For our meditation together start to find a comfortable seat of your choice.
Lengthening up your spine.
Shoulders fall backwards down your spine shoulder blades together.
The crown of the head moves towards the ceiling or the sky.
And then start to relax your face,
Your jaw,
Forehead and your eyes.
Close them gently.
Start to arrive here in this moment.
Take a conscious breath in and out.
Connect to your inner world.
And prepare for a few minutes of not performing.
Of being with yourself,
Perceiving everything that's going on.
We want to work with our breath today.
And when we alter our breath,
When we start to focus on it and extend it a little bit,
Particularly the out breath,
We can very effectively change our nervous system state.
And thereby also changing the way our body feels.
The tension of our muscles and also our mental state.
So we're going to do a simple exercise that is we inhale,
We count to five and then we exhale,
We count to five.
I will guide you through it and after a while I will invite you to add a third element which will be to hold your breath also to the count of five.
I'm going to guide you through it.
If you feel like it's too slow for you or too fast,
Find your own rhythm.
But make sure your in breath and your out breath are equal.
And the more time passes the longer in breath and out breath become.
And take two,
Three normal breaths just for yourself.
And let's start.
Breathe in and out through your nose and then inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Inhaling two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
And do this a couple of times for yourself in your own pace.
Your focus is entirely on your breath and if thoughts come up your mind starts to wander.
Gently guide yourself back to your breath.
And then if you want to add a pause of breath after inhaling.
Let's do this together one round.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Hold your breath this time.
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
And exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
And exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
And now in your own pace for yourself.
And then finish your current round.
Take your time.
And when you exhale again close this exercise and just let your breath flow naturally.
Stay in silence for another couple of moments.
Let something change in your body.
In your emotions or in your thoughts.
And then give yourself a big thank you for taking this time for yourself and also for everything you're doing all day long.
All the tasks you manage,
All the people you take care of,
Everything you're doing,
So much effort.
And slowly come back into the room.
Open your eyes.
