My name is Robbie and I am both a life coach and a yoga teacher and this is a short five-minute meditation for stress relief.
For this meditation find yourself in a comfortable position,
Preferably on a seat,
With your feet in the ground,
Shoes off,
Socks off.
Place your hands on your thighs and begin to breathe.
Take one deep inhale in and one long exhale out.
And again,
Deep inhale and a deep exhale out of your mouth.
And from here you can begin to lower your gaze,
Soften your eyes and if you feel comfortable,
Closing your eyes completely.
We'll begin by bringing our awareness to our breath.
Noticing the quality of your breath.
Is your breath heavy?
Is it light?
Is it deep or shallow?
Is it fast or slow?
By observing our breath,
We are coming back to ourselves,
Reconnecting to our body.
And from here we can begin to deepen our breath with longer inhales and longer exhales.
With each inhale,
Feel the cold air,
Fresh air coming in through your nasal passages,
Filling your lungs,
Filling your belly.
And on those exhales,
Allowing all that air coming out of your mouth,
Allow the body to feel lighter,
To feel softer with each exhale.
Deepening those inhales and lengthening those exhales.
On your next inhale,
Allow your shoulders to relax.
Your shoulders can softly,
Slowly move away from your ears on each inhale.
And on each exhale,
Feel the belly button being drawn in towards the belly,
In towards your spine and allowing all the air to leave the body.
Repeating that again with a deep inhale,
Shoulders relaxed,
Belly expands,
Ribs expand and slowly exhale out of the mouth.
The belly button comes back towards your spine,
Your ribs are contracting,
Your body is relaxed.
Continue this breathing pattern at a pace that feels comfortable to you.
When thoughts come to your mind,
Allow them to float over your consciousness like clouds out to the other side of your head and your mind.
And reconnect to your breath.
When thoughts come,
Come back to your breath.
Breathe that awareness to those inhales,
With those relaxed shoulders,
Expanded belly and those deep exhales,
Whole body solvents.
Continue this practice for as long as feels comfortable for you.
This is a practice that you can do at home,
At work when you have a private moment to yourself.
It can be for five minutes,
It can be for ten minutes.
It allows you to reconnect back to the body,
Back to your breath.
You may continue now with your deep inhales and those deep exhales.
And if you wish to exit this practice,
You may slowly bring your breath back to a regular pattern.
Slowly blink your eyes open.
Maybe rub your hands up and down your thighs,
Rubbing your hands together.
This meditation has now ended.
