Good morning.
My name is Umaima and it is my pleasure to guide you through this morning practice.
Our practice today is inspired by the Sufi tradition.
It is an elemental purification breath practice.
And so to start I invite you to sit up tall.
You may choose to sit on your bed,
On the couch,
On the floor,
Or on a meditation cushion.
My invitation to you is to allow your hips to be raised slightly,
So in a way where your hips are higher in space than your knees.
This will allow you to sit up tall more easily and to have a bit of fluidity in your spine.
And so once you've settled,
Close your eyes and start to bring your attention inward.
You may start by listening to the sounds around you.
Perhaps you hear a car passing in the distance,
A conversation in the next room,
And perhaps you are lucky enough to hear the birds chirping outside your window.
Whatever the case may be,
Simply allow your awareness to become attuned to the sounds outside of you.
Now bring your attention closer.
And so instead of listening to the sounds outside of your body,
Now listen to the sounds inside of your body.
And perhaps you can hear the sound of your breath,
Your heartbeat.
Or maybe you can attune to the sound of the blood rushing through your veins.
And now notice how the movement from the sounds outside of you to the sounds inside of you has impacted your breath.
And again,
We're just noticing here we haven't started a breath practice yet,
Simply noticing the quality of our natural breath.
Is your breath mostly concentrated in your chest or does it go down to your belly?
Is your breath shallow or is it deep?
Is your breath constricted or is it expansive?
No need to judge,
No need to change anything just yet.
You're simply noticing the natural pattern of your breath,
Which is unique to you.
Now let's go a layer deeper and invite this elemental purification breath practice that we receive from the Sufis.
So this breath practice is going to be accompanied by hand mudras.
You may choose to do those or you may choose to simply focus on the breath.
And so to start,
We'll connect with the earth element and the breath that connects us to the earth element is inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the nose,
So mouth closed.
And the mudra that comes with this one is tip of your thumb connected to the tip of your ring finger and the three other fingers going long.
And you may choose to rest your hand on your thighs and we'll do five breaths here.
Inhaling through the nose,
Exhaling through the nose and we'll start now.
As you inhale,
Allow the air to fill your chest,
Fill your belly and as you exhale,
Try to slow it down.
Once you've completed your five breaths,
We'll move to the water element.
And the breath here is an inhale through the nose and an exhale through the mouth.
And the mudra is tip of your thumb with the tip of your pinky finger and the three other fingers going long.
And so inhale and exhale slowly.
You may want to think of the sound of a wave here.
And as you try to connect with the sound of the wave,
Perhaps try to imitate that sound.
Once you've completed your five breaths here,
We'll move to the fire element.
And the breath for the fire element is inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the nose and the mudra that goes with it is ring finger coming to the base of your thumb and the thumb covering the ring finger.
The rest,
The three other fingers go long,
Hand resting on the thigh and we'll go for five breaths.
Inhaling through the mouth,
Exhaling through the nose.
And so connecting with the fire element,
The fire of life,
A fire that moves you,
Activates you.
Once you've completed your five breaths,
We'll move now to the air element.
The breath for the air element is inhaling through the mouth,
Exhaling through the mouth.
And the mudra,
The hand mudra that goes with the air element is tip of your thumb connected with the tip of your index finger and the three other fingers going long.
And so we'll go again for five breaths,
Inhaling through the mouth,
Exhaling through the mouth.
You may want to think of the wind here.
Can you connect with the fluidity of the wind,
The air,
The winds of change?
And once you've completed your five breaths,
We'll come into the last element,
The ether,
The element that holds it all together.
And the breath or the ether element is to simply come back to inhaling through the nose,
Exhaling through the nose for five breaths.
And the mudra is tip of your thumb with the tip of your middle finger and go in for five breaths.
You complete your five breaths,
Release the hand mudras and simply keep your hands on your knees and on your thighs,
Either facing down for grounding or facing up for receiving.
And simply stay here.
Come back to a natural breath pattern.
And notice if your breath pattern has shifted even slightly from how you started at the beginning of this practice.
Simply stay in this groundedness,
This connection with the five elements that make up our world.
Earth that grounds us.
Water that nourishes us,
Connects us with ancient knowledge.
Fire that ignites our passion,
Our action.
Air that leads us through change.
Movement.
And finally the fifth element,
Ether,
The one that holds all the others.
And feel those five elements within your body.
Earth is your flesh,
Your bones.
Water is your blood.
And fire is your spirit.
Air is your breath.
And ether is your soul,
The one that holds it all.
And so at the awareness of these five elements within your body and out in the world,
You may choose to contemplate on the connection between your body and the earth,
Between your being and the world.
Contemplate on how connected or disconnected you feel from the world around you,
From nature,
Other humans,
And all the other beings that constitute the population of earth alongside humanity.
And can you let these elemental purification breath practice remind you of your interconnectedness with all that is?
Feel that in your body.
And as we close this practice together,
I want to leave you with a quote by a very impactful spiritual teacher,
Ram Dass.
And he said,
If you don't see God in all,
You don't see God at all.
And you may choose to replace the word God with however you describe the the supreme intelligence that flows through every living being,
The life that flows through our veins.
And so as you go about your day today,
Can you hold that knowing within you?
Can you take your meditation off the mat with you?
And thank you for choosing to practice with me this morning.
Har Yom Tatza.
My name is Umaima,
And it is an honor to share these practices with you.
