Meditation to Improve Relationships

This is the full recording of my guided weekly meditation practice. The practice is suitable for anyone who wants to build better relationships with people, be compassionate, manage emotions like anger. The first fifteen or so minutes focusses on helping you do deep abdominal breathing, alternate nostril breathing and then leads you into the anahata chakra meditation.

Transcript

Okay,

All right,

Let's start.

Good morning and welcome to this deep breathing and meditation practice.

The first few minutes we will do deep breathing.

Settle down with your back and neck straight.

Close your eyes.

And breathe in as deeply as you can.

As you breathe in,

Imagine the lungs are divided into three parts.

The bottom,

Mid and the top parts.

So as you breathe in,

Breathe into the bottom part.

Push your diaphragm down.

Your tummy away from your spine.

Continue breathing in to the mid and top parts.

Expand your chest and then gently breathe out.

Expelling air from your top,

Mid and the bottom parts.

Do it gently,

Slowly and in a smooth way.

Without holding the breath in your lungs.

As you breathe in,

Feel your diaphragm going down.

Your stomach going away from your spine.

Your chest expanding.

And as you breathe out,

Feel your chest collapsing.

Your diaphragm coming back and your tummy going back towards your spine.

Slowly,

Smoothly without holding your breath in your lungs.

There are two aspects to deep breathing.

One is the physical aspect.

Which is what you're doing right now.

Looking at how your lungs and chest are expanding.

Your diaphragm is going down.

Your tummy going away from your spine and the reverse when you're breathing out.

Introduce the mental aspect to deep breathing.

Now as you breathe in,

Imagine that the universal energy,

The abundant universal energy,

Is entering your body with every breath.

And as you breathe out,

Imagine you are throwing away diseases,

Negative thought,

Wrong notions back into the universe.

In and out,

Deeply,

Slowly,

Without holding your breath.

Smoothly.

Take a break whenever you'd like to.

And continue for a few more minutes.

In a minute we'll switch to alternate nostril breathing.

If you'd like to take a break now,

Take a break.

Keep your eyes closed.

And gently get your attention to your breath.

Now we'll switch to alternate nostril breathing.

We'll start breathing in through the left by blocking your right nostril.

And breathing out through the right by blocking the left nostril.

Then we breathe in through the right and breathe out through the left.

That's one cycle.

The instructions for breathing in and breathing out are exactly the same like in deep breathing.

Except that we breathe in and out through alternate nostrils.

Breathe in,

Out slowly,

Deeply.

And as you breathe in and out,

Remember the two aspects to breathing.

The physical aspect and the mental aspect.

The physical aspect where you imagine your lungs are three parts,

Bottom,

Mid and top.

Your diaphragm is going down as you breathe in.

Your tummy is going away from your spine.

Your chest is expanding and as you breathe out,

Your chest is collapsing.

Your diaphragm is coming back and your tummy is getting back to your spine.

And the mental part,

Imagine that you're breathing in the abundant universal energy with every breath of air you take in.

And imagine you're throwing back diseases,

Negativity,

Wrong thoughts,

Wrong notions back into the universe.

Keep your body as still as you can with your spine and neck correct.

The only movement should be the movement of the air going in and out of your body.

Alternate nostril breathing,

Known as analoma viloma,

Is extremely beneficial for balancing the autonomous nervous system,

The sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems in the body.

It's beneficial for balancing the logical and the creative brains,

The left and the right brains.

It's also known as Nadi Shodhana,

Something that cleanses the different energy channels in the body to transmit the energy to different parts of the body easily without any blockages.

Breathing in through one nostril,

Breathing out through the other.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

As slowly as you can,

As smoothly as you can,

Without holding the breath in your lungs.

If you find yourself slouching or your neck drooping,

Gently adjust.

Keep your neck and back straight.

Continue alternate nostril breathing for a few more minutes.

Remember never to strain your lungs.

You should always feel comfortable breathing in and out without overextending the capacity of your lungs.

At any time if you'd like to relax.

Gently relax and stay with your breath or continue alternate nostril breathing for a minute more and I'll slowly lead you into meditation.

Thank you.

There are seven energy centers in the body,

Located along the spine.

Imagine these energy centers to be transformers of energy,

Taking the energy to different parts of your body and mind.

And the Nadi Shradhana Pranayama or Anuloma Viloma Pranayama cleans up all those energy channels or nadis within the body,

So that the energy can reach without any blockages to different parts of the body and mind.

All of you gently relax.

Stay with your breath.

We will soon begin our meditation practice.

We will meditate on the heart chakra,

The Anaahata chakra.

This is located on the spine.

Closer to your chest and the heart area.

Anaahata chakra is a seat of our relationships,

Our emotions and we will meditate on this chakra.

Before we begin our meditation,

Make a firm resolution that you will keep your body as still as you can.

And mentally make an affirmation that you are a loving person,

Compassionate towards everyone,

Friendly and helpful to all.

Extend the affirmation towards yourself also.

Assign that you are loved by all,

Cared for by all.

Now gently bring your attention to your breath at your nostrils.

To your natural breath.

Without altering anything,

Just observe the way your body is breathing.

Observe passively yet intently.

It is natural that your mind will wander.

That's its nature.

Bring it back gently to your breath.

Start engaging all your five senses one by one and observe your breath.

Start by feeling how every breath is going in and out at your nostrils.

Feel the cool air going in and the warm air going out.

Observe which nostril is dominant with every breath you are taking in and out.

Is there any sound to every breath you are taking?

Observe passively yet intently without altering anything.

Are there any smells with every breath?

Observe.

Can you feel any taste?

Observe.

Engage all your five senses and observe every breath intently yet passively.

Is there any sound to every breath you are taking?

Keeping as still as you can.

Just observe.

Gently shift your attention to the heart chakra.

The space in the centre of your chest and on the spine.

The anahata.

You don't have to do anything.

Just observe.

Sometimes you may feel some sensations.

Pleasant,

Painful.

Let them be.

Do not react.

Just observe.

Sometimes you may feel strong emotions.

Positive ones,

Negative ones.

It's okay.

Just let them be.

Observe.

All you need to do is pay attention to that space.

Without reacting yet observing everything.

Gently bring your attention back.

To your breath at your nostrils.

Now we will begin the body scan.

Start from your toes.

Mentally start scanning every part of your body.

Working your way upwards.

From your toes.

To the crown of your head.

And from the crown of your head.

Working your way downwards.

Back to your toes.

Go at your own pace.

Pausing for as little or as long as you want at any part of your body that needs extra attention.

If there is some disease,

Discomfort,

Pay extra attention to that part.

And then move on.

Toe to head.

Head to toe.

On the skin.

Under the skin.

At your own pace.

Being grateful and thankful to every part of your body for being there.

If you find that there is some tension in some part of your body,

Gently auto suggest to relax.

If there is a disease that you would like to cure,

Gently auto suggest to that part of the body to cure itself.

Toe to head.

Head to toe.

On the skin.

Under the skin.

At your own pace.

Being thankful.

Toe to head.

As you scan your body,

Become aware of your entire body now.

Become aware of the space where you are sitting in.

Feel the air touching your body.

Become aware of the room,

The space surrounding you.

Become aware of your body sitting in that space.

Become aware of the connection between you and the space surrounding you.

Become aware of the connection between you and the infinite space,

The universal connection between you and the entire universe.

As you become aware of this universal connection,

Be grateful and thankful to everything and everyone in your life.

Stay with that attitude of gratitude towards everything and everyone.

And whenever you are ready,

You can gently open your eyes.

Reviews

Good meditation, I played calm, relaxing stress relief music for meditation as a background which really helped during this guided meditation

The title is misleading but a really awesome meditation nonetheless! ❤️ thank you! 🙏

A lovely practice, calm voice guiding through breathing - meditation in body scan - definitely bookmarked!! 🙏

I loved it, but the accent was a little hard to understand sometimes.

This was a very supportive and restorative meditation. I will return to it. I learned a great deal. Thank you. Namaste.