Hi,
I'm Melissa from Meditation for Regular People and I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite meditation and sleep techniques today.
It's called Infinity Breathing and it has three steps.
The first step is matching our in-breath and our out-breath.
The second step is bringing our breath into a circle.
And the third step is bringing our breath into an infinity sign,
Which is an eight on its side.
So I'll go through each step with you.
Just let your eyes float closed so that you can really focus and begin to match your in-breath to your out-breath.
This is the first step of the technique.
Just matching the length of your in-breath to the length of your out-breath.
This is a time to really play with your breath and get used to focusing on your breath without having a really strong grip or an expectation of it.
Just practice flowing your in-breath and your out-breath and trying to make them the same length,
Keeping it fun and light.
And begin to bring your breath into a circle,
One side of the circle being your out-breath,
The other side of the circle being your in-breath.
Try to have very little pause between your out-breath and your in-breath,
Like you would see a puppy breathe or a baby breathe.
We learn to hold our breaths.
If you look at a baby or you have a puppy on your lap,
You'll see that they don't hold their breath.
This is something that's learned.
We begin with the out-breath because it's a little bit different from how we normally think of breathing and it puts a little more focus on it.
It also cuts down that natural exit between the in-breath and the out-breath to go to thoughts.
As you bring your breath into this circle,
It can be whatever size,
Whatever color,
Whatever direction,
Whatever thickness.
Visualizing the circle engages both sides of your brain and also gives your brain less opportunity to wander.
Now begin to bring your breath into an infinity,
Just following the curves,
Breathing out on the down curve,
Coming around,
Breathing in on the up curve,
Just following the infinity with your breath.
It can be any color,
Any size,
Any thickness,
Any direction,
But find one size or color that seems to work for you and stick with it.
Just following the infinity continues to limit the places our mind can wander and brings us into deeper focus.
Just following the curves,
If you begin to drift away,
Bring yourself back through the three steps.
Or if you haven't wandered too far,
You can start with the circle or with the infinity.
You can use this technique at night to go to sleep or if you wake up in the middle of the night and your mind begins to go over patterns,
Go over things that have happened,
This is an easy way to bring your brain into focus,
Bring your thoughts down to a slow crawl and allow you to sleep or relax.
Thank you for joining me today and I hope you find this technique useful.
