If you're able to do this practice lying down,
Fantastic.
You may want a blanket.
Yeah,
Just allow yourself to get comfortable.
If you're seated,
That's also absolutely fine.
Make sure your head is supported.
Now's an opportunity to get comfortable.
Let's start by taking,
Let's do three deep breaths.
I'd like to start with three breaths.
So let's breathe in through the nose,
Fill in our lungs,
And slowly out through the mouth.
And in through the nose,
Slowly out through the mouth.
And one final one,
Through the nose,
So just staying with your breath as I speak,
Listening to what I say,
But also focusing on your body.
The reason I wanted to start these sessions is because I personally noticed that with everything happening at the moment in the world,
In the news,
It kind of compounds with everything that's happening in my own life.
And there's just this constant level of anxiety or stress or fear and lots of emotions that are rattling around the body that are being left there without being processed.
And when we live in the constant states of fear or anxiety,
Then it's very easy to lose sight of how we're living life.
It has a massive impact on the way we make decisions,
The way we live day to day,
On our mental health,
Our physical health.
So I wanted to start these sessions just to help us all to start to recognize the emotions that are stored in our body,
And to gently help them to dissolve.
Now,
I'm not saying that you're going to leave the end of this session and everything's going to be fine,
You're not going to have a negative emotion in you at all.
But this is just part of the process of us getting to understand ourselves and our emotions a little bit better.
And it's going to be gentle.
It's going to absolutely be gentle.
So if you don't want to go anywhere,
You don't want to do anything,
You don't need to.
And you can just breathe slowly and calmly.
So the first few minutes,
I'm going to be guiding you into a more relaxed state.
There's going to be music playing in the background.
We're going to start to identify any emotions that we've brought into this session with us.
And we're not going to get lost in them,
We're just going to observe them.
We're then going to do a little bit of coherence breathing.
So anyone who comes to my Instagram sessions,
It's essentially the gong breathing,
Just breathing in for four,
And out for four without pausing,
But at equal length,
Inhale and exhale.
And then we're going to be doing something called wave breathing.
So basically,
Oh,
I call it wave breathing,
Because it feels like there's a wave that rises,
A breath that rises up your body.
So you start by,
It's breathing in through the nose and out through the nose.
But you breathe into the bottom of your lungs so that you feel your stomach move.
Once you feel your stomach move,
You continue to breathe in and you might feel the bottom of your ribs move and your chest move.
And then maybe even you'll feel your throat,
Your neck start to move as everything fills with air.
And as soon as we get to the top,
We let go,
We breathe out through the nose.
Now we're not forcing the exhale,
We're just allowing it to go,
Allowing the wave to go back.
So I want you to think of a wave rising up your body and down your body.
Now,
I don't call this conscious connected breathing,
Because for those of you who've done that before,
We think of that often as a wide mouth,
Breathing deeply and fast.
That's not what we're doing today.
We're breathing through the nose,
We're breathing slow.
In fact,
I'm going to encourage you at some points to breathe as slow as you can.
But of course,
You breathe how you want to breathe,
You're in charge.
But remember,
Wherever you are,
You're alone and I'm not able to support you one-to-one.
Once we get to a certain point,
I'm going to encourage you to exhale.
And then once your lungs are empty,
We're going to go into a small breath hold.
It's going to be very small,
It's only going to be about 30 seconds or so.
If that's too long for you,
Then you start to breathe again.
This shouldn't be uncomfortable or stressful in any way.
And then once you breathe,
Once you start breathing again,
We're going to have a period of silence before we come back into the room.
So let's get started.
So we did the three breaths at the start of this session.
Now we're going to do another three breaths,
But slightly different.
So let's,
In a moment,
We're going to breathe in and fill the lungs.
We're going to hold at the top and then take another sip and then let go.
So let's inhale together in three,
Two,
One.
Breathing in,
Filling the lungs.
And at the top,
Hold and take a sip more breath and hold and then release through the nose or the mouth,
Whichever feels best.
Just noticing any effect that that breath has had on your body.
And let's take another deep breath to breathe in through the nose,
Fill in all the way to the top.
And at the top,
Hold,
Take another sip and hold.
Noticing the impact that that breath has had on your mind.
And let's do another,
A final one.
Breathing in,
Fill in the lungs.
And at the top,
Hold,
Take a sip more,
A sip more,
Allowing everything to relax,
To slow down,
Feeling the weight of your body getting heavier.
Against the surface beneath you.
Noticing the muscles of your face,
Your forehead and eyes,
Your jaw,
Allowing everything to relax,
Your neck to soften.
Feeling the muscles of your chest and stomach,
Your arms and hands becoming heavier.
The muscles of your back letting go.
Notice your legs becoming heavier.
To even your feet and toes.
Noticing the sensations of your skin,
Maybe the hair of your head touching your scalp.
The coolness of the air against exposed skin.
Noticing how many different textures of material you can feel.
Noticing the things in your body that often go unnoticed.
If any emotions that you've brought in with you today were present in your body and we're not here to change anything,
We're just noticing at the moment.
Maybe you feel calm.
Maybe you feel relaxed.
Restless.
Maybe there's a sadness.
An anxiety.
Maybe there's a love.
And whatever is here is allowed.
And rather than thinking about the emotion,
Start to feel where it lives.
Maybe it's in your chest,
Your stomach,
Maybe it's somewhere else.
But just let your attention rest there,
Like you're sitting beside the emotion.
You don't have to become the emotion,
Just observe.
Almost like watching a wave moving through the sea.
It can move,
Shift,
Grow.
And you adjust the awareness.
As you sit,
Observing.
Starting to take some coherent breaths.
So I'll count you in.
We're going to inhale together in 3,
2,
1.
Inhale,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale,
2,
3.
Inhale,
2,
3,
4.
Breathing slowly.
And if your mind has started to wander,
Bringing your awareness back to your breath.
And to that emotion.
As you continue to observe how it grows and softens.
You're not analysing the emotion.
You're just listening.
What do you want me to know?
And maybe an answer comes,
Maybe it doesn't.
And both are fine.
Continue to breathe deeply.
Letting go of anything that you don't need in this moment.
I'm going to invite you now to start taking the wave breaths.
Breathing deep into your stomach.
And watching the wave of breath as it rises up your body.
From your stomach.
To your ribs.
Chest.
And as soon as your lungs are full.
Just letting go.
Not forcing the exhale.
There's no pushing.
There's just relaxing.
And we're just getting into the rhythm of it now.
We're just exploring the rhythm.
This way of breathing.
So breathing deep.
Feeling the breath move your stomach.
Feel the movement in your ribs and chest.
Maybe even in your neck.
And just letting go.
Noticing if you feel you need to breathe faster to do it right.
Maybe explore breathing.
Deciding if you want it to speed up or you want to slow it down.
Noticing where that emotion is.
And after your next exhale.
Hold your breath on empty lungs.
Knowing you can breathe again whenever you need to.
Just noticing your heart.
And take a deep breath in.
And at the top just hold your breath again.
And let go.
Breathe however feels comfortable.
Slowly.
Allowing yourself to pause when you want to.
Noticing that emotion again.
Is there anything it wants to give you?
Maybe a message.
Or a boundary.
Maybe compassion.
Just take what is useful.
Allowing the emotion to start to soften.
Or drift.
It's being seen.
And it doesn't need to shout so loudly anymore.
Bringing your awareness back.
As always.
To your breath.
And the moment the music is going to start again.
So just.
Noticing what it is you want to release.
And what you want to bring back.
As the music starts.
Know that this is the sign that we are returning back.
Back to our day.
But noticing again your body.
The textures against your skin.
The areas of coolness.
The pressure against the surface beneath you.
Maybe you can still feel that emotion.
Noticing if it has changed.
Maybe a slightly different emotion is there now.
Noticing anything you observed.
Or realised.
You can bring that back with you consciously.
Maybe you want to start moving your fingers.
Your hands.
Some gentle.
Wrist rolls.
Ankle rolls.
Maybe you want to start.
Stretching your.
Limbs.
The muscles of your face.
Maybe you want to start moving.
The muscles of your back.
Your shoulders.
Your neck.
And if you haven't already opened your eyes.
Before you do so.
Just seeing if you can remember.
And then opening your eyes.
And seeing if you got it right.
Or if there's things that you had forgotten were there.
Thank you very much for being here today.
As part of this.
First Tuesday morning session.
Remember to make sure you have.
Something to eat.
Make sure you stay hydrated.
Make sure you look after yourself.
And any time you find yourself.
Becoming overwhelmed with that emotion.
That we contacted.
And connected to today.
Just remembering.
That we can observe it.
Remembering anything that came to you.
During this session.
Thank you very much.
