To begin this practice,
Lie on your back in Shavasana.
Take a moment to get nice and comfortable here.
Bring a distance between your feet so your legs can relax with no effort to hold them in place.
Bring a distance between your arms and your body and relax your hands.
Take a moment to feel the weight of your body resting on the floor.
As you rest here,
Scan your body from the crown of the head down to your feet.
As you scan your body,
Begin to observe any places of tension or tightness and gradually release tension,
Surrendering more fully to the earth.
Breathe through your nose and start to bring your awareness to the space of your abdomen.
Relax the muscles here and allow the breath to flow,
Noticing the natural rise and fall of your abdomen as you breathe.
From this relaxed awareness,
We'll begin to cultivate the five qualities of yogic breathing.
The first of these five qualities is deep.
Essentially,
This means the breath is more diaphragmatic in nature.
So,
Without exerting effort or forcing the breath in any way,
Allow your breath to naturally fill the deep space of the abdomen.
With each inhale,
The abdomen gently rises.
With each exhale,
The abdomen gently falls.
The second quality of breath we'll cultivate is smooth.
So,
As you rest and watch your breath,
Bring your awareness to the complete length of your inhale and the complete length of your exhale.
Gradually allow the breath to become more smooth,
Free of any rough patches or tightness.
The inhale and the exhale smoothly flow into each other.
The third quality is even.
This means that the inhalation and the exhalation are about the same in length and quality.
And a nice simple way to achieve evenness in the breath is to count the length of your inhalation and then match that count on your exhalation.
So,
If you count four,
Four or five on your inhale,
See if you can match that on your exhale.
So,
The inhale and the exhale are equal length.
Release the counting and continue breathing evenly.
The fourth quality of breath that we'll cultivate is continuous.
We'd like the breath to be without pause.
So,
Bring awareness to the transition points between your inhalation and exhalation and deeply relax at these points and allow each breath to seamlessly flow into the next without pause.
Let the breath flow continuously in an unbroken stream.
The fifth and final quality of breath that we'll cultivate is quiet.
We'd like the breath to be without sound.
Sound can sometimes indicate tension being held in the breath.
So,
If you experience the breath as being more noisy than it needs to be,
See if you can identify the source of the tension.
It could be in the throat or perhaps the chest.
Gently soften these areas to eliminate sound from the breath.
As we understand more about the reflective relationship between the breath and the mind,
We can see that a quiet breath is reflective of a quieter state of mind.
The breath is deep,
Smooth,
Even,
Continuous,
And quiet.
Allow yourself to enjoy the sense of well-being that comes from this yogic breathing practice.
Continue coming back to this practice.
Use it as a preparation for asana,
Pranayama,
Or meditation practice.
Stay here now as long as you'd like and when you're ready,
Close out your practice with some gentle movements in the body.
