your eyes or perhaps you'd like to focus your gaze somewhere.
And we're gonna turn inward.
We're going to focus on our breath.
The intention is to take deep breaths but still feel comfortable and to go at a pace that feels right for you in this moment.
So I'll guide you through each of the elements and we will be breathing through our nose and our mouth and out through our nose and our mouth at different intervals.
So let's get started.
First we will practice the earth breath.
So we're going to inhale through our nose and exhale through our nose.
Inhaling through our nose and exhaling through our nose.
And as you do this,
You can connect to your physical body,
This piece of the earth that you have been given to steward.
You can connect to its heaviness or its lightness and feeling right now,
Whether you feel grounded or unmoored.
And just notice what you notice as you do this earth breath,
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the nose.
Next,
Let's practice the water breath.
For the water breath,
We're going to inhale through our nose and out of our mouths.
Inhaling through the nose and out of the mouth.
And as you practice this water breath,
You can imagine yourself connecting with the rivers and the streams,
The lakes,
The oceans.
You can imagine yourself connecting with the saliva in your mouth,
The tears in your ducts,
The water coursing through your body carried by the blood.
Now let's move to the fire breath.
For the fire breath,
You will inhale through your mouth and exhale through your nose.
As you practice this fire breath,
You can connect to the sun,
The campfires that you sat around,
The warmthness in your body,
In your heart,
Perhaps emanating off of your skin,
That fire that burns within your belly that is part of your digestive system.
And now let's move to the air breath.
For the air breath,
You will inhale through your mouth and exhale through your mouth.
As you practice this air breath,
You can connect to the winds,
The breezes,
All of the movement that you experienced when you were standing in the great outdoors.
You can connect to the breath within you,
Your own personal wind,
How it travels in through your nose,
All the way down through your chest and your belly.
And now let's move to the ether breath.
The ether breath is the most subtle of all and it may take some practice.
Stay with it.
Stay non-judgmental.
Stay with the beginner's mind here.
And with the ether breath,
You're going to inhale a subtle breath in through the nose and mouth and out through the nose and mouth.
So this is a very refined breath.
It may at times feel imperceptible.
Give it a try now.
In through the nose and mouth,
Out through the nose and mouth.
And as you practice this ether breath,
Tune into the vastness of space,
Of the spaces between spaces,
Of the places in your body that are suspended in space.
And as you integrate this practice of elemental breath into your routine,
You're invited to linger where it feels appropriate.
Spend as long or as little time on any one of the elements or perhaps lean on a particular element based on what you are feeling in that moment.
So in moments of rigidity where it feels like there is not a lot of options,
You may practice the water breath to tune into flow,
Momentum,
That feeling of renewal.
And at times when you are accessing your own creativity,
The vastness of possibility,
The space in which creation lays before it is manifest,
Perhaps consider the ether breath and so on.
I hope you enjoyed this practice and if you're called,
I'd love to hear what it brings up for you.
