Balancing Breath Meditation

This meditation focuses on the length of the inhale and exhale breath to find balance in your mind and emotions. A singing bowl is used briefly.

Transcript

This meditation is called balancing the breath meditation.

During the meditation you will hear me playing the singing bowls while you are meditating.

Let's begin by getting comfortable and being seated either on a chair with your feet on the floor or seated on the floor on a cushion or a yoga mat.

Gently closing your eyes allow the body to rest in to where you are.

You can begin by taking three deep breaths in through the nose and three long exhales out of the mouth.

So with every inhale and with every exhale you allow the body to relax a little deeper.

You begin to let the day go and you start to release and come into this moment.

Then you can go back to your natural breath.

Just allow your breath to move in and move out.

As we begin I'd like you to take your awareness to the crown of your head.

Just imagine a golden string reaching all the way up to the sky just to bring the body into attention.

So the spine is long and ready to receive the breath and then just let everything else go.

We will begin the meditation with a body scan to calm the body and allow the mind to relax.

Let's begin with our focus on our eyebrows,

Our forehead and even the space between our eyebrows.

So just feel that area for a moment and imagine all the muscles are relaxed allowing all the tension to float away in that area.

Even feeling a gentle melting as you release and let go in the forehead and the eyebrows.

And again allowing the eyelids to remain closed gently over the eye sockets.

Just imagine all the muscles in the eye,

The corners of the eyes,

The inside and outside corners.

Even if you can't feel these,

Just imagine that all the muscles in that area can relax and unwind.

Taking our awareness then into the cheekbones.

Feel a heaviness in the cheekbones and the face.

Allow the jaw on both sides to release so the teeth are no longer clenched.

And even take your awareness inside your mouth.

Just let the tongue relax down.

So the whole face is relaxed,

Feels heavy and letting go.

No holding on anywhere.

Then take your attention to the throat center,

The area that we use so much.

Imagine all those muscles,

Those tiny muscles in the throat opening up,

Relaxing,

Even untangling so that that area can rest and release.

Moving into the back of the head and all the way down the neck.

Another area of tension.

Just imagine a melting in that area of all the muscles and all the tightness as it releases and melts away.

Feel the tips of the shoulders move down away from the ears.

And then the arms,

The forearms,

The elbows,

All the way into the wrists,

The palms on each hand and all the fingers.

Feel a gentle heaviness and a letting go there.

And then take your attention to the heart center,

The center of the chest,

All the way across the chest.

Again,

Feel an unwinding of tension there.

And if possible,

A gentle opening and expansiveness.

Moving into the belly.

Feel the belly relaxed.

No gripping.

Just an open,

Soft belly.

And now move into the hips and the sit bones.

Again,

A heaviness in this area and even an awareness of how you're seated today.

Where do you feel most of your weight?

On the right side or the left side of the body?

No changing it,

No fixing it.

Just an awareness.

Notice the heaviness of the legs as they touch the floor or the seat of the chair.

The knees relax,

The calves and the shins.

All the way into the ankles and into the soles of the feet.

There's a relaxation and a gentle pull of gravity as you release.

And every toe on each foot is also tension free.

So as you begin to relax deeper and deeper,

Begin to feel as if your body is melting into the earth that you're releasing.

You're letting go.

You're relaxing deeper and deeper.

And the more you release and relax into the earth.

Imagine the earth coming up to hold and support you.

You are being nourished and held by the earth as you let go.

And moving back into the breath.

Again,

Just feel that breath moving in and moving out.

And just notice if you've drifted into thought.

Acknowledge the thoughts of thinking and gently bring yourself back to the breath.

Notice the breath moving in and out.

And notice the exact point where the breath moves in and out.

The tip of the nose,

Possibly inside the nose.

So there's no doing this right or wrong.

It's just an observation.

As you become aware of the breath,

As you become the gatekeeper for the breath.

Breath moving in and breath moving out.

You might even notice the temperature of the breath.

Is it cool as you breathe in?

Has it changed temperature when you breathe out?

Again,

No doing this right or fixing it.

Just an awareness,

Just an observation of your breath.

Also observe where the breath is.

Is it in the chest area or the belly?

Or maybe it stays right inside the nostrils.

Just notice any movement of the body as you take breath in and as you release the breath out.

So you become,

Again,

This gatekeeper,

The watcher of the breath.

Moving in and moving out.

And at any time,

If you've drifted away with your thoughts,

Just acknowledge your thoughts.

Observe them for a moment and trust that you can come back to them later.

But right now you will start again with your breath.

And it doesn't matter how many times you get carried away by thought.

You have an opportunity in every moment to start again,

To come back to the breath.

Breath moving in and breath moving out.

Now I invite you to notice your inhale breath.

Notice the length of it.

Do you feel like you're inhaling for two counts,

Possibly three or four?

Notice your exhale.

So as you take the breath in,

Count your breath as it moves in and count your breath as it moves out.

You can stretch it gently if that feels comfortable.

If at any point you feel uncomfortable or anxious,

Then just let the breath come and go naturally.

But I want you to count your breath as it moves in and count the breath as it moves out.

It doesn't matter how long it is.

You're not trying to get to a certain number.

Just do what's comfortable for you.

Whether it's inhaling for one,

Two,

Three.

Exhaling,

Three,

Two,

One.

Or maybe it's even shorter or maybe it's longer.

It's all good.

So continue to notice the breath moving in and counting it.

And the same on the exhale.

Breath moving in with a silent counting and breath moving out.

And observing,

Noticing thoughts that may show up,

Acknowledge those who are thinking.

Allow them to float by as you come back to the anchor of the breath.

Bringing you back to this moment.

No matter how many times you get pulled away.

Just come back with no judgment,

No criticism.

Just allow yourself to come back to the anchor of the breath.

Counting the inhale and counting the exhale.

Now I invite you to notice your inhale and exhale and see if you can make them more even.

So if you're inhaling for a certain count,

Try to match that with your exhale.

So you have an even flow of inhale breath and exhale breath.

Again,

There's no getting this right.

There's no getting to a certain number.

Just counting the flow of breath in and the flow out.

And allowing those two to come together evenly.

So you have an equal amount of inhale and exhale.

You might even find a gentle rise and fall in the body.

Feel the breath and the body mingling as one.

And feel the balance of the breath on the inhale and the exhale.

As you count the breath in and out.

You start to experience this beautiful,

Calm breath moving at the same rate on the inhale and exhale.

And mingling gently with the movement in the body.

You might feel it coming into the throat,

You might feel it in the chest,

The heart area,

Or even all the way down in the belly.

And again,

It doesn't have to look that way or it doesn't have to be that way.

Just an awareness of breath moving in and out.

And this beautiful dance of breath and movement of the body in equal parts.

And again,

If you've drifted off in thought,

Just acknowledge the thought and know that you can visit it later.

And with loving kindness,

Come back to the breath.

Just allow the sound of the singing bowl to resonate through you and continue to flow with this breath.

Breath coming in and out evenly.

A balancing breath.

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Notice where you are right now.

Are you still following the breath in and out?

The even,

Equal movement of breath in and out?

Continue to do that for a few more moments.

And at any time if you've drifted off,

Just gently come back to this moment,

To this breath.

Breath moving in and breath moving out in balance.

And you can begin by gently releasing the counting.

Just let the breath flow in and out gently,

Naturally.

Gently take your chin towards your chest for a moment,

Taking in this meditation.

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And slowly and when you're ready,

Open your eyes,

Begin to let the light in,

And come back into your space.

Namaste.

Reviews

Excellent. Thank you x

This meditation was wonderful. Relaxing and awareness driven. It really focused on your body listening to your breath. I havent done many meditations, but I would do this one again. Lisa has a wonderful voice and flow to her meditation, cant wait to do more of them!

Thankyou for your calming voice. This meditation allowed me to telax really quickly. A great one to either start or finish your day with.