Welcome,
And I hope that each one of you will come to find peace within yourself.
Today I'm doing part two in my series of an introduction to meditation for people who are curious about meditation,
But honestly,
It can be for anyone.
In this session,
I'm going to talk about the breath.
Meditation is a practice that involves focusing your mind by using a combination of mental and physical techniques.
The breath is the primary one that many people use.
In the Western world,
The most popular meditation style is mindfulness meditation,
And in mindfulness meditation,
We pay attention to our thoughts as they pass through our mind,
And we do so without judgment or involvement,
And for the most part,
We concentrate on our breath.
In meditation,
There are various breathing techniques that are employed to promote relaxation,
Mindfulness and focus.
Close your eyes now,
And we'll get ready to get in touch with our breath.
In this way,
We can practice some of the breathing methods as we go.
Just breathe and don't force anything.
It doesn't matter if you're sitting down,
Lying or standing.
What matters is that you're comfortable and alert in this moment.
And as you breathe,
I want you to note the little natural pause that's there between the inhale and the exhale.
Many people breathe all their lives and never notice that there's a little pause there.
You have to see that we don't instantly go from an inhale to an exhale.
We have a little hesitation,
A little pause,
And it's at the end of every inhale and at the end of every exhale.
Just breathe and notice that little pause as you breathe.
Just listen to the sound of my voice as I talk about some common breathing techniques.
One technique is called box breathing,
Or it's sometimes called counted breathing.
And this is used to reduce panic,
Increase focus,
Ease tension and more.
And it's called box breathing because you breathe in four equal segments.
You inhale for a count of four.
Then you hold your breath for four counts.
Then you exhale for four counts.
And then you pause or hold for four more counts before starting again.
This is a technique that's used by Navy SEALs before they go on a mission to center themselves and calm themselves.
So let's try giving it a few cycles.
And I'll count for you so I don't distract you.
And I'll be the counter and we can all breathe together.
Okay,
So we're going to start.
So breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And hold again,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And hold again,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One more time,
Breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And hold,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Take a breath and just relax for a second.
I usually box breathe for four or five minutes.
And if you try it and you like it,
I would just suggest not doing more than four or five minutes at a time until you've been doing it for a while.
Another type of breathing is called four,
Seven,
Eight breathing,
And it's often used to facilitate sleep.
Now it's similar to box breathing in that you're counting your breaths.
So with this breathing,
You inhale through your nose for four counts,
Then hold your breath for seven counts,
Then exhale through your mouth for eight counts,
And then you repeat that several times.
And it helps reduce anxiety in this way.
It helps you fall asleep.
Now we can try this if you want.
We're going to breathe through our nose for a count of four,
Hold it for a count of seven,
And then exhale through our mouth for a count of eight.
So let's get ready to start that.
Breathing in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
And I think that gives you an idea of that type of breathing.
Now another type of breathing that I want to touch on is alternate nostril breathing.
I've always found this to be very helpful.
And I'll tell you about it,
But I'll wait and demonstrate it in a live session because it's difficult to demonstrate with just my voice.
I'm going to tell you what I normally do,
Is I normally place my index finger and my middle finger and lay it along the bridge of my nose.
That leaves my thumb and my ring finger by each nostril.
But as with most things,
Like what position you sit in,
You have to do what's comfortable for you.
And if you want to use two hands,
Use the thumb on each hand to close and open your nostrils,
You can do that too.
You have to do whatever is comfortable for you.
But with alternate nostril breathing,
You want to sit comfortably and close off your right nostril with your thumb.
Now with your right nostril closed,
You want to inhale through your left nostril.
And then you close off your left nostril with your ring finger and release your right nostril.
And then exhale through your right nostril.
Then inhale through your right nostril,
Close your right nostril and release your left nostril and exhale through your left.
And then you repeat again.
This is another one that I usually do for about four or five minutes.
And with regular practice,
Alternate nostril breathing can bring better balance to your nervous system and less of a stress response and activity over time.
Alternate nostril breathing also lowers blood pressure.
It slows your heartbeat and it overall improves your breathing.
And again,
I do it for about five minutes.
Then another breathing type is deep breathing,
Which is also called diaphragmatic breathing.
And I'll just talk about this one again and we'll demonstrate it in a live session.
With deep breathing,
You inhale deeply through your nose,
Allowing your diaphragm to expand.
So you don't want your chest to move.
You want your abdomen to move out and up.
Then you exhale slowly through your mouth,
Releasing the tension in your abdomen as you exhale.
You just want to focus on the rhythm of your breath and the rise and fall of your abdomen.
I normally do four or five of these in a row,
Inhales and exhales.
Sometimes this breathing style can make you feel short of breath.
And if it does,
Just stop.
Don't stop breathing,
Just stop the deep breaths.
There we go.
Now if you've listened to my other lessons,
You may have heard me say that in 54 years of meditation,
I found that the breath is everything.
And I say that because of all the things you can do in a pursuit of meditation,
The breath is the only thing that will impact every area of your life.
Now as we come to a close,
Open up your eyes and come back into the room.
Stretch,
Wiggle your fingers and be glad to be alive.
I hope this has been a beneficial and calming session.
And I also hope it's been educational.
I invite all of you to join our meditation group,
Meditation with Michael,
Here on Insight Timer.
And I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to join me in this practice.
Stay tuned for part three.
Until next time.
