Coming Back To Yourself

This is a recording of a live online breathwork session. In it, you'll be guided through a relaxed breathing practice including music, intentional silence and a breath hold, all as an invitation to notice where your attention actually lives. Not where you think it should be. Where it actually goes. If you've been caught up in what everyone else is doing and lost touch with your own ground, this might be exactly what you need.

Transcript

Hello, Thank you everyone for joining. My name is Michael and I run Room to Breathe and twice a week I run these sessions online where we get to come together and go a little bit deeper into the breath. So thank you very much for being here. I'll just go through how the session will go and we'll talk a little bit about the theme and then we'll get into it. After we've had this little introduction we'll go into a period where we'll be slowing everything down. I'll be guiding you to get into a more relaxed state, Allowing yourself to let go, Allowing your conscious mind to start to become less active. But even if it is active that's absolutely fine because we're going to be accessing beneath that. Following that we will then start the breath work. So I'm going to be inviting you to do a wave breath today which is a type of conscious connected breath work. So basically we'll be keeping our awareness on our breath and the impact that that breath is having on our body and our minds. But we're going to be breathing deep into the lungs. It's called full body breathing. So we'll be breathing into the very bottom of our lungs so that we can feel our stomach muscles moving. Then as we breathe in deeply we can feel that wave of breath as it rises up. We feel our ribs expanding, Our chest rising and then we may even feel movement in our neck as we completely fill ourselves with air. Then as soon as we're full we just let go. We relax the muscles that have been pulling the air in. Then as soon as we're empty we start the process again. So it's a continuous way of rising up the body and then being released and then back up and release. Now very often we say to do this breath work through the mouth but I'm encouraging you to breathe through the nose and not to do it fast, To do it slowly. And in fact I'm going to be encouraging you at certain points to see if you can go even slower. If you do feel inclined to go a little bit faster then you can do that of course. Listen to what it is that your body needs and follow that. Once we've been doing that for a period I'll invite you to take a breath hold after an exhale. So I'll give you some warning and then I'll say after your next exhale when your lungs are empty hold your breath. Now we're not trying to set any records here. We're not trying to see if we can hold our breath as long as possible. What we want to do is just explore the stillness within that hold and as soon as you need to breathe take a breath in. And I'll probably leave it a little while and then I'll encourage you to take a breath if you haven't already. And when you do breathe in fill in the lungs again and just hold in for three or four seconds and then letting go. And then we're going to go into a period of silence where we're just going to relax for a few minutes. Notice any thoughts, Any emotions, Sensations, Feelings that arrive and just being open to that if that feels good. Then we'll have a final song to help bring us back round and to get ready for the rest of the day. So hopefully that all sounds good. Today's theme is based on a few things that I've noticed and it came up in a tarot reading that I did for the WhatsApp community on Sunday. And it's about being, Are we consciously aware of the things that we have in life? It's so easy in this day and age with social media to constantly be focused on what other people have. Comparing our lives to their perceived lives to the extent that it's so easy. And I do this all the time to forget everything that I have in my life, To forget the incredible things that our bodies are able to do, To forget how lucky we are to have a roof over our house. And there are so many things that sometimes when we're comparing ourselves to other people, We lose that. So today's session is just an invitation to notice where we are looking at other people and overlooking the stuff that we have going on in our life, The things that we've achieved, The problems, The obstacles we've overcome. If your journey takes you somewhere else, Fantastic. The most important thing is to be open and to allow whatever needs to come through to come through. So let's get started. So we're going to start by taking three long stretch breaths and I'll walk you through it. But basically we're going to fill the lungs, Hold, Take a little bit of a sip, Breathing in through our nose and then releasing through our mouth. Okay, So let's get started. Let's inhale in three, Two, One, Inhale, Fill in the lungs and at the top, Hold, Take a sip more air and hold and slowly release through the mouth. Nice and controlled, Allowing your body to relax. Noticing the impact of that breath on your body. Now let's take a second, Breathing deeply in through the nose, Fill in the lungs and at the top, Hold, Take a sip more and hold and slowly release through the mouth, Allowing your mind to relax. And let's take a final deep breath in through the nose, Holding at the top, Taking a sip more and hold and a sip more and hold, Letting go. Becoming aware of the weight of your body as it pushes down into the surface beneath you. Bringing your awareness to your scalp, To the muscles of your foreheads, Allowing them to relax. The muscles around your eyes, Your cheeks, Your tongue, Your jaw, Allowing everything to start to let go. Feeling the weight of your arms, The pulse of your heart in the bend of your elbows, Your wrists, Your hands. Noticing where your fingers are touching fingers, Allowing your shoulders to become heavy. Becoming aware of the beat of your heart in your chest, The rising and falling of your shoulders, The rise and fall of your chest as you breathe. Noticing your abdominal muscles, Your stomach, Your liver, Kidneys, Your intestines, Just allowing them to soften. Knowing that they'll continue to do what they were designed to do, Allowing the muscles of your back to soften, To let go. Becoming aware of your pelvis, Your hips, Allowing them to gently open. Feeling the weight of your legs as you really let go. Allow them to soften, To get heavier. Feel the movement of your heartbeat in your pulse points, The bends of your knees. Noticing if your feet are relaxed, And gently allowing them to let go. And maybe some tension has returned to another part of your body. And that's okay, That may happen over and over again throughout this morning. But when it does happen, Notice, See that it's happened. Noticing the thoughts as they come and go in your mind. And instead of judging any thoughts, Just noticing them. There's a thought. There's a thought. All the while keeping your body soft. And relaxed. We're going to breathe now for the count of four together. Breathing through the nose if you can, Slowly, Deeply. And we're going to breathe in together in three, Two, One. Inhale, Two, Three, Four. Exhale, Two, Three, Four. Inhale, Two, Three, Four. Exhale, Two. Allow yourself to continue to breathe this way. And any time thoughts arise and distract you, There's no need to judge them. Just be aware that it's happened. And when you're ready, Bring your attention back to your breath. Noticing the sensation of each breath. I'm going to invite you now to start taking the wave breaths. Breathing in through your nose. Breathing deeply. Fill in the lungs. And then as soon as they're full, Just letting go. Pulling the air in on the inhale. Feeling the movements in your stomach, Your ribs, Your chest, Your neck. And then just releasing. No forcing, No pushing. Trusting the breath knows how to exhale. Noticing if you feel the urge to breathe faster or slower. And just question that urge. The invitation is to allow yourself just to get into the rhythm of this breath at the moment. But there's no rush. There's no race. Just experience each breath. Being aware of where your attention is right now. We're just noticing the points of awareness. No judgment. Maybe as you continue to breathe this way, Your points of awareness starts to shift. Keep bringing it back to your breath. Keep pulling the air deep into your lungs. Allowing the breath to rise up your body like a wave. Until your lungs are completely full and you let go. Noticing if your mind wants to wander. And maybe you let it. And then when you're ready, Come back to the breath. And as the music changes, The invitation is to see if you can breathe a little bit deeper. Take a little more air. Inhale a little slower. Just exploring with curiosity. What would it feel like to not need anything outside this moment apart from your breath? As we enter our last four minutes before the breath hold. Just knowing that everything else can wait. It's just you and your breath. Being carried by the music. Staying with your breath, Breathing deeply. And then just releasing on the exhale. There is nothing to measure yourself against. Just this breath. This body. In about a minute we're going to go into a breath hold. But for now, Keep breathing. And after your next exhale, With empty lungs, Hold your breath. Exploring what it feels like in the stillness. Knowing you can breathe again whenever you need to. Knowing you have nothing to prove. And when you're ready, Taking a deep breath in. Fill in your lungs. Just hold in. And letting go when you're ready. Allowing yourself to breathe normally now. Where in your life have you been overlooking how far you've come? The things you've achieved. The good things in your life. Then no matter what's happening around us in the world, In this moment, You are enough. Is there an area of your life that you're being asked to bring more focus to? More conscious attention? Is there an area of your life a thought or behavioural pattern that you'd like to let go of now? And is there a new one you'd like to pick up and take with you from this session? And as the music starts we know that that's our signal to start our journey back. Just remembering what it is if anything you realised or saw or discovered maybe let go of. Any decisions you made. Any insights. And just be with them for a moment. There's no rush. Maybe visualising bringing those awarenesses and insights to your heart. And just breathing with them there. And when you're ready starting to gently bring back some small movement to your body. It may just be with a smile it may be with some movement in your hands a stretch of your fingers your feet. Maybe you want to start stretching giving yourself a hug bringing your awareness to your body and what movement your body would like to have in this moment. It's allowing it, Maybe a stretch maybe a bend. Remembering what the room around you looks like before you open your eyes the shapes, Colours textures the light. When you're ready open your eyes. Thank you very much for being part of this session today give yourselves a few moments just to come round more fully stay hydrated stay nourished and be kind to yourself for the rest of the day. Thank you very much.