Hi and welcome.
Thank you for being here to practice with me again today.
We will dedicate ourselves to Shavasana and in particular the practice of Shavasana related to Pranamaya Kosha.
In Indian physiology Pranamaya Kosha is the sheet of the breath or more precisely the sheet of the prana.
This is the let's say the electrical system of our body,
The energy of the breath that moves through a dense network of nadi or channels throughout our body.
So our practice today will be guided by our natural breath as our teacher.
As always we will find a lying down position and keep a blanket close by so that we don't get cold.
Let's try to be in a quiet undisturbed place in silence.
Lying on the ground we can immediately reconstruct the map of the contact between our body and the mat.
We will feel our heels,
Calves and thighs and completely let go of our legs allowing our feet to open up naturally.
We will do the same with the upper limbs,
Feeling the support of our hands with palms facing upward,
Our elbows and the upper arms,
All the way to our shoulder which are open and soft.
We want to release any tension in our shoulders down to the ground and feeling all our body rooted and connected with the mat.
Next we shift our awareness to the central axis of the body,
The spine.
Starting to feel the support of the back,
The sacrum,
The shoulder blades and finally the support of the head.
Our entire body is relaxed and comfortably resting on the ground,
Heavy,
Surrendering to gravity.
And we nurture this awareness of the body through the slow steady flow of our natural breath.
We simply become aware of the air coming in and the air coming out and the sensation that comes into our awareness with each breath.
This awareness of pranamaya kosha,
The sheet of prana,
Will begin from the sensation in our body.
So probably we will start by feeling just our abdomen moving gently up and down.
We start to recognize this polarity between the expansion of our belly during inhalation and the release and emptying of the belly during exhalation.
There is no rush.
We tune in to our internal rhythm and let the breath gradually become slow and deep as our abdomen continue to rise and fall.
Then we open up to another kind of awareness while our diaphragmatic breathing continues undisturbed with the movement of the belly.
Our attention will shift to what is happening at the rib cage on the sides of the torso.
We will be able to feel the peculiar sensation of inhaling and exhaling between the ribs,
As if we were playing a gentle accordion.
As if this gentle movement,
This space we create between the ribs,
Resembles the movement of a bellows.
Our practice is not one that asks us to exert effort but simply to remain present to the breath in the belly and the breath in the ribs.
And as we continue breathing,
Open up to the sensation as we have done so far.
And in this way we will notice the breath reaching up to the chest.
We feel the gentle delicate movement of our chest rising and falling.
We realize that this journey we take with each breath requires time.
And we take this time for a full inhalation and a full exhalation with the belly,
The ribs and the chest.
As the body becomes more relaxed,
Softer,
This relaxation makes us open and receptive,
Allowing us to let go of our breath exactly as it is in this moment.
If the mind is still moving quickly,
Pulling us away from the practice and thoughts emerge,
We can bring our attention back to the sensation as we have done so far.
Or we can also focus on counting the length of our inhalation and the length of our exhalation.
The body and the breath are our anchors holding us in the present.
Patiently and gently we return to the present moment of the body,
The breath and the sensation.
Every time it is necessary we bring our attention back here to the practice of Shavasana.
And before saying goodbye,
I remind you that when you're ready to come back,
You will do it slowly.
Start with small movements of the body extremities,
Like the hands,
The feet.
Start to move gently your head,
Turning right and left.
And then roll into a fetal position on your side.
And after that,
We'll be ready to sit up and stand.
And let's not miss the beauty and gratitude we can express towards ourselves for having taken this time.
A time for us.
A time that has regenerated us.
And that we want to all to.
And I thank you for being here with me.
And I'll see you soon.
