Welcome.
Today I'll be guiding you through some breathwork and meditation.
When people think of yoga,
They often just think about the poses.
But yoga is an eight-limb path to samadhi,
Or pure consciousness.
Poses are only one of the eight limbs.
Two other ones are meditation and breathwork.
Using your breath to control your vital energy or prana is called pranayama.
Breath is the easiest way to train the prana.
You may have found that you've attended a yoga class where you've done breathwork that has not left you feeling calm or balanced.
This happens when the breathwork is too advanced and you have not yet learned how to control the way the energy moves through your body.
Energy or prana moves through many different pathways in your body,
But the ones that we are most familiar with are the chakras.
By using breathwork and meditation,
We can balance the energy in these chakras.
Breathwork can sometimes leave you feeling a little buzzy or floaty,
But that's completely normal.
It will pass.
And if at any time you want to just come back to your basic breath,
Please do.
So I would like to begin sitting in a comfortable position that allows your spine to be straight as I lead us in a grounding meditation.
Allow your eyes to gently close as you settle into your body.
Feel the earth beneath you supporting your body.
Allow your head to flow over your heart,
Your heart over your hips,
Lengthening the spine and relaxing the shoulders back and down.
Here we begin to deepen our breath,
Taking long slow breaths,
Filling your belly with fresh oxygen.
As we slow down our breath,
We begin to notice our senses.
Acknowledge the sounds you're hearing near and far.
Soften the eyes.
Relax the muscles in your face.
Notice how safe,
Supported and loved you are in this moment.
This is a place you can always return to.
It is the calm within the storm.
You can access this simply by focusing on the breath.
Invite your physical body to drop further into the earth.
Feel your connection to earth.
Notice how the earth hugs you and has always been here to support you.
Sense the wisdom of allowing yourself to surrender.
Give over your impulse to control anything now and release to gravity.
Focus on your breathing and allow it to come naturally.
As you sit here,
You see small roots begin to release from your back and dropping deep into the earth.
With each breath,
These roots penetrate deeper and deeper into the earth's surface.
With each exhale,
You release your thoughts,
Your worries.
You release what no longer serves you.
Mother Earth can hold it for you.
Mother Earth can take it and alchemize it into something that you need.
Surrender yourself to a greater source of power and energy that is always looking after you and loves you so fiercely.
Now in your mind's eye,
Look above you and imagine you can see a canopy of leaves protecting you.
Allow the mind to focus on the leaves,
The shapes,
The colors,
The textures.
Surrender your mind.
Imagine that your breath serves to feed the roots,
Your body the trunk of a tree,
Your mind the branches and leaves,
Metaphors for the thoughts that exist from within.
And now fully release.
Surrender.
Rest here for a few moments of silence.
Let's take one more deep inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth with an audible sigh.
With your eyes still closed,
Bring your hands into prayer position at your heart center,
Anjali Mudra.
Thank yourself for showing up today.
I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to guide you through this practice.
Bring your hands resting on your knees and gently flutter the eyes open and look at your surroundings as if you're seeing them for the first time.
Brighter and lighter than they were before.
If you'd like to stop here,
You may or we'll continue on with some breath work.
Today,
We'll be learning how to do the Jaiye Breath.
Breath work always takes practice and we often need to be reminded on a regular basis to come back to our breath.
Jaiye Breath is one of the most well-known types of breath work and promotes general health and well-being.
It detoxifies the body,
Brings more oxygen to the blood and calms and soothes the mind.
It's also known as ocean breath.
It creates a soft ocean-like sound.
To begin with,
We seal our lips and inhale and exhale only through our noses.
The back of the throat constricts,
Which makes the snoring or ocean-like sound almost like you're saying,
Ah.
Try saying,
Ah,
And see what that feels like in your throat.
Now,
I'm going to have you listen to my breath as I take a few inhale and exhales only through my nose,
Sealing my lips.
And you can hear a sah on the inhale and a hah on the exhale.
Now,
I want you to try it a few times,
Sealing your lips,
Breathing only through the nose.
Inhale while constricting the throat.
Exhale.
Continue to practice.
If this does not feel comfortable for you,
You can just stick to your basic inhale and exhale through the nose.
I want you to lengthen up through the spine and melt the shoulders down the back.
Gently close the eyes or have a soft gaze about four feet in front of you.
Make sure that your chin is slightly tucked and not jutting forward.
And we will prepare for our pranayama breath work together.
So let's begin with sealing our lips and constricting our throats.
We will close our eyes and practice the ujjayi breath for five rounds of breath on my count.
So breathing in two,
Three,
Four,
Out two,
Three,
Four,
In two,
Three,
Four,
Out two,
Three,
Four,
In two,
Three,
Four,
Out two,
Three,
Four,
In two,
Three,
Four,
Out two,
Three,
Four.
On this next inhale,
Deeply inhale through the nose and exhale out the mouth.
You can gently flutter your eyes open when you're ready.
Just give it a moment if you're feeling a little buzzy or lightheaded.
Take a sip of water,
Or eat a piece of chocolate.
And I hope that you can continue to come back to the state of peace and calm.
Namaste my friends.
