Hello and welcome to today's session.
My name is Michael and I run Room to Breathe.
Today's session is a breathwork focused awareness session and we're going to be looking at the theme of letting go.
Now letting go isn't something that we have to force ourselves to do and it's certainly not about forgetting or repressing the things that we hold on to.
Just a gentle invitation to start loosening our grip on some of the things that's not even it's not even about not supporting us.
It's the things that prevent us from being the most authentic version of ourselves.
The thing that that hold us back from doing the things that we want to do,
Having the experiences we want to have,
Saying the things we want to say,
Even wearing the clothes that we want to wear.
Many of us have been told that control equals safety but tonight we're going to see if we can just try to relax that a little bit and try the other side.
Try not holding on and you don't need to know what it is you want to let go of.
You haven't got to have the faintest clue.
All my invitation is is to follow your breath and allow whatever comes up to come up.
Now often in these kind of settings people think that in order to let go we need to have some big kind of cathartic experience and there's lots of shaking and waving of arms around and if that's something that you have this evening and you're happy with that fantastic but the aim is to be a lot more gentle because that's not what letting go is all the time.
Sometimes letting go can be very quiet and it's just the softening of a part of the body that was tense.
Just a gentle very subtle release.
So throughout this session we're going to be focusing on our breath.
The first part we're going to go into a deep sense of relaxation.
Just going to start to let go of everything that we've accumulated over the first half of the week.
We're going to do some coherence breathing which is the breathing that we do on the Instagram lives if you come to them and it's basically where the inhale is the same length as the exhale.
Then we're going to go to some wave breathing.
So this is a type of breath where we breathe through the nose and we breathe into the bottom of our lungs pulling the air filling the lungs from the bottom all the way up as high up as you can and as soon as your lungs are full just letting go releasing and then as soon as your lungs are empty and they'll never be fully empty but when the exhale is finished pulling the air back in.
So we're active on the inhale but on the exhale we're practicing letting go.
We're releasing the muscles and we're just letting the air go where it needs to go.
We're not forcing the exhale.
Now if you've come to some of my in-person sessions we would have done this breath through the mouth.
I would have encouraged you to go faster but on these sessions it's slightly different.
So we're going to breathe through the nose and I'm going to encourage you to breathe slower.
Once we've done that for a while I'll invite you to do a breath hold and that will be after an exhale when your lungs are empty and I'll give you a heads up when we get into that part and I'll just say when your lungs are empty after your next exhale hold your breath and if you don't want to do that that's absolutely fine.
Just carry on breathing how you want to breathe.
If you start to feel like you need to breathe then breathe.
We're not trying to hold our breath for a long time.
We're just trying to explore that space in between the breath and then that will take us into a period of silence just a few minutes and then we'll come back out the other side.
Now you may have remembered all of that you may have just let the words wash over you both are absolutely fine because I will be here I will be guiding you and I will be reminding you of the steps.
If for any reason you need to get up during this practice maybe there's something happening you need to go to the door or something that's absolutely fine but please just be aware that you could be a little bit light-headed so just when you sit up take a moment put your feet on the ground before standing up.
Okay so I trust everyone is comfortable.
So we're going to start now.
We're going to start by taking three lung stretch breaths.
So I'll talk you through this if you've not done them before.
So breathing in through the nose filling the lungs as much as you can.
And at the top hold your breath and then take a sip more air and hold and slowly and controlled let go.
As you do allow your body to relax.
And let's do another.
Breathing in through the nose filling the lungs and at the top hold take a breath more and hold and slowly release allowing your mind to relax.
And let's do a final one.
Breathing in through the nose filling the lungs and hold at the top and slowly release.
Noticing the impact that those three breaths have had on your mind.
Becoming aware of the skin on your scalp.
Notice anything that's touching it maybe hair maybe a pillow maybe a cool air.
Just consciously allowing your scalp allowing the muscles of your forehead.
Noticing your tongue and allowing that to relax as well.
Maybe there's a little tension in your jaw.
Can you soften that too?
The breath passing through the airwaves.
The beat of your heart in the arteries.
Noticing your pulse in the bends of your elbows.
In your wrists.
Becoming aware of your hands your fingers,
Fingertips.
The sensation of the skin.
The beat of your heart.
Becoming aware of your chest now.
The rise and fall with the breath.
Letting go of any tension in your abdomen.
Allowing the muscles of your back to melt into the surface beneath you.
Gently melting as you let go.
Of the tension in your legs allowing that to be heavy.
Even noticing your feet relaxing.
If any tension has returned to any part of your body,
That's okay.
You can just allow that to drift away as well.
Bringing your awareness to your breath now.
How are you breathing in this moment?
How does the air feel as it enters your nostrils?
Passing through the airwaves.
Notice each muscle that moves as you breathe.
Now we're going to start taking some coherence breaths.
We're going to start to inhale together in 3,
2,
1.
Inhale 2,
3,
4.
Exhale 2,
3,
4.
Inhale 2,
3,
4.
Just keep going at this rhythm.
Changing the pace to one that works for you.
Noticing any emotions that may start to arise.
And we're not trying to think of emotions as good or bad.
We're just noticing.
What needs to be felt?
Noticing if there's anywhere in your body that you've started to hold on to again.
Maybe your jaws,
Your hands.
Just allow yourself to let go.
And if your mind's wandering,
That's okay.
But bring your awareness back each time you catch it to your breath.
And I'm going to invite you now to start taking those wave breaths.
Breathing in through the nose.
Feeling the bottom of your lungs.
Watching that wave of breath rise up your body all the way to your neck.
And then letting go again through the nose.
All we're doing at the moment is finding the rhythm.
Nice and slow.
Slowly pulling the air in on the inhale.
And then letting go for the exhale.
Every exhale is a release.
Every exhale is letting go.
And you've been letting go your entire life.
But now we're doing it consciously.
Are you able to slow down your breath even more?
And as you focus on this way of breathing notice anything that comes up that's ready to be released.
Keep breathing deeply and slowly.
Any emotion that arises notice that emotion.
Notice where it is in your body.
What does it feel like?
What does it look like?
What does it sound like?
And as you breathe deeply direct the breath to that part of your body.
Give that emotion your breath.
If your breath has sped up now's the chance to realise that and to slow it down.
Can you go any slower?
Can you breathe any deeper?
How does it feel to let go?
We have about three minutes before we go into our breath holds.
So if you want to swap from breathing through your nose to breathing through an open mouth that's fine.
You don't have to.
But still breathing slow.
Breathing as deep as you can.
We have about one minute before the breath holds to breathe deep.
And after your next exhale when your lungs are empty hold your breath.
Knowing that you can breathe again whenever you need to.
Exploring this sensation.
Feeling your heartbeat.
And if you're ready you can take a deep breath in now.
And at the top hold for a few seconds.
And then release.
And just allow yourself to breathe just the amount of air that you need.
No more,
No less.
Allowing yourself to pause whenever you need to.
There's nothing to do here in this silence other than watch feel and let go.
You don't need to try and feel anything just be what you are right now.
You're not here to fix anything just to be.
Notice if there's anything you wish to leave behind in this session.
And anything you wish to bring with you.
And as the silence comes to an end with the start of the music we know that it's time to start our journey back.
There's nothing we need to do in this moment.
Just reflecting on where we've been.
Maybe you want to start doing some gentle movements maybe moving the muscles in your face your eyebrows,
Your cheeks your mouth,
Your jaw your tongue.
Maybe you want to do some micro shoulder movements maybe you want to arch your back or bend it.
Noticing what it is that your body wants in this moment.
Maybe you're ready to do some stretches maybe you want to give yourself a big hug you know what to do.
Whilst we're still coming out we're still familiarising ourselves this is a reminder that this session can sometimes be a little draining.
We can move energy around and that can make us tired.
So after the session don't rush off and do anything.
Try and give yourself a couple of minutes to come back more fully.
Make sure you stay hydrated make sure you don't stay up too late tonight and you get some rest and give yourself some good food.
If you haven't opened your eyes yet just trying to see if you can remember what the room looks like the shapes of the objects in the room the colours,
The areas of light and the areas of shadow remembering as much as you can before finally opening your eyes.
Thank you very much.
