
Falling In Love With Breath
by Liz Hammond
This is a gentle grounding practice to encourage presence. It allows time and space to become a simple part of your everyday, with quiet and calm focusing on the intention and spiritual importance of breath.
Transcript
This may be the only time in our entire life that we are mandated to stay still as one.
We are all in this together,
A cohesive massive unit working together to keep each other nourished,
To keep each other well in the most basic of ways.
We are being asked to surrender into the stillness of this time.
While expectations are released,
Those commitments you are not eager to fulfill,
You have been let go,
You have been freed.
What a beautiful time to be in such an insular space.
The sun is staying bright,
Encouraging our faces to be drawn to its warmth.
The birds are flocking,
Insisting that we keep them fed.
All of the birds,
The colors,
The characteristics changing with each passing flutter.
The buds on the bushes and trees remind us that the spring is just mere moments away,
And the tides are low enough to unearth treasures that we would not otherwise find.
If you take the space,
You can see the grass,
The sprouts of grass emerging from the leaves and the debris Mother Nature left behind from last season.
Can you allow for this gift of time,
The heaviness to be released to truly engage with your heartbeat?
For the witness and the flexion and extension of every cell in your body?
For the expansion of your being with every breath?
This gift of time and space is giving you permission to stop and to fall in love with your very being.
With every inhale,
You are allowing for the experience of life,
Celebrating the vastness of your own divine existence.
Receive the simplicity of this growth.
The basic movement of breathing in is putting you in touch with the present,
Being present to just yourself.
In breath,
Our whole body rocks.
It contracts and expands.
Our brain is constantly scanning our entire body as we take breath and relinquish it.
Scanning for energy frequencies with every exchange,
Something powerful is being harnessed.
Every cell is being touched,
Acknowledged,
Fed,
Nourished,
Calmed,
Emptied,
Filled,
Purged.
In the surrender of breath,
You release what no longer serves you.
You let go of what you no longer need.
It is the most basic act of moving forward.
Your entire body softens.
You untether all of your sinews.
I'll ask you to find a comfortable,
Warm,
Quiet place where you can simply acknowledge the field of your own body.
Surrender to the seclusion of this non-doing and allow your mind to go elsewhere.
Starting with your feet,
Allow them to ground.
Feel the air floating beneath them.
The gravity of the weight of the back of your legs softening into the surface where you find yourself now.
Feeling any vibration,
Noticing any textures,
Any sensations that arise,
And allow them to overtake your body,
Your senses.
Staying connected to your breath,
Deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Feeling the weightlessness of the front of your legs as you sink further into your breath,
Into your non-being.
Allow your knees to unwind,
Waiting for the next journey.
Seeing any opening or releasing within your knees,
Underneath your kneecaps.
And softly moving up the front of your thighs,
Melting the rigidity away.
Allowing your hamstrings to lengthen without effort.
Allowing your legs to fall open as your hips relax.
And feeling the energy of the universe traveling through your root chakra at the base of your pelvis.
Allow for the receiving.
Bringing awareness to your sacral chakra,
To your sacrum as it sinks into your chair,
Your mat,
Your bed.
And allow it to let go.
This is the greatest weight-bearing bone in your body,
Where it connects with your lumbar spine.
Allow that to soften.
Allow it to retreat and create a new space in time.
You are safe.
You are secure.
You are stable.
Breathing with each breath.
And gliding up to your sacral plexus,
Just at the base of your breastbone.
Placing one hand over this area.
This is an area of will and control.
And with all of the lack of control going on in the world right now,
You may feel some upset or rigidity here.
And just allow that to soften,
Releasing,
Undoing any sense of misguided control or judgment.
And just breathing.
The sacral plexus is a place where we do tend to carry some concrete hardness when we're feeling very rigid in our thoughts.
It's a very masculine energy.
But it is there to help us move forward,
Even during times of fear.
So allowing your mind to pull out of your body,
Feeling fearless,
Feeling courageous.
Bringing your left hand to your heart and keeping your right hand on your solar plexus.
Feel the warmth underneath your hand.
And can you feel the expansion of your heart or the rise and fall with your breath?
Embrace the openness.
Embrace the effort of openness.
Embrace all of your good intentions.
Your joyousness.
Your ability to love.
Your ability to experience your own heart.
And to acknowledge what a whole human being you are.
And sliding both hands up to rest just below your clavicles.
This is an area of kidney spirit in Chinese medicine.
Kidney energy is where our vitality for life resides in our kidney channel.
It is our inner strength.
It is our spirit storehouse.
This is why you may sometimes feel the experience of your shoulders caving in.
That is exhaustion.
That is protection.
And the best thing you can do when you feel this way is just to allow your shoulders to roll back.
Allow your arms to open.
Your palms to face upward.
To receive.
Allowing relaxation through your upper back.
Through the back of your neck.
And just feel the expansion through your chest.
Allow yourself to be nourished.
Allow the rest of your body and the rest of your heart to bring energy to where you need it the most.
Allow for the experience of self-love.
You are worthy of receiving here.
Feel the softening of the front of your neck through your throat,
Through your throat chakra.
Nothing needs to be said.
But feel the power that exists here.
The power of your own voice.
The power of self-expression.
And moving up into your jaw.
Allowing your jaw to soften.
Allowing your tongue to be released from the top of your mouth.
Let your jaw go slack.
Let your ears slide down the side of your head.
Allow your inner ear canals to unhear what does not serve you.
Allow your thoughts to drift off.
And come back to your heart,
Come back to your breath.
Feeling the vibration,
The outside tension,
The outside surface tension of your body.
With every breath you are continuing to let go and to experience life at its fullest.
And allowing an opening through the crown of your head,
Through your crown chakra.
And welcoming in any messages that the divine has to offer.
And trusting in anything that you receive here.
And just taking some time with your breath.
I'm ready coming back to just kind of my tongue elves as I observe the rat.
Find something here to feel gratitude for.
Someone in your life.
An experience that has recently happened.
And just notice the change in your body when you allow yourself to fully feel that experience,
That gift.
The palpable expression of your body.
And carry this with you today.
Having a full understanding that being able to witness or experience gratitude means that that incredible opportunity has already happened.
And it will happen again.
Taking a deep breath in here,
In through your nose and sigh it out through your mouth.
And giving your body a nice big hug.
Wrap your arms around yourself and say thank you for taking this time to become grounded,
To become present,
To witness what my heart is trying to say.
May you be well.
May you be healthy.
May you be loved.
Thank you for joining me today.
4.8 (17)
Recent Reviews
Debbie
April 14, 2020
Thank you so much for this. Your voice is so calming. Thank you.
Brenda
April 10, 2020
I felt so held by your voice and your words. Thank you for the journey inward. 🙏
