Yielding To Breath

Could you yield your whole body to being breathed? In this meditation, I guide you to notice the felt sense of breathing in your body. While the breath flows naturally, I invite you to notice its gentle rhythmic pulsations: expansion with inhalation and condensation with exhalation. I offer an option to root the breath in your gravitational center, then yield your whole body to this fundamental movement pattern.
Excellent practice for connecting with the easy and free flow of life.

Transcript

Welcome to your practice and thank you for letting me be your guide today.

In this breath practice,

I will guide you to feel the sensations of the body breathing.

My own preferred position for the practice is lying down on the back.

However,

You may choose to receive the practice seated or even standing.

If you do choose to lie down,

Lie on a soft yoga mat or in your bed.

Maybe place a bolster or a pillow under the knees and place a blanket over your body so you do not get cold.

I will give you a few moments to set up and then we will begin.

As you're settling into your chosen position,

Begin to notice how the body settles with gravity.

Allow the eyes to softly close or you may choose to keep them open with a soft gaze.

Give yourself the time to arrive here for your practice.

Throughout the meditation,

We will invite the breath to be natural,

To flow naturally in and out of the body.

We are not trying to control the breath in any way.

What I will invite is an awareness of what you may feel as you breathe in and as you breathe out.

Please notice whether your feelings are the same as what I am offering or if they are different.

If you do not feel what I am offering,

You may choose to imagine and use intention or if it is not resonating,

You may simply let it go and continue to observe the breath in your own way.

Please begin by placing your hands on the front of the body,

Perhaps one hand on the belly,

One hand on the one hand on the heart.

As the palms rest on your front body,

Notice the sensation of inhalation and exhalation as it is felt by the palms of your hands.

Continue to let the breath flow naturally in and out of the body without a need to change anything.

Become curious if you feel a sense of the front body expanding into space as you inhale,

Releasing and gathering,

Condensing and expanding as you exhale.

If you do not feel this yourself,

You may choose to imagine that your front body is expanding as the breath comes in and condensing as the breath is released from the body.

Releasing any effort from the breathing and letting the breath flow naturally,

Just noticing the body feels as you breathe.

Placing your palms on the sides of the body,

On the side ribs if this is comfortable for your shoulders,

Inviting that same sense of expansion with inhalation to the experience of the side body.

So as you breathe in,

Do you feel your side body,

The sides of the ribs expand in either direction to the side?

And as you exhale,

Do you notice and feel the side body returning,

Condensing,

The ribs gathering together?

Continue to offer your undivided attention to the experience of the side body breathing.

Taking your palms and placing them underneath the back body,

Again checking with your shoulders that this is okay,

Maybe in your lower back,

Maybe in the area of your kidneys.

And if it's not comfortable with your shoulders,

Just let your arms be loose by the sides and feel the back body as it is in contact with the floor or with the chair if you're sitting down.

Bring the same curiosity to the sensations of the breath through the back body,

Noticing that if the back body too gently expands as the breath is inhaled,

Gently releases and gathers and condenses as the breath is released from the body.

As if when you inhale,

Your body was making a slightly deeper imprint in your yoga mat or whatever is supporting your back body.

Remember that you can use intention and imagination if you cannot feel the sensations today.

And knowing that over time through practice,

The more subtle sensations in the body will open up to your awareness.

If your palms are still under your back body,

Place them comfortably by the side of the body.

We'll explore two more directions of the breath.

As you inhale,

Can you feel a gentle expansion downwards into your pelvis,

Filling your pelvic bowl with breath.

And as you exhale,

Can you feel a return,

A gathering back in as the breath is released?

This is happening because of the action of your breathing diaphragm,

Which is located at the bottom of your rib cage.

As you inhale,

The diaphragm moves downward and gently pushes the abdominal organs further into the pelvic bowl.

And as you exhale,

The diaphragm relaxes back upwards.

Breathing in,

Breathing in,

Can you yield your abdominal organs to receive the breath?

And can the breath yield as it is released to allow the return of the abdominal organs to their original place?

The last direction that we will explore today is an upward direction,

An upward expansion towards the upper parts of your torso.

As you breathe in,

Do you feel a sense of expansion upwards,

Filling your upper torso,

Your upper chest,

Your upper back,

Towards the clavicles,

Towards your throat?

As you exhale,

Can you feel a sense of releasing back downwards,

A condensing towards some kind of a center?

Inhaling,

Can you allow the breath to expand upwards towards your throat,

Towards your upper torso?

And exhaling,

Allow a sense of condensation back down as the breath is released from the body.

I invite you now to hold in your awareness a sense of all six of those directions that we explored.

In your next inhalation,

Can you feel simultaneously the front body expanding into space,

The side bodies expanding to either side,

The back body expanding backwards,

Making that deeper imprint on the mat,

The abdominal organs yielding,

So there's a sense of expansion towards the pelvic bowl and a sense of expansion upwards to fill the upper torso towards the throat.

And as you exhale,

Can you feel a sense of condensation from all six of these directions towards some kind of a middle?

And do you begin to sense a center naturally emerging,

A center from which this expansion in all six of these directions takes place as you inhale and a center towards which everything is gathered as you exhale?

Notice the location of this center in your body.

Remember once more that the breath is allowed to flow naturally in and out.

You're simply feeling the effects of breathing on the body itself.

You're not manipulating the breath in any way.

Bring your awareness to this sense of a center out of which the breath is born and expands and towards which the breath returns as you exhale.

If your body is willing,

Can you invite this center to move towards your navel,

Your lower belly,

Your belly button,

An area that we call the dantian in Qigong?

Next few breaths,

See if your body is willing to move the center of your breathing to this center,

Energetic center in your lower belly.

If your body is not willing,

Continue to experience the expansion and condensation of the body with the breath from the center that your body has chosen.

If your body did allow for the movement of the center to the low belly,

Notice if it feels any different to breathe from the center,

To experience this expansion and condensation of the body and the breath from this part of your body and from the center that may have emerged somewhere else before.

Perhaps you might feel a sense of rootedness to the breath when experienced from the dantian,

From the navel center,

Or perhaps not.

Just notice.

And then our body and our body to yield fully to this process of expansion on inhalation and gathering in condensation on each exhalation,

Allowing the body and the breath to become one whole body being breathed.

You are welcome to remain here and experience this form of cellular respiration,

Cellular breathing for as long as feels supportive for you.

If you would like to close the practice together now,

Let your awareness anchor and root in your lower belly.

For a few breaths and beginning to bring movement slowly to maybe your fingertips and your toes,

Allowing the body to begin to reawaken into movement,

Continuing to be carried by the pulsation of the breath.

Let the movement,

Let the breath take you into any stretches that feel supportive for your body,

That you can feel the body asking for.

Maybe taking a yawn,

Maybe bringing the knees into the chest and rocking gently side to side.

Side to side,

Massaging your back,

Eventually rolling onto one side and remaining here for three full breaths,

Letting go and releasing any notion of what may come,

Any tension that your muscles may hold,

Preparing for how to bring you into seated position.

Just be present here,

Lying on the side for three full breaths and then placing the palms of your hands on the earth,

Pressing into the palms.

Let your arms support you as you rise to a seated position,

Letting the sitting bones root into the earth through your central axis,

Up to the crown of your head.

Allow the earth to lift you up to the sky.

If your eyes are still closed,

Invite them to very slowly and gently begin to open,

Taking in the space you are in as a whole first.

And when your being adjusts to the presence of the outer world,

Take a look around your space,

Anchoring yourself back in your physical space.

Thank you very much for your practice today.

Namaste.

Reviews

I am often being breathed but never quite so fully. I cannot unsense it now.