Welcome,
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Let's start this Monday morning coming to an easy position,
Either lying down or sitting upright,
Maybe sitting in a chair.
We're going to do a breath practice today,
Focusing on our heart space.
So let's get comfortable,
Find whatever props you need,
If you need a cushion to sit on or a blanket or take a moment.
And maybe let's start actually with our eyes open and just looking down towards the floor.
With our eyes open just noticing if you soften your gaze,
Let it become a little bit more peripheral,
Less single-pointed.
What are the things that you can see?
How far to the side can you can you see?
So and then let the gaze start to wander across to the right,
Moving slowly,
Noticing the things that you notice.
Eventually when you come to the edge of where your eyes can take you,
Let your head start to follow.
So you start to turn your head,
But it's very slow micro movements,
Heading towards the right.
You might start to come so far that you're actually looking across your shoulder.
Maybe you even start to twist the body.
And then release that movement and slowly return back to centre,
Letting the eyes guide you.
And then when you reach centre,
Let the eyes start to bring you across to the left.
So first it's just the eyes,
The head can stay straight forward.
And then slowly their head starts to follow.
Until you're looking across your left shoulder,
Back behind you,
And your torso starts to twist to rotate.
And then letting your gaze draw you slowly back to centre.
Coming to centre and then maybe letting the eyelids drop,
Keeping them open but gazing at the floor you choose.
And then tuning into your breath and noticing how the inhale feels and how the exhale feels as you breathe in and out through the nose.
And you might start by just feeling the texture,
The temperature or the sensation around your nostrils as you breathe.
Maybe you're very local to the breath coming in and out of the nose.
And bringing your awareness down to your throat,
Noticing how that feels as you breathe in and breathe out.
So now let's drop our awareness down to our pelvis,
Noticing the relationship between the pelvic bowl and the floor beneath you.
Maybe finding a sense of the relationship between the world within the pelvis and the earth on which we sit,
This sort of magnetic draw.
It might be that your pelvis feels heavier,
It might be that you get a sense of the earth,
The soil,
The rock,
The fire beneath us.
And your spine is tall,
It's not rigid but it is tall.
And start to notice the cadence of your breath,
We're just looking at the inhale and the exhale to begin with.
Where is there ease?
Where is the comfort?
So so And then maybe we can start to lengthen,
Just awareness is sometimes enough but also with some very deliberate intention.
See if you can expand the length of the inhale.
It's always like weight training for the lungs and then exhaling and expanding the length of the exhale.
You might silently start to count the length of your breath.
We're not trying to make it a certain rhythm or pattern,
We're just curious how the land lies this morning.
You may find yourself smiling as you drop into the ease and the softness of the breath practice,
The presence that that brings,
And the connection back to ourselves that is available in the slow stillness of a breath practice.
So so So perhaps the breath is starting to lengthen.
Is it the exhale that holds the key for you today?
Or is it the inhale?
Do they both feel pretty balanced?
An inhale usually indicates an ability to take more on,
A sort of driving capacity for productivity and pushing.
Sometimes we're in that place where we can expand and bring more in.
And the exhale is often an indicator of a need to let go,
To loosen the grip.
Be just a little bit gentler,
A little bit kinder to ourselves.
Don't take it from me,
You'll know what it means to you,
Just trust what you know.
You'll know what it means to you,
Just trust what you feel.
Allowing your breath to be a road map of sorts,
Giving you clues.
And we'll start to bring the heart into the practice.
So as you inhale,
Draw your breath down into the very center of your heart.
And we're working with this much deeper,
Smoother breath.
So keep that going,
Keep the expansion happening as you inhale into your heart space.
You might visualize it,
Sometimes it's like a thread or a ribbon,
Sometimes it's a stream of light that goes right into the very heart of your heart.
And then exhaling that breath out in all directions from the very heart of your heart.
So it's expanding well beyond the realms of your physical body,
Filling up the space around you.
And it's very deliberate,
There's nothing casual about this.
It has grace,
It has ease,
But it's determined as well,
Breathing into your heart space.
And exhaling,
Opening the heart space,
Expanding in all directions.
So so so so And we can start to bring the four-part breath in.
So following the inhale,
Right into the core of your heart,
Hold with your lungs full and just stay in that heart space,
Awareness fully drenched in your heart space.
And then exhaling out in all directions.
And then holding with the lungs empty and just sensing how it feels to be in that expanded field of infinite space and expansion and growth.
And then moving to your next inhale,
Coming into the very center of your heart.
Holding with the lungs full as you allow the sensation to percolate within the heart.
And then exhaling out in all directions,
This full-bodied,
Heartfelt breath.
And then holding with the lungs empty as you allow yourself to percolate in that expansion,
That boundless infinite space available to us.
So four-part breath with the heart.
And all the while staying curious,
We're not attached to it being a certain way,
We're just curious as to how it feels today.
Allowing what is,
Connecting to what is.
A deliberate invitation to expand through our hearts as we breathe.
So so so so so so most might start to move the head,
Do some circles,
Just allow the ease to be present in the body.
It can be very accidental to bring some tension in when we focus.
So just gently circling the head,
Noticing how the neck feels,
Carrying on with the breath.
And then switching directions.
And then circling the shoulders,
But as you breathe into your heart,
Feel the relationship between the movement and the breath.
Certainly the inhale feels more supported when the chest is open.
And oftentimes the exhale feels helpful when we're rolling the shoulders forwards.
And the elbow is moving the arms,
Joining the circles.
Noticing the relationship between this heart breath and the circle.
Perhaps circling the heart itself,
As if painting a circle around the circumference of the hips.
And then changing direction.
And then back to centre,
Bringing your hands,
Laying them on your heart,
Dropping your chin towards your chest.
A quiet invitation to allow the heart to guide an intention for this week.
And offering up the fruit of our practice to all beings,
So that every heart may remember how it feels to be connected and open.
Namaste.
