Breathing To Balance: Pranayama For Sleep & Wellness

Discover the harmonising power of the Tibetan Rhythm Pranayama in this guided session. Starting with a brief discussion on its benefits, drawn from a recent Insight Timer Live session, you'll gain insight into how this practice promotes harmony and balance which leads to better sleep. Delve into a step-by-step breakdown, understanding the unique hand gestures and rhythmic breathing that define this practice. Embody the practice itself, spending dedicated time on alternating nostril breathing, cultivating inner balance. Experience the union of breath, mindfulness, and relaxation as you embark on this journey to enhance your overall well-being.

Transcript

So welcome welcome everyone my name is Rachel and I am really excited to share this practice with you.

One thing that I wanted to share about this practice is it's from the Tibetan tantric tradition so it's got a little bit of a different flavor to it but it's part of the suite of tantric practices which is all about you know using the body to free ourselves of limitations of the body.

So when we do these kinds of practices which involve breath and mudra,

Mudras are gestures and they're gestures which help to calm the mind and the emotions.

When we work with gesture in our breathing practice it's like we're bringing our mind into that one pointed focus so whenever we work with movement it helps to well it helps with all sorts of things like anxiety and depression and you know stimulating our brain and all of that but it also helps calm the mind and the Tibetan pranayama works with left side of the body and right side of the body and as it does that it works with our sympathetic and our parasympathetic nervous system.

So when we're working with the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system we're working with left and right sides of the brain and we're bringing ourselves into balance so that's why I call it a balancing pranayama.

We're also working with sun energy and moon energy so sun energy is our dynamic force and moon energy is our calming our restorative force.

This pranayama also because it works with movement and raising the arms and I'll explain the pranayama in a moment,

It gets into the glandular system so it's really great for elimination and detoxification and letting go so there's just so many beautiful benefits to this pranayama and it's also because it's an alternate nostril pranayama and so we move air through one side and through the other side it's also really great if you've got like blockages in your nose and things like that it gives you an alternative and I'll also give an alternative for people who maybe do have that nasal blockage and it's not comfortable to exhale through one side or the other.

I'm going to give you an option as well.

So let's find ourselves a very comfortable seat.

It could be on a chair.

You could do this practice lying down but it might be a bit challenging.

You could do this on a wall but then you would be sort of scooping your arms along the wall.

So let's just start with a little bit of connection with left and right sides and of the body and this is from some somatic work.

So you're just going to raise your right arm and slide your hand down your face,

Over your nose,

Over your neck,

Over your chest,

Over your belly,

Down to your pubic bone and then if you can down across your thigh and then you're going to raise the other arm and just bring the hand to the forehead,

Over the nose,

Over the mouth,

Over the throat.

It's like a very gentle intimate caress of your body over your thigh and we'll do this a few times.

So you're just taking your hand to the top of your head,

Over your nose,

Over your mouth,

Over your throat and for those of you who are familiar with the meridians,

The meridian system,

It's like we're moving through that governing vessel,

Right?

So we're just going over that central channel and reminding ourselves that the energy,

We want the energy to rest in the center line of the body.

So we'll just do a few of those.

Just hand to the forehead,

Over the nose,

Over the chin,

Over the throat,

Down the front of the body.

Just going as far as you can over your knee and your thigh and changing sides,

Front of the face,

Over the throat and just notice how that feels.

It might feel quite comforting just to connect with this process of sending energy down to the ground through the governing vessel.

You might even say from yogic terms this is Sushumna Nadi,

The central channel.

Just feeling that energy flowing down and we'll just do two more.

Connecting with your body,

Feeling in your body as you're flowing that energy down,

Keeping contact with your hand,

To your face,

Over your thigh.

For some of us it's evening,

For some of us it's morning.

I'm here in Byron Bay,

Australia,

Coming from Bundjalung country,

The Arakwal nation and just as I do this I want to pay my respects to the elders,

The past,

The present and the emerging.

All right and then just relax your hands down.

So we're going to start with our left hand and you're going to raise your left arm up.

Now when you raise your left arm up you're going to bring your thumb and index finger together and this is Gyan Mudra and whenever you come into this position it's the thumb is representing oneness or wholeness and the index finger represents the human being,

The individuality and so when we bring the thumb to the index finger we're symbolically remembering the nature of who we are,

That wholeness or that oneness.

So when we do the practice we're going to raise the arm up,

We're going to come into this mudra and turn the palm to face outwards and that middle finger is going to come to your nostril and then you're going to lower your elbow and breathe out through the opposite nostril.

All right so we're going to sit comfortably and you're going to raise your left arm up,

You can keep your eyes open for now,

Bring your thumb and index finger together and turn your palm to face outwards and press your left middle finger into your left nostril.

As you exhale lower your elbow and breathe out through the opposite nostril and then place your hand down on your thigh.

Inhale,

Raise the right arm up,

Bring the thumb and index finger together,

Turn the palm to face outwards,

Press your middle finger into your right nostril,

Lower your elbow and breathe out through your left nostril.

Breathing in,

Raising your left arm up,

Big breath,

Bring your middle finger to your left nostril,

Breathe out through your right nostril and lower your elbow.

Now you're going hopefully at your own pace right?

You don't have to go at my pace if it's not comfortable or you can go faster.

So you're going to raise your right arm up,

Bring your middle finger to your right nostril,

Your elbows out to the side and then you breathe out through the opposite nostril as you lower your elbow.

Okay,

So let's just do another round.

So breathing in and you can lift right up,

Really stretching into the armpit,

Turning that palm to face outwards,

Breathing out through the opposite nostril and letting your hand come down and then raising the other arm up,

Big breath,

Closing off that nostril,

Lowering the elbow,

Breathing out through the opposite nostril and letting your hand come down.

Breathing in,

Big breath,

Opening up that armpit,

Middle finger to the left nostril,

Breathing out through the right nostril and lowering your elbow down and big breath,

Raising the other arm up,

Middle finger to the nostril,

Breathing out through the opposite nostril as you lower your elbow down.

All right,

Now close the eyes and feel into this.

Raising the arm up,

At the top of the inhalation,

You're going to press that finger into the nostril,

Lowering the elbow as you breathe out through the opposite nostril,

Letting your hand come down,

Palm facing upwards,

Raising the other arm up,

Middle finger to the nostril,

Lowering the elbow,

Breathing out through the opposite nostril,

Letting your hand come down,

Breathing in,

Big breath,

Feel the breath,

Filling the chest,

Pressing the fingertip into the nostril,

Breathing out through the opposite nostril,

Letting the hand come down,

Breathing in,

Big breath,

Middle finger to the nostril,

Lowering the elbow,

Breathing out through the opposite nostril.

Now if you're ready and if you feel comfortable,

Imagine that as you're breathing in through the left nostril,

You're breathing in silver moonlight,

You're holding,

Pressing that thumb against the nostril and breathing out through the right nostril,

Breathing out silver moonlight and lowering the hand down and then you're breathing in through the right nostril,

Bringing the middle finger to the nostril,

Lowering the elbow,

Breathing out gold and sunlight.

So you're going to breathe in silver moonlight through that left side,

Bring your finger to your nostril,

Breathing out silver moonlight,

Lowering the hand down,

Now you're going to breathe in gold and sunlight,

Closing the nostril,

Breathing out through the opposite nostril,

Breathing out gold and sunlight.

So if it feels comfortable to add the image,

Go ahead but if it doesn't,

Just go back to flow and on the breath.

Now if you're really blocked in your nostrils and you're finding this part really challenging to do the exhalation,

Don't close the nostril,

Just keep the arms moving and rather than pressing and closing the nostril,

Just keep it open and breathe out through both nostrils as you lower your hand down.

So you can just do the mudra and just raise your hand across your nostril but you're breathing out through both nostrils and if you're comfortable with doing the visualization,

You can add that visualization.

So you're still breathing in gold and sunlight and you're breathing out through both nostrils as you lower the arm back down.

Then you're breathing in silver moonlight and rather than closing the nostril,

You're just coming into the mudra and bringing the hand down.

So just whatever variation,

Hopefully that's clear enough,

Feels good to you to follow through with the practice.

Either we're breathing in at the top of the inhalation,

We bend the elbow,

Close the nostril,

Breathe out through the opposite nostril,

Letting the hand release and then again raising the arm,

Bringing that middle finger to the nostril,

Lowering the elbow and breathing out through the opposite nostril.

Keep going,

Breathing in,

Closing the nostril,

Breathing out,

Lowering the hand,

Breathing in,

Closing the nostril and we're going to do a few more just in our own timing.

I'm not going to call it,

I just want you to move into that internal space flowing on your own breath,

Just noticing how it feels in your body.

Practice puts a bit in rhythm.

All right,

We're going to do two more,

Starting with the left side,

Breathing in,

Closing that nostril,

Breathing out,

Again raising the other arm,

Breathing in,

Closing that nostril and breathing out and then bring your hand down.

Close your eyes now and just notice where your energy is resting.

Maybe you can feel it in the center of your spine,

Maybe you notice it around,

Maybe you feel the energy right down in the base of the spine.

Wherever you notice your attention resting,

Just bring your breath there,

Just be present and notice any sensations.

If there's an awareness that moves into the center of the body,

Just let your awareness rest there,

Having a sense maybe of energy floating in between the two lobes of the brain and the corpus callosum,

The area that connects the two sides,

Pure harmony,

Pure balance.

Direct your breath into your belly,

See if you can take some deep belly breaths,

Maybe you want to put your hands on your belly and maybe make some circles around and maybe just rubbing your hands over your arms and into and then just rubbing your hands a little bit again,

Some nice little somatic exhalation,

That very simple pranayama.

Maybe you want to rub your hands over your face and back of the neck and around the body,

Down the legs,

You can reach down to your feet,

You might like to even massage your feet.

If you're sitting on a chair,

You can rub your hands down your legs to your feet and welcome back.

Reviews

Feeling relaxed, refreshed and tuned in to my body. Thank you Rachel.