Lakeside Reflection With Pranayama

Imagine yourself by a still lake, its surface soft and glass-like, reflecting the quiet of the world around you. In this meditation, each pebble that touches the water becomes a gentle reminder of life’s ripples, moments that expand, shift, and eventually return to calm. As you breathe, allow these ripples to settle, and feel yourself ease into the steady rhythm beneath life’s movement.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to this meditation.

Today we are exploring the witness consciousness.

With that in mind let's find ourselves in a comfortable position.

So either seated on the ground,

Maybe on a bolster or a cushion,

Cross-legged or in hero's pose,

Spine is stacked,

Chin is in and shoulders are relaxed.

Or if you are lying on the ground just make sure that you are in a spot that you can be in for a while,

Just wiggling the body around so that you can get really comfortable there.

Let's take a couple of moments here to set yourself up.

And once you're there I'll invite you to deepen your breath,

Bringing the attention into the breath.

Notice how you're breathing today,

How it feels in your body today.

Notice if this is the first time that you've been by yourself today or you've given yourself any attention because you've been busy doing other things.

Now we'll move through to pranayama practices.

And you can either come along with me during these practices or you can just keep to the count of the breath.

It's completely up to you.

The reason they're offered as part of the meditation is because they help us fully relax.

So firstly we'll start by just breathing deeply into the belly.

And let's switch to nasal breathing.

So you're just breathing in and out of the nose,

Nice and deeply into your belly.

With your exhale,

Just notice as the body starts to weigh heavier with your exhale.

And the belly and the chest rise and fall,

Creating this flow of movement in and out of the body.

And just stay with this simple breathing just for a few more moments.

As you communicate through breath to your central nervous system that it's okay to rest and relax here.

There's nothing to do in meditation,

Just an invitation to follow some instructions.

Nothing more,

Nothing less.

Just notice if this simple awareness on the breath has allowed for your body to soften.

And just take your awareness and your attention to all the corners of your body.

And notice if there's anywhere that is holding on.

Maybe you hold tension in the feet,

Or in the hips,

The glutes,

The shoulders.

Maybe you hold tension in your jaw.

Wherever it is for you,

We're all different.

Just soften there now.

And maybe take your breath there.

Imagine that you're breathing space into that area of tension as it starts to melt away.

Now,

As with all meditations,

Our minds do tend to wander.

So if your mind does wander during this practice,

Just don't be critical of that,

And just gently nudge it back to the breath.

All our thoughts will always be waiting for us after a practice,

But we owe it to ourselves to honour the time and the space that we find for meditation.

So just with kindness and compassion,

Just nudging the mind back to your breath and every time a thought tries to distract you.

Let's move into our first Pranayama practice.

I'm just going to breathe in and out for a count of four,

Six,

And four.

So just exhaling wherever you are in your breath cycle,

And let's inhale together for a count,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Just hold at the top for a moment,

And then exhale for six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pause.

Exhale,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pause.

Exhale,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pause.

Exhale,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pause.

Exhale,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Pause.

Exhale,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Now return to your natural.

And with any breathing practice,

Extending the exhale really helps our central nervous system come in to calm,

To soften,

And to be at ease.

Our next pranayama is called Brahmari,

Or Humming Bee.

Now I can't hear you,

But you can hear me.

So the way that it works is we inhale through the nose,

And then we hum out through the nose with our exhale.

Now everybody's lung capacity is different.

So if my humming bee is longer or shorter than yours,

That is okay.

I'm going to do this for four rounds.

You just keep going until I stop.

My breaths might be slightly longer than yours.

Maybe they're shorter than yours.

Just keep going.

You don't have to wait for me to restart the cycle.

You just,

When you need to inhale again,

You inhale through the nose.

And then when you need to exhale again,

You exhale humming through the nose.

And you'll notice that the sound that your humming bee makes is the vibration that your body needs today.

So let's start off together and see how we go.

So inhaling in through the nose,

Exhaling to prepare.

Let's begin.

Finding your natural stopping point.

Letting the vibrations of your Brahmari practice resonate through every cell in your body.

Sankalpa for today's practice is letting go.

And this is a topic that many of us explore but sometimes struggle with.

So I'm going to walk you through a visualization.

And I invite you to be curious and whatever shows up in your imagination is what you need to see today.

I will try my best to paint a picture for you that you can conjure up in your mind.

And then I will leave you in a few moments of silence.

And then I will bring you back at the end of the practice so that you know that your time in meditation is finished.

Let's begin.

Imagine yourself standing at the edge of a lake.

Now this lake can be somewhere that you know,

It can be somewhere from your memory,

Or it can be somewhere that you create with me right here right now.

I'm going to start to build a picture of this lake and it's surrounded by grassland.

How big is the lake?

How still is the water?

Is it a sunny day?

Are you alone here at this lake?

I'm going to start to build a picture of this lake before you.

And you are stood firmly and safely on the edge of this lake.

And know that whatever this place looks like is exactly how it's supposed to look for you today.

Looking into the lake,

Let's notice the color of the water.

Is the water still like a mirror or are there some gentle movements?

Does it feel peaceful here?

Is there anything else that you can add to this lake that would make it feel more peaceful?

Maybe a willow tree in the distance,

Maybe some birds singing nearby.

What are the edges of this lake like?

Is there grass,

Pebbles or sand?

As you start to build this picture in your mind's eye,

Notice the details.

Is there a soft breeze?

Does the water make a sound as it touches the edge of the lake?

While you're stood here,

What does the air feel like on your skin?

And does the ground feel solid beneath you?

Does the sun kiss your face and do you feel lightness in your body here?

Let's breathe it all in.

The nature,

The peacefulness of it all,

Just you and this beautiful lake.

You're standing in the stillness at the edge of the lake marveling at its natural beauty.

You're unaware of its origin or its story but you're in awe of its presence nonetheless.

And you pick up a nearby stone.

It's a small pebble-shaped stone that fits neatly in the palm of your hand.

It has smooth edges as if all of its roughness has been worn away over time by the gentle force of the nature and the water that you stand on.

And clutching this pebble,

You trace the edges of it with your fingers,

Curious about its age and how it has come not to be just in this shape but in this time in your hand.

You throw the pebble into the lake and as it flies through the sky it seems to glide invisibly through the air.

Then dropping into the lake it creates ripples.

These ripples start at the point of entry and gradually widen and soften as they find their way back to you standing on the edge of the lake.

You watch the movement of the water,

Exploring the distance between each ripple and watching it widen and settle at the same time,

Knowing instinctively that eventually this disturbance in the water will settle like it was when you arrived and that these ripples are temporary,

Maybe an expression of the ebbs and flow of life.

The ripples soften as they get closer to you and their impact on the water surface is fading.

The pebble now likely at the bottom of the lake.

As the water stills,

The pebble is amongst the others beneath the surface,

Indistinguishable from any of the others that lay there.

It appears as if it's always been there but you know that it hasn't.

You notice the water stills.

You too are still,

Watching this movement start and the end has soothed you.

You repeat it,

This time throwing two pebbles into the lake.

Not together,

You are curious to see the pattern they create if they fall close to one another but not together.

The ripples appear to overlap one another,

Causing the water to move in additional directions.

It still has a pattern but it's harder to follow.

The water moves in unpredictable ways,

Each pebble's ripple finding its way towards one another before joining and journeying to the lake's edge.

As they expand,

Join and expand again,

Their combined pattern emerges.

The stillness is still appearing but it takes longer this time to settle.

The water having many different directions to go in before finding its way to the edge of the lake.

You realize that sometimes life can be like the pebbles,

Everything is easier if you focus on one pebble at a time.

Only one ripple to watch,

To notice,

To find stillness or resolve.

You repeat this one more time,

Taking a single pebble and throwing it further than all of the others.

Its ripples begin like the others,

Now they have further to travel towards you where you stand and as you watch them expand one by one,

Wider and wider,

You imagine that each ripple is something you are holding on to and as it finds its way to the edge of the lake it is somehow released,

You have let go of something with this ripple.

The body feels lighter and your shoulders have moved further away from your ears,

The space you found in between the ripples has been felt in you and the disturbance to the water finds its way to still as you have,

Every ripple symbolizing something that you have let go of,

Every moment of stillness in the water representing some reprieve and some pause.

You watch as every ripple makes its way to the edge,

Helping you let go of something with each ripple and breathe here,

Enjoying this space that you found within yourself,

Watching the ripples in your body,

Your mind and your heart settle into stillness.

This is where I leave you in some quiet for just a few moments as you continue to explore the pebbles,

The water and the ripples and their journey to stillness and how they represent the ebbs and flows of life and that every day has a ripple or a crease or a moment.

Stay here at the lake,

I'll come and find you shortly.

And then from the edge of the lake,

You'll plant your feet into the ground beneath you,

Just finding a moment here to capture this place that you've created for yourself.

And with your feet grounded,

You can start to deepen your breath,

Bringing your attention back into the body from the feet,

Up into the legs and the hips and the chest and the shoulders and the head,

And taking the breath deeply into the belly.

And we notice as we come back to our body,

The place that we've created slowly fades away.

Knowing that you can create places like this at any time that you need to,

Any time you need to go somewhere to help let go of something,

There is always the invitation to come back.

As you start to deepen your breath further,

I invite you to take one hand on your heart with the other over the top.

And as you breathe deeply into the palms of your hands,

Just acknowledge that you're here and that you've found this time for yourself.

To look inward and be curious about what shows up.

And taking some gratitude to yourself and all that it means to be here,

Just you in your meditation practice.

And I thank you for joining me.

I hope that wherever you went,

Brought you a sense of peace.

Namaste.