Hello and welcome.
This practice is best used when you're experiencing some level of overwhelm and you want to come back to a more settled state.
So you can start by finding a few movements like rolling your shoulders,
Stretching your arms overhead,
Or shaking out your legs.
Give yourself a few moments to let your body wiggle and move and stretch in any way that feels intuitively helpful.
If you're able to,
Come to lie down.
You have plenty of time to settle in.
You could stretch your legs out long or have your feet on the floor with your knees bent.
And see if you could make any adjustments with a pillow or adding a layer for warmth that would help you feel more comfortable,
More settled.
And start to settle into a place closer to stillness.
Notice where you're supported by whatever is holding you.
Your bed,
The floor,
A couch.
On the next exhale,
See if you can soften a little more into that support.
For the next few rounds of exhales,
Imagine your muscles can lengthen and relax,
Maybe extending the length of your exhale slightly as well.
Next,
We'll experiment with a pranayama technique which helps us tune into our breath and energy called brahmari.
Brahmari is a yoga practice that invites us to turn inward and detach from the external stimuli we encounter so much through the day.
So we'll start by taking a few rounds of breath where we inhale through the nose and hum on the exhale.
You can try it with me inhaling through your nose.
Another together inhaling.
You can take maybe two more rounds on your own.
This might feel like enough and you can stay with this practice and keep it just as it is for a few more minutes.
Another option is to bring your hands towards your face and gently cover your eyes with your hands,
Letting your fingertips point inwards towards the bridge of your nose.
So with your hands covering your eyes,
Fingertips gently resting on the bridge of your nose,
You can try two or three rounds of humming on the exhale here.
I'm starting to close off even a little bit more towards the external stimuli.
Starting to close out light,
Feel the darkness,
Feel the warmth from your hands,
Inviting yourself to soften your eyes to rest.
If you need some support under your elbows,
You can always add a pillow.
Maybe one more round on your own.
And if tuning out the external stimuli is feeling useful for you,
You could also gently cover your ears with your thumbs.
So we'll place our thumbs over each ear canal,
But not into the ear canal.
And now with both your eyes and ears covered,
You might try two or three final rounds of humming on the exhale.
Once you finish those rounds,
You can let your arms relax by your side,
Return to your regular breathing pattern.
Maybe still keeping the eyes closed.
We'll rest here in silence for a few minutes.
There will likely be sounds and thoughts that come and go.
But as much as possible,
We're resting back into support,
Silence,
Stillness.
I'll let you know when it's time to gently transition out of this meditation.
If you would like to rest for longer,
Please do.
Whenever you feel ready to move on with your day,
See how gently and slowly you can blink your eyes open.
Just letting in a little bit of light at a time.
You might invite gentle movement into your fingers and toes.
Wanting to give ourselves plenty of time to transition back into the world,
Senses,
And space around us.
Wanting to give ourselves plenty of time to really gently transition back into light,
Sound.
Allow yourself plenty of time to readjust to the space around you.
You can bring in really gentle movement,
Fingers and toes wiggling,
Head rolling from side to side.
And see if you can allow all the sounds,
Lights,
And other external stimuli to be introduced really slowly and gently.
Give yourself time to readjust to the space around you.
Maybe explore a little movement again.
Maybe explore a few stretches,
Give yourself a hug.
Being extra gentle with yourself as you go back into the world,
Go back into your day.
Thank you for practicing and I'm wishing you an easeful day ahead.
