Practicing the Pause

Guided breathing meditation with the following intentions: to create and maintain integrity in the spine, and to practice slower paced breath cycles emphasizing the pause between inhale and exhale. Through this practice you will learn to slow your breathing and settle into a parasympathetic rhythm. With consistent practice, you will learn to consider the spaces between out-breath and in-breath as part of a full breath cycle; breathing in this way more regularly allows for the nervous system to reset and for tensions to be released from body and mind.

Transcript

Practicing the pause,

Find a comfortable seat and set your intention for your practice today.

Perhaps resolving to maintain integrity in the spine.

So as you settle into your seat now,

Noticing the cushion or the ground beneath your seat and the cushion perhaps or the wall behind your back,

And bring your attention to your low back and your tailbone.

Visualizing now your spinal column.

Looking at the tailbone,

Imagine you were to stack each vertebrae onto the next.

Beginning at the tailbone and traveling up the lumbar spine and up to the thoracic spine,

Stacking each vertebrae onto the next all the way up to the crown of the head so that you're creating a long line from the tailbone all the way up to the crown.

And as you notice this spaciousness that begins to become more available along the spinal column,

Perhaps noticing spaciousness between the earlobes and the top of the shoulders.

Becoming curious about the spaciousness now created in the thoracic cavity.

So your rib cage,

Visualize or bring attention to your rib cage and feel the rise and fall that occurs naturally as you breathe.

Your ribs are designed to expand.

The rib cage is malleable,

And so throughout the practice as we are maintaining focus on integrity in the spine,

A long line from the tailbone to the crown,

Beginning to also feel expansion in the chest cavity as you breathe.

Trying to change the breath in any way.

Simply noticing movement occurring in the chest,

The rib cage,

The high heart as you breathe in and out.

Softening the jaw and the muscles of the face.

Allow the skin on the face to become so relaxed,

The eyes heavy in their sockets.

The space between the top and bottom rows of teeth.

And then from this place,

With integrity in the spine,

Softness in the shoulders and in the jaw,

Bring your attention now to your belly and relax the stomach completely.

Soften the belly,

Soften the diaphragm.

And start to notice perhaps belly expansion and contraction with the breath.

So as you invite breath in through the nostrils now,

At the same time soften your stomach.

Inhaling,

Bringing air,

Inviting it through the nostrils and softening the tummy.

Finding the belly expanded out like a balloon on your inhale.

And perhaps noticing the belly button draw in to the spine on the exhale.

Noticing too,

Integrity in the spine,

Long line from the tailbone to the crown.

Softness in the shoulders and the jaw,

Inviting air through the nostrils and softening the stomach.

Breath by breath,

Perhaps noticing greater spaciousness now in the low belly.

And remaining in your practice,

Remaining curious about what arises for you in the name of sensation in the body as you sit for this guided breath practice.

Noticing thoughts perhaps in the mind.

And knowing that at each moment,

You have the opportunity to bring your focus back to your breathing,

Inviting air in through the nostrils,

Softening the belly.

Relax the jaw,

The teeth and the tongue and the mouth,

The eyes and the sockets.

Soften the shoulders away from the earlobes.

Finding a deeper,

More steady breath here.

And when you feel ready,

Invite an inhale in through the nostrils,

Soften the belly,

Allow the belly to expand out like a balloon.

Belly button draws away from the spine.

And maybe you notice the breath as you continue to inhale,

Slowly and with composure.

Perhaps noticing the breath traveling up now to the low ribs.

Finding that expansion in the low ribs as you breathe in.

Perhaps taking the breath further still up into the high heart.

Feeling spaciousness between the collarbones.

Or exhaling from the high heart down to the low ribs,

Contracting in and further still emptying up the breath,

Allowing the belly button then to draw into the spine.

Practicing a couple of rounds of this long,

Deep breath with your own rhythm.

There's no rush.

There is no need to follow along exactly with my words.

Allow yourself to maintain integrity in the spine and focus on your practice.

When you're ready,

Invite the air through the nostrils on the inhale,

Soften the tummy,

Let the diaphragm be relaxed.

Belly button draws away from the spine,

Fills with oxygen slowly,

With composure,

With control.

The breath travels up to the low ribs.

Low ribs expand.

Further still up to the high heart.

Or exhaling from the high heart down,

Low ribs,

Belly button draws in.

You are free to maintain this breath.

You may decide to take a couple of natural breaths in between.

What I mean is in between the long,

Deep breaths,

You are free to take a normal breath.

So if you find tension,

Perhaps in this practice,

Whether tension in the body or tension in the mind,

Maybe frustration or you become distracted by some sort of story about frustration around this and it creates tension.

If you find that to happen,

Without judgment but with compassion,

Allow yourself just a single normal breath.

So breathing in and then perhaps opening the mouth and allowing yourself a nice deep sigh before resolving to begin again.

Integrity in the spine,

Long line from the tailbone to the crown,

Softness in the shoulders and the jaw,

The teeth and the tongue,

Softening the eyes and their sockets,

Inviting the breath when you're ready in through the nostrils,

Soften the belly,

Expand the belly as you breathe in.

The bigger breath now,

Slower on the inhale,

Continue to sip air in through the nostrils as the breath travels up to the low ribs,

Expands from east to west and up into the high heart before exhaling everything down from the high heart down to the belly.

Continue breathing this way in your own rhythm as you listen to the sound of my voice.

You may notice over time the capacity for a greater inhale.

You may notice the breath beginning at the belly and traveling all the way up into the high heart on one inhale,

Perhaps even noticing a pause at the very top of the breath.

Remain curious now about the capacity for a deep breath,

The capacity of the ribs to expand and your lungs to fill from the bottom of the lung to the top.

Remaining curious about the top of the breath.

Where is it exactly?

When you get to that place where you feel like this is the top of my breath,

Remain curious,

Soften the jaw.

Are you able to sip in a little more air at the top to retain the breath at the top?

This is a practice.

This is practicing the pause between inhale and exhale.

As you exhale from the high heart down to the low ribs,

Further down,

Expending of the breath to the low belly.

Belly button draws and contracts into the spine as you expend of the breath completely.

Focusing now on your exhale and allowing for a complete exhale.

Following the breath all the way to the bottom,

Maintaining curiosity about the very bottom of the breath.

And where is it?

And where you decide it is,

Is it possible to pause for a little bit longer between the exhale and the inhale?

Practicing curiosity about the top of the breath and the very bottom of the breath as you continue the long deep breath practice.

Inviting air in through the nostrils on the inhale,

Softening the stomach.

Relax the tummy completely.

Relax the belly.

Relax all the muscles of the stomach as you breathe in,

Filling the belly.

Breath travels up to the low ribs,

Expanding from east to west.

Breath travels up to the high heart,

Expanding further still,

Finding the very top of the breath and finding a pause.

Soften in the jaw,

Soften the shoulders.

Notice space between the ear lobes and the top of the shoulders as you retain the breath at the very top before exhaling with composure.

And I say composure over control.

You decide when you exhale.

Expanding of the breath completely and noticing a pause at the very bottom of the breath.

In completing the cycle of breath that you are on,

Allow yourself to take three more of these breaths of integrity.

These slower,

Longer,

Deeper breaths with control and composure.

Integrity in the spine from the tailbone to the crown.

Long line from the tailbone to the crown.

Soften in the shoulders and the face.

Invite the inhale through the nostrils.

Soften the tummy.

Inhale up.

Find the top of the breath and retain.

Practice the pause.

And exhaling slowly all the way to the very bottom of the breath.

You can picture a balloon that is pricked with a pin and it's pricked at that place where you tie the balloon.

And so it's not a big expenditure of the breath.

It's more of a slow release from the top to the bottom.

High heart down to the belly.

Expanding finding the very bottom of the exhale and pausing.

And when you've completed three more breaths this way,

With your own rhythm and your own time,

You can simply return to your natural breathing.

Allow your hands to be relaxed,

Perhaps on your knees or your thighs,

Palms down or palms up.

And check in with how you feel.

How does it feel in your body right now?

How is it in the mind right now?

And how is your heart?

Allow yourself a breath of gratitude to yourself for showing up for your practice,

For making self-care a priority.

Practicing the pause,

Allowing yourself to slow down.

Noticing the cushion beneath your feet or the legs or your seat.

Noticing the cushion or wall perhaps behind the spine.

Allowing the breath to still be deep and slow as you begin to notice sounds inside of the room and sounds outside of the room.

And over the next few cycles of breath in your own time,

You can begin to flutter open your eyes,

Returning back to this space.

This concludes this guided breathing meditation.