My name is Mikayla,
And this is a meditation for practicing conscious breathing and cultivating energy flow.
Allow yourself to find a comfortable position,
Sitting or lying down.
If you wish to move during this meditation,
Do so in an area where you can be relaxed and secure.
Begin to follow the breath.
Allow your awareness to travel in through your nose or mouth,
Down the throat,
Into the lungs,
Holding for a moment,
And then release your breath from the chest,
Up towards the throat,
To the mouth or nose,
And back into your environment.
Continue following the breath for six more breaths.
There's no need to breathe more deeply or slowly.
Just noticing your breath.
Now let's direct the breath more consciously.
Your lungs can expand in all directions,
And the tissue of the lungs can stretch like a muscle.
When we practice breathing consciously and deeply,
We condition that elastic tissue of the lungs and increase our capacity for breath.
Many of us instinctually breathe in the upper portion of the lungs and chest,
But we deepen our capacity by bringing the breath into the belly and the back.
Bring your awareness to your shoulders and collarbones,
Neck and upper chest.
Take a deep breath that expands into the collarbones,
Lifting your shoulders,
And exhale.
Let's do that three more times.
Breathe deep into the shoulders,
The trapezius muscles,
The collarbones,
Neck and upper chest,
And exhale.
Twice more on your own.
Inhaling and exhaling.
Beautiful.
Now place one hand over the center of your chest right above your heart,
If that's comfortable for you.
Imagine you are breathing into that hand,
Using your inhale to push towards the sternum and gently stretching open the front ribs,
And exhale.
Take a deep inhale into the front of the ribcage until your chest pushes into your hand,
And exhale.
Try this again three more times.
It might take a few tries to direct the breath forward.
Now place both of your hands on the sides of the ribs,
If that's available to you,
With your fingers wrapping towards the front of your abdomen and your thumbs pointing back.
Take a deep inhale into the abdomen that pushes your hands apart.
Exhale and let your hands support your ribs to knit back together.
Now slide your hands down to your belly.
See if you can soften the muscles of the belly.
Regardless of your size,
When you soften the muscles,
You should feel a fullness in your hands.
Many of us are socialized to hold this area,
But I invite you to really release your belly as much as possible.
Now take a deep breath all the way down into the lower abdomen,
And exhale to release those muscles even more.
Two more times,
Inhaling into the low belly.
See if you can let your chest be completely still,
And exhale completely.
One last time on your own.
Now we're going to breathe in to the back body.
This takes a little practice,
So don't be discouraged if you find it challenging at first.
It's helpful to place a hand on your chest and a hand on your abdomen as a reference point.
As you breathe in,
Let the chest and abdomen be still as your lungs push back towards your spine and back ribs.
Feeling the space between your back ribs expand to accommodate the breath.
And exhale.
As you inhale,
Feel the muscles between your ribs stretching,
And see if you can take a full breath in without moving your hands at all.
And exhale.
Two more times on your own.
Breathing into the back body,
And exhale.
One more time.
Now let's put it all together.
You might like to leave your hands where they are,
One on the sternum or chest,
And one on your lower belly.
Breathe up into the collarbones,
The neck,
The tops of the shoulders,
And exhale.
Now breathe forward into the chest,
And exhale.
Breathe down towards the low belly,
Inflating the abdomen,
And exhale.
And breathe back towards the spine,
Expanding the back ribs,
And exhale.
And do this cycle twice more on your own.
Breathing up and exhaling.
Breathing forward,
Exhale.
Breathe down and exhale.
Breathe back and exhale.
One more time at your own pace.
Continuing the four-direction breath,
Imagine that the energy of the breath is circulating from the neck,
Forward to the chest,
Down into the belly,
Back up towards the spine,
And up to the throat.
Do three more rounds of the four-direction breath,
Circulating your energy,
Seeing if you can feel the energy move from these different points in your torso,
Seeing if you can feel the energy shifting in the area where you're focusing your breath,
Gently releasing the four-direction pattern,
Just going into a smooth,
Easy breath,
In and out,
Breathing in and out in a natural rhythm as you continue to circulate your energy up your spine on the inhale and down the front of the body to the belly on the exhale,
Inhaling and drawing the energy back up the spine towards the neck,
And exhaling to release it back to the belly.
Three more times on your own.
Now reverse the flow.
Inhale and draw your energy up the front of the body towards the neck,
And exhale,
Let it float down the spine until it rests in the belly and pelvis,
Breathing in and up the front body,
And exhaling down the back body.
A few more times at your own pace.
See if you can allow yourself to really feel that sense of your own vital life force circulating in your body,
Moving in whatever direction feels most natural for you now.
For three more rounds.
When you're ready,
You can allow your breath and your energy to settle,
Returning to your unconscious,
Automatic breathing,
Starting to bring your awareness back into your space,
Becoming more aware of your external environment,
Feeling the air on your skin,
Maybe wiggling your fingers or you can point and flex your feet.
Maybe you give yourself a nice stretch.
Take a deep,
Deep inhale and exhale with the sound.
And if you haven't already,
You can open your eyes and come back to ordinary awareness,
Closing your practice.
