This breathwork meditation is inspired by Casper of the Breathwork Biohacker.
So start by finding a comfortable seat or you can come down onto your back.
Close the eyes if you're comfortable and begin to take the gaze internally.
Start to bring your attention to your thoughts,
Not necessarily trying to change them just noticing the flow of your mind.
Are your thoughts racing or is the mind relatively calm and still?
And as you one by one begin to set your thoughts to the side,
Tune in to your feelings.
The emotion,
Maybe trying to name what that feeling is or maybe multiple feelings.
Doing so without judgment,
Just allowing whatever is there to simply be.
And next start to bring your attention to the sensations of the body.
Feel any places of ease or places of tension,
Starting at the tips of the toes,
Working your way through the foot,
The ankle,
All the way up the calf,
The shins,
Making your way to your knees,
Over and around the thighs,
The hips,
Your belly and low back.
As you continue up through your torso,
Notice the space between the ribs,
Over and through the chest,
The shoulders,
Down the arms,
The front and the back,
Through elbows,
Forearms,
Wrists and hands.
And as you make your way back up the arms,
Bring your attention to your neck,
The jaw,
Your cheeks,
The weight of the head.
Maybe allowing your eyes to sink a bit deeper into their sockets,
Releasing through the forehead all the way through the crown of the head.
And once you've found your places of ease and tension,
Maybe some places that just feel neutral,
Bring your attention to your breath.
Notice the temperature of the air as you breathe in through the nose and the temperature of the air as you breathe out.
Notice the pace of the breath.
Is it fast or slow?
Is the inhale longer than the exhale?
Or is the exhale longer than the inhale?
Or are they even?
Are you rushing to the next breath?
Or is there a slight pause between the inhale and the exhale?
And what about between the exhale and the inhale?
Is the breath shallow more in your chest or deep into the belly?
Bring your attention to your heart in whatever sense that means to you.
Feel the heartbeat in the chest.
Is it quick?
Is it even?
Is it slow and steady?
And now notice the relationship between the breath and your heart.
Can you feel the heartbeat pick up pace on the inhale?
And can you notice as it slows down on your exhale?
Take a few breaths to feel the sensation of the heartbeat and how it aligns with the breath.
Take your time and close one nostril off using your finger or your thumb and take a few breaths in and out through the nose just through one nostril.
Noticing how it feels.
Is it even?
Is it easy?
Does it feel a bit constricted?
Now close the nostril that was open and breathe in and out through the other one.
Notice the difference.
Maybe it's drastic.
Maybe it's subtle.
Maybe you don't notice a difference at all.
Allowing both nostrils to be open.
Take one hand to the chest and one hand to the belly.
And as you breathe in,
Notice which moves more the hand on the belly or the hand on the chest.
Move your hands to your ribs like you're giving yourself a hug wrapping the forearms around the belly and breathe here.
Notice if you feel any movement through the ribs.
Can you feel the belly expanding into the forearms as you inhale?
Choose whatever hand placement feels best for you today.
Whether it's one hand on the chest and one on the belly or a hug breath with hands to the ribs,
Giving yourself a hug.
And start to take a bigger breath in through the nose.
Think about having the intention of taking a big sniff of something with the intention of smelling.
Big breath in.
Notice what moves first,
The belly or the chest.
What moves more.
And this time,
Let the exhale be a sigh out of the mouth.
So big breath in and let it fall.
Notice what falls first.
Bringing awareness,
Being an active participant to cultivate this awareness.
And now with one hand on the chest and one on the belly,
Start to isolate the movement to just the belly.
In through the nose and out through the nose,
But only allow the belly to move.
No movement in the chest.
And keep the inhales in through the nose and out through the nose.
But now take the movement into the chest only.
Belly does not move.
You can feel the chest rise,
Maybe the shoulders lift a touch.
And this time in and out through the mouth.
See if you can take the breath into the belly only.
So only moving the belly in through the mouth and out through the mouth.
And staying with mouth,
Mouth,
In through the mouth,
Out through the mouth,
Move the breath to the chest.
In through the mouth,
Out through the mouth,
But only the chest moves.
No movement through the belly.
And you can let that breath go.
Come back to normal.
Inhales and exhales through the nose.
And just begin again to cultivate awareness.
Was it easier to move the belly with the nose or the mouth?
And was it easier to move the chest with the nose or the mouth?
It may have been easier for you to move the belly only with your nose,
Inhales and exhales.
And the chest with your mouth,
Inhales and exhales.
And that's because the body wants to collaborate in these ways for the nervous system.
Bring your attention back to your heart state.
Check in.
How does your heart feel?
What do you notice?
And we'll move into a faster based breath pattern just for a few breaths.
I'll explain before you get started.
But if you have any major health conditions are pregnant,
Please stay away from these faster breath patterns.
You can stay with easy inhales and exhales through the nose.
But if you're ready to move along,
It'll be a big inhale through the mouth and then a sigh out of the mouth.
So when you're ready,
It'll sound like.
So off you go for 10,
9,
8,
7,
6,
Keep going 5,
4,
3,
2,
1,
Come back to the light,
Inhales and exhales through the nose,
Just slowing the breath back down.
And as you do so check into the sensations of the body.
Take a scan through your emotional state,
Your thoughts.
Maybe you felt the heart rate pick up the blood pumping harder and faster.
Maybe you felt some tingles in the hands,
Feet or face.
Maybe your palms started to get a little bit sweaty.
Did you notice if the breath was going more into the chest or the belly?
Or maybe you noticed something completely different.
We're going to take another 10 breaths this time in through the nose and out through the nose with a longer exhale than inhale.
So in your own time,
In through the nose and slower exhale out through the nose.
Slow in and slower out.
There's no rush if you need to pause the recording.
When I move on,
Feel free to do so.
Slow in through the nose and slow out through the nose.
About halfway there.
Slow in and slower out.
A couple more.
Two more slow breath in and slower breath out.
One more slow breath in through the nose and slower breath out through the nose.
And once again,
Check in.
Did you feel your heart rate slow down?
If your mind started racing before,
How does it feel now?
Becoming an observer of the body,
The breath,
The heart,
And the relationship between all of these things.
You can stay as you are taking light inhales and exhales through the nose for as long as you would like.
If you're ready to move on with your day,
You can take a little movement through the fingers and the toes.
Maybe circle the wrists and the ankles.
Taking a stretch in whatever way feels good for your body right now.
And in your own time,
Blink the eyes open and have a wonderful rest of your day.
