Harmonising Breath Practice

When we start our day with a harmonising breath practice, we set ourselves up for a day where we bring that balance into our responses. Less reactive, more conscious, this breath practice is a gift to you and all those whose path you cross throughout your day.

Namaste.

Transcript

Welcome,

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So thank you.

Okay so we're going to do a really beautiful practice today,

A harmonizing breath practice and I think we're going to sort of journey through some square breathing and do some alternate nostril breathing.

So you might want tissues and if you're feeling a bit blocked up and bummed up then alternate nostril breathing can be a bit of a challenge.

But we're not going to get attached to outcome in any way so whatever unfolds is perfect for today,

You don't need to for it to look a certain way.

Let's start by getting comfortable however that is for you,

It could be in a chair,

On the floor,

It could still be sitting in bed but whichever position you're in then just be sure that your spine is tall and maybe your eyelids drop or perhaps you keep your eyelids open but either way the gaze beneath the eyelids or with the eyelids open is soft so we're sort of drifting into the peripheral vision rather than being at that forward pointing place.

And we'll take a moment just to listen to the natural in-breath and out-breath,

The rhythm that that brings.

Breathing through the nose,

Perhaps the slight vibration of ujjayi breath,

There's the throat,

Contracts but it's not an extreme contraction it's almost like a gentle snore so that you can actually hear the breath rise and fall.

I'm going to take a moment to settle.

So just like when you walk into some very still water and you unsettle the mud beneath and it all starts to swell up and then when you step away and the water is able to settle that sediment drops to the bottom again so we take our time to let whatever sediment is swirling around inside of us to let it drop.

Softening the muscles of the face,

The lips,

As the tongue rests up on the roof of your mouth and your jaw softens.

So so and let the shoulder blades drop down so the shoulders move away from the ears and find some space in your neck maybe by circling your head very slowly tuning our awareness inwards so that we actually listen to the body.

So back to centre and then circling shoulders and if you have the space you might circle your elbows your arms bringing this quality of listening awareness into the body it's not all in your head it's felt throughout your entire body and notice how your hands feel maybe they want to circle and circling your heart so and changing directions and then moving any part of you that needs a little bit of movement to release any tension and we just touch into that more fluid essence of our body so we're not feeling quite as rigid as perhaps we began and then coming back to stillness and settling and if it's available to you to breathe through your nose just take a nice long breath in through the nose and then out through the nose if your nose is blocked then just have your lips slightly apart and do the same through the mouth and we'll start with a double ratio on the exhale so whatever the length of your inhale just give it a silent count and then take twice as long for your exhale so so and perhaps you can start to move towards an in-breath of six around an out-breath of 12.

If that feels too strong then just drop it back you can breathe in for four breathe out for eight so and then let the count go and just return to a natural easy breath watching and observing where that is where your breath would have you go and sometimes i get touched by the miracle of this transaction that happens in the body the whole time the inhale of oxygen given to us by nature the plants and then our offering of carbon dioxide our life depends upon it that we exhale that carbon dioxide and it becomes this nourishing gift for nature for plants what a beautiful dance that is the act of giving and receiving between us and the trees and we'll start to drop into a four-stage breath so we're bringing our awareness to the inhale but finding the space at the end of the inhale where the lungs are full and resting there noticing how it feels and it really changes each time you practice and then exhaling and then choosing to pause at the end of the exhale and the end of the exhale is usually quite a lot deeper than we first realized so really try to lean into where is the end of that exhale and then holding there with the lungs empty and just taking a moment to notice then moving into your inhale so although the practice is very gentle it's still very deliberate there is a spark of energy behind the practice allowing you to go deeper to lengthen and to inquire so let's see if we can bring some balance between all four of those stages so find a happy ratio very often it's four and eventually we start to get towards six a count of six and then we can move up through to a count of eight or even ten or twelve but whatever your count is there's no hierarchy on this just let it be the same for each of those four stages and this is a square breath practice and you might picture the square on the front of your body so that as you inhale light moves up from hip to shoulder on the right hand side as you hold the light travels across from right shoulder to left as you exhale light travels from left shoulder down to left hip and as you hold with the lungs empty light travels from left hip across to right so that's the visual of a square breath practice the count is the equal length of all four stages and the quality of the practice is the listening the tuning inwards trying to get a flavor or a taste of of what's happening with our breath today so so you can stay curious as you practice if it feels effortless and easy then maybe lengthen see if you can add two more to your count if it's feeling challenging the lungs are not quite comfortable then drop back by two so so we're building up a picture of of how our breath is feeling today what count is working for us and we can move into a an alternate nostril breath practice nadi shidana and so for this practice you can choose to use your hand or you can just use to choose to use a visualization it's entirely up to you if you're going to use the hand then right hand comes up towards your face thumb rests just below the hard bone of the of the the nostril so you're on the fleshy more cartilage side and then ring finger comes to the other side so tip of thumb and tip of ring finger just pressing into the nose so it becomes an obstruction you can still breathe through your nose but it's not as easy as it was and the movement is in fact quite subtle doesn't need to be big movements as you inhale you're just going to inhale through the right hand nostril and then when the lungs are full you're going to pinch and hold and we'll again we'll do the double length hold like we did at the beginning and then exhale out of the left hand nostril and then we'll inhale left hand nostril and we'll hold for the double length and then exhale out of the right hand nostril so that's the pattern inhale right hold for twice exhale left inhale left hold for twice exhale right so you know how your breath is feeling today i'm going to count through three rounds and we'll do a count of four to begin with just because that's usually the most accessible number and then i'll fall silent so you can continue with your practice and if your practice is a count of six or eight then do your thing just holding for double the length and you might want to bring mula bandha in as you hold by just lifting the pelvic floor so when both nostrils are pinching the pelvic floor lifts if that feels too much like spinning plates then just let the pelvic floor do its thing then just let the pelvic floor do its thing okay so all together we'll start by exhaling out of the left nostril and gently pinch beginning on the right inhale two three four hold two three four five six seven eight exhale left two three four inhale left two three four hold two three four five six seven eight eight exhale right two three four inhale right hold exhale left inhale left hold exhale right inhale right hold exhale left inhale left hold exhale right and then move into your own place your own count and i'll keep watch of time so all you need to do is breathe and count the length of your breath so so so so so so so then let this be your final round just scan through the body if there's any little pockets of tension bring them some fluidity some ease and maybe softening into a smile you bring your hands to your heart we offer the fruits of our practice to all beings namaste