Maha Yoga Pranayama - Complete Breath
This 3-part breath will help you to utilise your entire lung capacity, oxygenating all of the cells in your body whilst giving your mind a single point to focus on. This breathing meditation is wonderful to help improve sleep, reduce stress & stay present.
Transcript
So let's begin by making sure we're in a warm and comfortable position,
Lying down using a blanket over the body if we need to,
Allowing our head to relax on a cushion or simply just down to the floor.
And let's begin just by allowing our eyes to close down,
Bringing our awareness within and noticing how you feel.
Becoming aware of any sensations that you may be experiencing within your muscles or your skin.
Connecting with the energy field that surrounds your physical body.
Quietly observing as your thoughts just gently drift on by like passing clouds.
No need to analyse them,
To go into them,
Just allowing them to pass on by.
Bring your awareness to your breath.
How are you breathing?
Where are you breathing?
Now you may be feeling your breath up around your collarbones or perhaps down in the rib cage,
Maybe even down in the belly.
How does the breath feel as it moves its way throughout your body?
Does it feel short,
Fast or tense?
Or does it feel long,
Slow and deep?
Without trying to force your breath to be anywhere in this moment,
Just kindly observe,
Breathing naturally.
Allowing yourself to really settle into the space that you're in.
Letting go of any pressure,
Any expectations,
Allowing yourself to just simply be.
As you continue to notice your body,
As you continue to notice your breath,
Give yourself permission to completely relax from head to toe.
And then when you're ready,
Let's start to bring both palms just resting on the lower belly,
Around the navel.
Making sure that the arms are at a comfortable distance apart so it doesn't feel as if you're forcing anything.
And to begin with,
We're just going to start by breathing down into our belly.
So as you begin to inhale your next breath through the nose,
Breathe down into the belly.
Start to feel your belly rising and expanding towards the sky.
Imagining that a nice big balloon of air is filling up as you breathe in.
And when you're ready,
As you exhale,
Release that breath slowly and naturally from the nose.
And as you do,
Feel your belly releasing and softening.
Again,
As you inhale,
Breathe down into the belly.
Feel it rise and expand and lift towards the sky just like that big balloon of air.
When you're ready,
As you exhale,
Slowly,
Naturally release that breath.
Feel that belly relaxing,
Softening.
Now continuing here,
We're adding in a counting system.
So if you'd like to follow the counting system,
Inhale your next breath into the belly to the count of four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhale to the belly four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhale down into that belly four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Last breath.
Inhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Wonderful work.
Well done.
Just allow your arms to rest down alongside the body,
Keeping your eyes closed,
Your focus within.
Allow your breath to return to natural and notice how you feel.
When we're ready,
Let's start to just rest our palms now on the rib cage,
Just beneath your breastbone,
One on either side.
Again,
Just making sure that the arms are at a comfortable distance apart,
Not forcing anything here.
I'm going to practice the exact same style of breathing here,
But this time as you inhale,
You'll start to feel the rib cage expanding outward.
And as you exhale,
You'll feel the rib cage release and relax.
We're really trying to isolate that breath only to the rib cage here,
If you can.
So when we're ready,
Let's inhale down into the rib cage.
Start to feel that breath expanding through the lungs,
Coming out to the side of the body,
Pausing for a moment before exhaling slowly and naturally,
Feeling the rib cage release and let go.
Again,
As you inhale,
Breathe into that rib cage,
Feel that expansion in the side of the body,
Pausing for as long as you need before exhaling slowly,
Naturally.
If you would like to use that counting system,
As you inhale,
Breathe in to the count of 4,
3,
2,
1.
Pause 4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Inhale to the rib cage 4,
3,
2,
1.
Pause 4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Inhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Pause 4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Inhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Pause 4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Last breath.
Inhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Pause 4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Again,
Let's allow the arms to just gently rest alongside the body,
Keeping the eyes closed and the focus within.
That breath is returning to natural and just noticing how you feel.
Now.
When we're ready,
We'll start to just bring the palms now up into the upper chest region,
So either above the breast or to the collar bones,
Wherever is more comfortable for you,
One on either side.
And here we're going to practice breathing into the upper chest.
But this part of the body can't actually store as much breath as the ribcage or the belly.
So we won't need to inhale or exhale for as long here.
So we're going to halve the breath.
Only inhaling for two,
Holding for two and exhaling for two.
We only need to do a few of these because this part of the lungs isn't really capable of holding too much breath.
And in fact,
This is where we practice a lot of our anxious,
Stressed and angry breathing.
So when we're ready.
Let's inhale into the upper chest.
Starting to feel the collar bones rising,
Lifting towards the sky.
Pausing for a moment or two before exhaling slowly and naturally.
Again,
When you're ready,
As you inhale,
Breathe into the collar bones,
Feel them rise and expand towards the sky.
Pause for a moment before exhaling slowly and naturally.
If you'd like to use that counting system,
Let's inhale to the count of two.
One.
Pause.
Two.
One.
Exhale.
Two.
One.
Inhale.
Two.
One.
Pause.
Two.
One.
Exhale.
Two.
One.
Inhale.
Two.
One.
Pause.
Two.
One.
Exhale.
Two.
One.
Inhale.
Two.
One.
Pause.
Two.
One.
Exhale.
Two.
One.
Last breath.
We'll inhale for two.
One.
Pause.
Two.
One.
Exhale.
Two.
One.
Wonderful work.
Well done.
Just allow your arms to rest back down alongside the body.
Eyes are closed.
Focus within.
Allowing your breath to return to natural and notice how you feel.
Now we've practiced those three individual breaths through the belly,
The ribcage and the collarbones.
Now we're going to put those three breaths into one big continuous breath.
Mahayoga pranayama,
Which simply translates into a yogic complete breath.
So you can bring one palm to your belly and the other palm back to the ribcage right underneath that breastbone.
And to begin with,
We're going to breathe down into the belly just like we did before,
Feeling it rising and expanding towards the sky.
But then we're going to continue to lift the breath up into the ribcage,
Feeling it expand out to the side.
And then you'll continue to lift that breath a little bit higher up into the collarbones,
Feeling them rise towards the sky.
We'll pause holding the breath in for four before exhaling slowly and naturally.
And this is quite a big breath.
And if at any stage you feel the need to inhale or exhale before the count,
Please feel free to do so.
I'll only be counting as we hold the breath in,
But I will be guiding us through this.
So just to prepare ourselves,
Let's inhale a natural breath through the nose just to prepare.
And then we'll exhale to prepare.
And when we're ready,
Let's begin.
Let's inhale deep into the belly.
Start to feel that belly rise and expand with the breath.
Continue to lift the breath up into the ribcage and feel that breath expanding out into the side of the body,
The side of the lungs.
Inhale that little bit higher now up into the collarbones,
Feeling them lift up towards the sky.
Holding that breath in to the count of four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale slowly and naturally.
And when we're ready,
Inhale down into the belly.
Start to feel the belly rise and expand,
Lifting the breath that little bit higher now coming into the ribcage.
Feel that expansion in the side of the lungs,
The side of your body.
And as you inhale,
Lift that breath a little bit higher now come up into the collarbones.
Feel them lifting up towards the sky with that inhalation.
Pausing.
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale slowly.
Naturally.
When we're ready,
Let's inhale that nice deep breath down into the belly.
Feel it rising,
Expanding.
Lifting that breath up into the ribcage.
Feel that breath expanding out into the side body,
Into the lungs.
Inhale that little bit further as you lift the breath up into the collarbones.
Pausing.
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale slowly.
Naturally.
Let's inhale down into the belly.
Feel the breath rising up into the ribcage,
That expansion outward.
Breathe into the collarbones,
Feel them rising towards the sky.
Pausing.
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale slowly.
Naturally.
When you're ready,
Inhale to the belly.
Feel it rise,
Expand.
Breathe up into the ribcage.
Lift that breath a little bit higher towards the collarbones.
Pausing.
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale slowly and naturally.
Again when you're ready,
Inhale down into the belly.
Breathing into the ribcage.
Lifting the breath to the collarbones.
Pausing.
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale slowly.
Naturally.
And just continue this breath now at your own pace.
Use that counting system if you need.
But follow that breath with your awareness.
Through every inhalation.
Through every pause.
Through every exhalation.
Breathing into the ribcage.
And breathing into the ribcage.
Breathing into the ribcage.
And then your own time just do one more complete breath one more inhalation one more exhalation once you've exhaled completely rest the arms alongside the body keeping the eyes closed and the focus within allowing your breath to return to natural and notice how you feel become aware of your body become aware of your breath does it feel different from when we first started?
Perhaps there's an evenness in the breath maybe you can feel it descending deeper down into the belly now or perhaps your entire body is completely relaxed but whatever you feel just kindly observe and breathe
