A Simple Exploration Of Breath

Sometimes it is the simplest practice that brings the deepest support - this quiet and gentle breath practice invites you to attune to your internal world through sensation and breath, guiding you home to your own body with care and compassion.

Transcript

Good morning, Good morning. Lovely to see you. Lovely to gather. As soon as we all arrive, It's taken a time to settle. Allow our bodies to settle into the posture, Whatever that posture is for you today. It could be lying down, You could be sitting up, You could be on the floor, On a chair, There's no rules. But a sense of being able to drop, Being supported, Is usually quite helpful. As we make contact with ground and we tune into the sensation of that contact. Exploring if there is a resonance between earth and body. So we're noticing the sensation of the body. You might notice the clothing, The way the clothing that you're wearing feels against your skin. Different weights and textures. And where your skin has direct contact with air. How that feels. You might notice a difference, A coolness in the air and a warmth beneath the clothing. And noticing how your breath moves through you. You might feel the rise and the fall of your chest. And how the movement brushes against clothing. And so there's more sensation through the skin. And there's breath up in the chest. Perhaps the front of the chest, Perhaps the back of the chest. Maybe you feel it around your collarbones. Breathing through your nose, If that's possible. Between either lung nestled snugly. And just resting above the diaphragm is your heart. So just see if you can bring your awareness inwards towards the physical heart. And as the lungs expand with the in-breath, They snugly press into the heart space. And as the lungs contract and release your exhale, They create space and encourage the heart to expand. They're not actually separate. They're connected. They share membranes, Heart and lungs. So it's not so much like cogs of machinery impacting each other. It's fluidity and continuous tissue. A sense of wholeness, In fact. One life force. One expression of life. And both the lungs and the heart rest upon the diaphragm. So if you allow your breath to deepen. So perhaps it becomes a little bit more like a sigh. And start to feel the sensation of your diaphragm moving. A big, Deep inhale presses into the diaphragm. Helping the diaphragm to press downwards. A big, Deeper exhale allows the diaphragm to press upwards, Pushing into heart, Into lungs. The diaphragm, The solar plexus, Is a hive of neural pathways. The movement of the diaphragm creates and supports the movement within the liver, The digestive tract, The organs of digestion and cleansing. It can be easier to bring awareness to heart and chest. And it can be more challenging to bring awareness lower to the solar plexus in the belly. No expectation, But just curiosity. Can you attune to the sensation within the body? As you breathe in, Can you feel, Can you notice how your tummy perhaps expands? Allowing space for that deep inhalation. And can you notice, As you exhale, How the tummy draws back in? Back towards the spine. There's no doubt that there are times when our breath just wants to stay up high around the ribs, Around the collarbones. Sometimes it just doesn't want to go down low. It's not always available to us. But when it is, It offers us something harmonising, Something soothing. And out of curiosity, Let's see if we can expand the breath. Can you drop deeper? Can you feel the rhythm of your breath moving right the way down towards the pelvics? So that it starts to move through your body like a drumbeat, Like a wave of sound. If your body is allowing you to breathe through your nose, Can you gently contract the muscles of the throat? So we move towards an ujjayi breath. It might sound like a snore. It takes the focus to the throat. Can ujjayi breath sound a little bit like the ocean at the shore? The sound of waves moving up through the shoreline and then drawing back again. The whole body rippling with breath like the waves moving through the ocean. Maybe it's easier to access the waves on the surface and more apparent. And even when you drop down deep below the surface, Even in the deepest seas, There's a push and a pull of a tide and the current. Finding that within yourself. And curiously searching for depth in the breath. Depth in the sensation. Softening the hands. Softening the body. Laying the practice down. Letting your breath do exactly what it wants. You can trust the intelligence of your breath. Maybe taking a moment to look at the space around you. Orienting yourself to your room, Finding the floor through your feet. Maybe taking a moment to offer the fruits of our practice to ourselves, To each other and to all beings. Thank you for being here. Namaste. Thank you for being here.