Counting breaths meditation.
The focus of this meditation is counting the breaths,
Elongating your breath,
Finding a comfortable position.
This is actually a really nice meditation to practice lying on your back and you can actually bend your knees and open your feet nice and wide and just kind of let the knees fall in towards one another.
Allow them to support one another just kind of resting against each other.
Your legs should be completely relaxed.
Taking the right hand to your belly,
The left hand to your chest,
The elbows soft at your sides.
This should be comfortable.
Make any adjustments to your body to make this as comfortable as can be.
Close your eyes and just feel the wave of breath happening between your hands,
Within your torso.
Feeling the belly rise into your right palm,
Feeling the chest lift into the left palm and then feeling the chest deflate,
The belly deflate.
And then we'll just start to deepen the breath counting,
Inhaling to the count of three.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3.
Exhale to the count of five.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4,
Om 5.
Inhale to three.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3.
Exhale to five.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4,
Om 5.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Continue that at your own pace for the next few moments.
And then allow your breath to just happen naturally.
You no longer have to count.
Checking in with your body.
So before we move on and elongate the breath to even longer,
Just noticed how nice it feels to take these deep slow breaths,
Controlled breaths.
So we'll start our counting again.
This time we'll inhale to the count of four.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4.
Exhale to the count of six.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4,
Om 5,
Om 6.
Inhale.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4.
Exhale.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4,
Om 5,
Om 6.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Continue at your own pace,
Counting silently.
Feeling that wave of breath between your palms,
Through the torso.
Feeling your body relaxing deeper and deeper with every exhalation.
And just notice,
Did your mind wander away from the counting?
If it did,
It's no big deal.
Just gently guide it back to counting.
Inhaling for four.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4.
Exhale to six.
Om 1,
Om 2,
Om 3,
Om 4,
Om 5,
Om 6.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Continue to breathe,
Counting silently.
You may notice that this breath helps you to fall asleep.
This is a wonderful way to wind down after a long day.
Whether it helps you to relax or help you to drift off to sleep.
Using this meditation whenever you need to.
If you feel like you can elongate your inhalations and exhalations even longer,
Feel free to do so.
Adjusting the breath,
The counting,
To wherever you need it to be.
If you are practicing this before a nap or before bed,
Just allow yourself to gently let those breaths guide you to sleep.
Or if you're just using this as a meditation,
A way to relax.
On your next inhalation,
Begin to wiggle your fingers.
You can straighten out your legs,
Rotate your ankles.
And whenever you're ready,
Coming back into the room,
Opening your eyes and helping yourself up slowly and carefully.
