Welcome,
Please come into a comfortable seated position with your spine tall.
Hands can rest on your thighs,
Either palms down if you're needing a sense of grounding today or palms up if you're ready to receive inspiration.
And then simply feel your body breathing.
So not trying to change it,
Control it.
Just see in these first few breaths what moves and where the breath is going.
So when we breathe,
Ideally we'd like that breath to move up from the belly out to the abdomen and into the ribs a little bit.
And then as that movement is happening,
We try to keep the breath as silent as possible and as smooth and steady as we can make it.
So for the next minute,
Just notice each of these qualities.
The silence of your breath,
If it's smooth and steady,
Rather than having pauses between the breath or sharp intakes of breath.
And if you do have them,
Try to even them out.
And as the breath begins to smooth out,
Let's create evenness side to side.
So inhale to the count of four and exhale to the count of four.
This counting is a wonderful technique to build the evenness,
The sameness called Samavarti,
Same waves.
And then after a little bit of time,
The evenness that we put effort toward becomes more natural.
And we don't have to spend as much time counting the breath,
That the breath just becomes even and equal.
As the breath comes to this place naturally of Samavarti,
The mind will follow.
So,
Quality of breath reflecting quality of mind.
And quality of mind reflecting quality of breath.
So we have a fair amount of sway over the busyness of our mind.
And then once the breath feels silent,
Smooth,
Steady,
And even,
Perhaps begin a very slight application of Ujjayi breath,
Where the back of the throat is slightly constricted.
So,
There's a very subtle soft sound that only you can hear,
That sounds like the ocean.
But if trying this breath causes noise or sound coming from your throat,
Simply return back to this natural breath.
No attempt at closing off the throat.
So,
Continuing to build this stable breath brings us closer to creating a stable mind.
Feel the smoothness of your breath and the quietness of your mind.
And bow your head slightly,
Welcoming this comfort.
This part of you that knows exactly what you need.
Namaste.
