30-Minute Guided Breathing For Deep Calm

This is a simple breathing meditation, intended to ground, re-center and cultivate present moment awareness. Allow yourself to enter a space of nourishing and focused breathing, observing your natural inhalation and exhalation. If the mind wanders, effortlessly come back to an observation of breath, allowing you to feel a strong sense of connection to yourself and all that is.

If you want to learn more about your breath, please check out my 10 day course 'Heal Your Life from the Inside Out'.

Transcript

Come into a comfortable seat,

Perhaps sitting on the floor with your legs crossed,

Or maybe sitting on a chair with your feet rested on the earth.

Whatever position you're in,

Making sure you're comfortable and that you can sit in ease,

In relative stillness,

For the next 30 minutes.

Making sure you have a solid connection between your body and the earth or the chair beneath you.

And from that place of groundedness,

Of centeredness,

Rise up through your spine.

Create space through your body.

And feel as though your shoulders are rested more or less above your hips.

And then invite a softness into your entire body.

Inviting a softness to your mind and a softness to your breath.

Now close your eyes.

When we remain with our eyes closed in our meditations,

It invites in a deeper introspective feel to our experience.

We remove the distraction of sight in order that we can heighten our inner sight,

Our inner vision.

So if it feels safe to do so,

Remain with your eyes closed for the duration of this meditation.

If not,

Just allow for a very soft gaze,

Gazing at a spot just a meter or two in front of you.

We'll begin by three deep cleansing breaths.

Inhaling through the nostrils and emptying out through the mouth.

Two more like that.

Inhale through the nostrils.

Exhale out through the mouth.

One more time.

Inhale through the nostrils.

Exhale out through the mouth.

Letting go of any stress,

Tension,

Holding or anxiety that you've brought with you into this meditation.

Now just simply become aware of the fact that you are breathing.

Awareness of the fact that you are breathing.

And allow your entire body,

Your entire being,

To relax just that little bit more with every single breath that you take.

And now allow your mind to relax by accepting everything that is here in this present moment.

Not resisting anything,

Not pushing anything away and not holding on to anything.

Just simple allowance and acceptance of the present moment.

Now take your awareness to your body.

Just observing any parts of the body that perhaps feel a little tense,

Maybe some restriction,

Maybe some areas of tension or holding.

And any areas that you notice feel a little tense,

Begin to direct your breath into those spaces.

Perhaps you notice tension in your shoulders,

Your jaw,

Maybe your belly,

Maybe your forehead.

Wherever you observe areas of tension,

Just simply direct your breath into those spaces.

Allowing your inhale to create a little more space,

A little more openness and your exhale to gently soften,

Release and relax.

Again every inhale creates space.

With every exhale you allow the tension and holding to gently dissipate.

And effortlessly flow away with every single exhalation.

And if you observe any tension in your mind,

Breathe the energy of your breath into your mind in the same way as we did with tension in the body.

With every inhalation creating space,

Openness and with every exhale we allow that tension to effortlessly flow away.

On the inhalation let your breath flow into areas of tension.

And on your exhalation allow the tension,

The tightness,

The constriction to flow out.

Effortless inhale,

Effortless exhale.

Now bring your awareness to the movement of your breath.

Observing the way that the breath gently draws in through your nostrils,

Filling your lungs and expanding your chest.

And the way that the breath gently empties out of the lungs and back out through the nostrils.

Effortless observation of the movement of your breath.

If you observe that your mind wanders off at any point during this meditation,

It's perfectly normal.

At the point at which you realise your mind has wandered off,

Just effortlessly bring it back to your breath.

Good story,

Without effort just come back to your breath.

Take your awareness to your nostrils,

The space where your breath enters and exits your body.

Notice the gentle brushing of air over your upper lip as you inhale and exhale.

The slight coolness as it draws in and the warmth as it pours out.

There's no right or wrong in the observation of our breath.

We're simply heightening our awareness of our breath,

Observing what exists in this present moment.

Gentle observation of your breath.

When we deepen our relationship to our breath,

We deepen our relationship to ourselves.

So get curious,

Become inquisitive as to the nature of your breath.

Start to notice now the sound that your breath makes,

Noticing the sound of your inhale and the sound of your exhale.

Perhaps both your inhale and your exhale sound similar,

Maybe they sound very different.

Both are completely okay.

Just simply observing the sound of your breath.

Now taking your awareness to the flow of your breath as it draws in and out through the nostrils.

Perhaps you can notice one nostril feels a little more open than the other,

That the breath feels a little fuller through one nostril than the other.

Or perhaps they feel exactly the same.

Just taking your awareness to this.

Now noticing the volume of your entire breath.

Perhaps your breath feels volumous and big and expansive,

Or perhaps it feels wispy and shallow.

Just simply notice,

Without desire for it to be any different than it is right now.

Stop shifting or changing or altering anything in any way,

Just simply observing the breath.

If your mind want's us off,

Just come back to your breath.

Taking your awareness now to the tempo of your breath,

The speed of your breath.

Observing if your breath is fast or slow.

No right or wrong,

No good or bad,

Just observing if whether to you your breath feels fast or slow.

Being aware of the fluidity of your breath.

Notice if your breath feels fluid,

If the inhale seamlessly flows into the exhale,

And if the exhale seamlessly flows into the inhale.

Or perhaps it feels a little jagged around the edges.

Maybe your breath feels a little more textured.

Maybe you can observe an infinitesimal pause at the end of your inhale.

Perhaps there's a momentary pause at the end of your exhale.

Remaining aware to your breath.

Keep coming back to this ever-present life force that exists within you.

When we rest our awareness on the breath,

We're resting our awareness in the present moment.

Now noticing the depth of your breath.

Noticing where your breath begins in your body,

The space that your breath begins.

And observing the space in your body where your breath returns to.

And coming back to your breath.

Now observing the subtle movements of your body as you breathe.

Noticing the gentle rising and falling of your chest with every breath that you take.

Noticing the gentle expansion of your rib cage as you inhale.

And that gentle drawing back to center as you exhale.

You observing the movement of your chest in this way.

Being present to your breath.

Taking your awareness now a little bit deeper.

Hold your belly and begin now to observe the gentle rising and falling of your belly as you breathe.

The gentle rising as you inhale and the softening as you exhale.

Noticing the expansion and the softening.

Just checking in with the sensations in your body if you observe any tension that has crept in during this meditation.

With every exhalation,

Allow it to gently float away.

Bringing your awareness back to your breath.

Simply observing the rising and falling of your belly as you breathe.

Gentle rise as you inhale.

And the softening and falling as you exhale.

Now take your awareness to your entire body and observe the subtleties of movement of your entire body as you breathe.

Feel your whole body,

Your whole being breathing.

Feel the subtle expansion of your whole body as you inhale.

And the softening,

The releasing,

The letting go as you exhale.

Feel that gentle expansion of your entire being as you inhale.

And the softening back to your core,

To your centre as you exhale.

You observing your entire body pulsating with every single breath that you take.

Keep coming back to your breath.

And coming back to your ever present breath.

Observing the way that your body breathes.

Understanding our awareness of breath in order to heighten our awareness of self.

Facing any desires to fix or change anything.

Any desires for the present moment to be any different than what it is.

If you find yourself getting caught up in thought,

That's okay.

Just come back to the breath.

Every time,

Just come back to the breath.

Awareness of your whole body gently expanding as you inhale.

And releasing and softening as you exhale.

Allowing yourself to just be present with your breath.

Awareness that you are breathing.

And then taking five more long,

Slow,

Deep breaths.

Feeling close awareness of each and every breath.

When you get to the end of your last exhalation,

Begin to invite some soft,

Gentle,

Subtle movement into your body.

And in your own time,

When you're ready,

Softly open up your eyes.

Maintaining this sense of calm,

Of groundedness and of scentedness as you continue on with the rest of your day.

Reviews

A lovely practice for full awareness of breath. Thank you for this calming guided experience.

Felt some tremors in my body, otherwise feeling great

I started the meditation feeling very anxious. I finished it almost falling a sleep!! Helped me a lot 🥰

Thank you so much, Rachel, I felt so much sorrow and really needed this. May you be happy, healthy and safe. Namaste.

I loved this. Beautiful confident voice guiding me expertly for 30 minutes of breathing

That softened all the edges, mellowed the mind and left me floating in waves of stillness. No words can explain the serene blissful feeling. I can only be grateful for your soothing guidance. THANK YOU ❤️🙏

Wonderful cadence and beautiful calming voice. I was so calm and relaxed by the end, it was lovely.

Such a beautiful breath meditation. Your soothing voice and the wonderful background music made me less distracted of thoughts than ever before. Thank you.

Bookmarked this one. I enjoyed the pace, subtle music, tone of voice. perfect! Got me very deeply connected to what is, breath, peace, call. Thank you!

Wow, thank you. Very powerful and felt like a blissful fleeting moment. Thank you indeed. 🙏

Excelent gentle practice. Thank you 🙏🏽💚

My daily Meditation to help manage anxiety and insomnia. Gentle voice and perfect pace, best I’ve found.

After more than a year I keep coming back to this beautiful meditation. It is easily my favourite breath-based mindfulness practice. Rachael has a voice made for guiding, and has a talent for matching her pace and intonation to that of the breathing practitioner. Very special.

Beautiful! I feel the presence. Thank you for remember me the beauty of breath 🙏🏻🍃

Lovely calming voice with subtle music. Will come back to this often. 🙏

For a beginner, I found this meditation challenging but very enjoyable at the same time. Thank you!

Excellent breath meditation. I was able to get to a place where I hadn't been in a long time in my meditating. Deeper and more connected. I will definitely do this one again. Thank you 🙏

I think this just saved my life. I was h in a really bad anxiety attack out of nowhere and this session totally soothed me.

This gently guided extended breath meditation led to a deeper centering and relaxation of my breath and body at a time when I needed it. A perfectly calming way to start my day. As always, thank-you for your beautiful meditations...❤️

This was amazing. Utterly amazing. So simple yet so powerful.