Bone Breathing For The Tired

When you're past tired, the usual relaxation cues don't reach you. Your nervous system needs something slower and quieter. This is a 15-minute bone breathing practice you do lying down, working through the bones of your body from feet to skull, breathing into them like sponges that have been holding too much for too long. No qigong stance, no effort. Just the weight of your skeleton dropping into the floor, and a slow internal cleaning of the marrow with each breath. Good for late afternoon, before a nap, or any moment you need to come back to yourself without having to perform recovery. If you've been pushing for weeks or months, come back to this one as often as you need to.

Transcript

Welcome. So to begin, I invite you to lie down on your back. And take some time to get comfortable. You might like to place a pillow under your knees. If that's something that would support your lower back. Maybe grab a blanket if you tend to get cold. And let the floor or the bed hold you completely. You don't have to hold any of yourself up for the next few minutes. So notice the weight of you. Back of your head against whatever's underneath it. Shoulder blades. The base of your spine. The back of your heels. Maybe you're tired. Maybe that's why you're here. So we're not going to pretend you're going to do anything else. We're just going to breathe and bring some attention to the bones underneath the soft tissue. Nothing more. Take a breath in through your nose. Slowly letting it land in your belly. And a long breath out through your nose or your mouth, Whichever feels easier. Again in through the nose, Let the belly rise Out slow, Let the body get heavier. And one more like that, Make it the easiest breath you've taken all day. And now bring your attention down to your face. The bones in your feet, Not the muscles or the skin. The little bones, 26 in each foot, Toes, Arch, Heel, And imagine those bones as porous, Like a dried sponge. Light and hollow, Ready to receive. As you breathe in, Imagine the breath reaching all the way down to those bones, Filling the spaces inside them. And as you breathe out imagine the bones letting go of something ears of standing, Walking, Holding you up. Let them rest. And now move into the shin bones and the bones around the ankle tibia, Fibula, Long bones, Sturdy. The ones that carry your weight every day. Breathe in slow, Feel the breath reaching down into them. Breathe out and let them soften. You're not trying to make anything happen Now the femurs, The thigh bones, The largest bones in your body. They hold a lot of marrow, Which is the part of the bone that makes your blood. If you've been depleted this is one of the places we want to send attention. So breathe in slow and feel the breath reaching into the long hollow centers of those bones. Breathe out, Let them rest in the floor. And stay with the femur for a few breaths. They're big bones, They appreciate the attention. Now the pelvis. The hip bones, The sitting bones, The sacrum at the base of your spine. This is the bowl your insides sit in. It carries a lot. If you've been holding your guts in for years, Your pelvis knows so breathe in and let the breath fill the bowl Breathe out and let the ball get heavier into the ground. And you might notice some tension here, The hip flexors, The lower belly. Just let it be there. You're not trying to fix it or change it. You're breathing into the bones underneath it. Now bring attention to the spine, Starting at the lower back, The lumbar. Number vertebrae, Five of them stacked above the sacrum. As you breathe in imagine you can fill each of those little bones with breath As you breathe out, Let them release. Move up to the middle of the back, The thoracic vertebrae. The ones the ribs connect to, 12 of them. Take a slow breath in. Slow breath out. Now the neck, The cervical vertebrae. Seven small ones holding up your skull all day. Let them rest into the pillow or the floor. Slow breath in. Slow breath out. Slow breath in. Slow breath out. And now the ribcage, The ribs around your heart and lungs. Breathe in and feel the ribs move out and up, Not forced, Just allowing. Breathe out and feel them settle back in. Few breaths here, Just feeling the ribs as bones, Not as walls, Bones that can soften Now the shoulder blades, They float on the back of your ribcage. And most of us hold them like they're carrying something. Let them get heavier into the floor. Collarbones. The bones of the upper arm. Down through the elbows. Forearms. Into the wrists Breathing in, Feel the breath traveling out through the arm bones all the way to the fingertips. Breathe out, Letting the arms drop heavier than they were a minute ago. And finally the skull, The bones of the face, The jaw. Base of the skull where it meets the neck. Breathe in and feel the breath reach all the way up. And breathe out letting the jaw fall, Letting the back of the head be heavy and now feel all of the bones at once, Feet, Legs, Pelvis, Spine, Ribs, Arms, Skull, The whole skeleton Breathe in slow and let every bone in your body receive a bit of breath. Breathe out and let everything settle deeper into the ground. You don't have to track each part anymore. Just feel yourself as a skeleton lying down, Breathing slow. Take a couple of more deep breaths here. In in. In. And perhaps you feel a little different now. Or maybe it's subtle. Your bones are a little more available now than they were when you lay down. The marrow is the part of you that makes new blood. So when you let it rest like this you're letting your body do some of its actual repair work. Stay here as long as you need to. If you fall asleep that's fine If you've got to get up, Take your time about it. When you're ready, Roll onto one side. And let your body come up gradually. I'll see you on the next one.