In this practice,
We'll be combining belly breathing with extended exhales and some very simple movements of the body.
It's a really powerful way to drop into both the breath and the body together.
Lie on your belly or back,
Whichever feels most comfortable for you.
And if you're lying on your back,
Place your hands on your belly.
And we're going to take three cleansing breaths.
Draw the breath into your belly.
Feel the gentle pressure of your belly expanding out either into the floor if you're lying face down or into your hands if you're lying face up as you breathe in.
And as you breathe out,
Just allow everything to relax and soften.
Do that two more times.
And as you breathe,
Allow for a relaxing through the upper part of your body and really welcome and invite movement into your belly.
So one more time,
Breathing in nice and deeply and breathing out.
And just release,
Pause and notice for a moment.
And if belly breathing feels as though this is as far as you want to go today,
Then just continue this practice of belly breathing for the remainder of this practice.
So now lying on your back,
If you're not already doing so,
And place your feet on the floor.
So your knees are bent and have your arms rest by your side,
Palms facing down.
Take a couple of nice deep breaths here.
Now on your next inhale,
Raise your arms up over your head so they touch the floor behind you.
On your exhale,
Slowly take your arms back by your side.
And continue this for a few breaths,
Sinking breath with movement.
And see if you can start the movement of the arms at the same time your inhale starts.
And touching the back of your hands to the floor above your head as you reach the top of your inhale.
Then as you move back,
Starting the movement back as your exhale starts and touching the palms of your hands beside your hips as you get to the bottom of your exhale.
And continue like this.
Just sinking breath and movement.
Making it as smooth and as rhythmic as you can.
Great.
Now continue this movement.
And I want you to notice how many counts are your inhale and your exhale as you continue with this movement.
So just notice,
For example,
Maybe you're inhaling for three,
Exhaling for three.
Maybe you're inhaling for three,
Exhaling for two.
Whatever it is,
And there's no right or wrong,
Just allow yourself to mentally count your breath now as you breathe in and out,
Staying with that count.
And do this for a few rounds.
So just staying with the count,
But actually allowing yourself to mentally count your breathing.
So now on your next round of breath,
I invite you to extend your exhale by the count of one.
So if your exhale was for two,
See if you can increase it to three and do that for a couple more rounds.
Now maybe you feel like that is as far as your exhale will go today.
And if that's the case,
That's great.
Just continue with that count of breath.
If you feel that you can add one more count to the exhale,
Then please do so.
So we'll do two more rounds just like that.
Inhale takes the arms overhead and the exhale takes them back by the side.
One more round.
And now exhaling,
Releasing the arms back by your side and releasing this pattern of breathing.
And just pause and notice.
Notice how the body feels.
Notice how the breath feels.
