Hello and welcome to a practice of breath.
A practice of Dhirga Pranayama or the three-part complete yogic breath.
To allow your physical body to come to a place of comfort,
Ease,
Sweetness.
You might choose to be seated or perhaps you do find your way on to your back body.
If you choose to land on your back you might extend your legs fully.
If you should find that there is some compression or sensitivity within your low back,
You might bring the soles of your feet to the floor,
Knees bent,
Knees knock in towards one another.
Your constructive rest posture.
It is a way to put your psoas,
Your main hip flexor,
Into complete slack.
On your back,
Also a choice to move into butterfly.
Bring the soles of your feet together,
Let your knees fall out wide,
Able to explore into your inner upper legs,
Inner hips.
And if you choose the butterfly variation,
Perhaps you take some pillows,
Blankets,
Whatever you might have around underneath your knees.
Allow for support.
Invite ease.
So as you do begin to land,
Allow yourself to do just that.
Land.
Invite your hands and arms to rest easy.
And if you wish,
Allow your eyelids to blink closed if they're not already there.
Able to invite transition.
Seeing into feeling.
Your doing into being.
If you wish,
Allow your next few exhalations to be a sigh out your mouth,
An element of doing.
Perhaps your sigh is a way to physically soften,
Whether it be within your jaw,
Back in and through your throat and vocal cords,
Even the musculature connective tissue that then surrounds through your neck,
Your upper back,
Into your head.
Perhaps your sigh is a way to begin to set aside any thought,
Story,
Expectation,
Limitation,
So that you are able to step into each moment wholly,
Fully,
And completely.
A quality of being.
To allow your awareness to firmly establish itself within the body of your breath.
And no need to change your breath.
To allow yourself to get curious about your patterns,
Your qualities,
Even to observe your location.
And if you choose,
Begin to draw your hands onto your belly,
To your navel center.
And to now consciously begin to draw your breath into the depths of your belly.
And while you can only technically breathe into your lungs,
This organ of action,
It is all the musculature connective tissue that then surrounds that needs to become pliable,
So that you might take in and give back.
So with each inhalation,
To allow your belly to expand,
To soften,
Even to sense your belly move into your hands.
And with your exhale,
Allow your breath to be full,
Complete.
You might start to sense your navel draw back to your spine,
Even to sense your navel lift up and underneath your ribcage.
To invite the full relaxation of your respiratory diaphragm,
Then coupled with a squeeze of your abdominal wall.
And continue to breathe into your belly,
Each inhalation,
To feel the rise,
The expansion,
The softness.
And with your exhale,
Let it be full,
Complete,
Navel towards the spine,
Even up and underneath your ribs.
And now if your hands are on your body,
Begin to slide your hands up onto your floating ribs,
The lowest part of your ribcage.
And to now consciously breathe into this chamber.
With each inhalation,
Can you allow your ribcage to expand outward?
And with your exhale,
To feel your ribs move towards your midline.
With each inhalation,
To sense the flair of your floating ribs.
Exhale to draw inward.
A few more breaths,
Here into your floating ribs,
Your thoracic spine,
Mid back.
And if your hands are on your body,
Begin to slide your hands now up to the space just below your collarbones.
And to consciously now breathe into this space,
The very upper lobes of your lungs.
With each inhalation,
You might start to sense your collarbones lift up towards your chin.
And perhaps at the same time,
To sense your shoulder blades descend into the earth.
With your exhale,
Your collarbones release.
So a few more breaths,
Here in the upper region of your lungs.
Sensing your collarbones lift,
Perhaps even your shoulder blades settle into the earth.
Now if your hands are on your body,
One hand might stay on the space just below your collarbones.
The opposite hand can come back to your navel center,
Onto your belly.
And now begin to consciously breathe into all chambers.
With each inhalation,
Start to fill into the depths of your belly,
Even to sense your breath move into your low back.
Your breath then rises into your ribs to feel your floating ribs expand outward.
Your breath continues to rise into the space behind your collarbones.
Let your exhale be full,
Complete.
And again,
You might sense your navel draw back to your spine.
Even to consciously lift your navel up and underneath your ribs.
Continue to breathe in this manner,
Filling all chambers.
And you might find that your breath naturally moves bottom to top.
Perhaps you do sense your breath move top to bottom.
Can you begin to fill side to side,
Back to front,
All the diagonal planes between,
To allow this breath to become three-dimensional.
Filling into belly,
Ribs,
Space below your collarbones.
Let your exhale be full,
Complete,
And the sigh always welcome.
Continuing to breathe in this manner,
Filling your entire torso 360 degrees.
Exhale fully,
Completely,
The sigh always there.
If you can,
Take three more cycles of this 360-degree breath,
Filling into your entire torso,
To then empty fully,
Completely.
And after your third round of breath,
Release all technique.
Come back to your natural rhythm,
Natural pace.
And to notice,
To notice any effects of the Dhirgha breath,
The three-part,
Complete breath.
And as you feel ready,
Begin to invite movement into your physical being.
Might be the wiggle of fingers or toes.
If you're on your back,
A rock of your hips,
Even your head.
Eventually to gather yourself,
Gather your hands into your heart space.
And whether you take on the Anjali Mudra,
Your prayer mudra,
Or perhaps you stack your hands.
Continue to feel your breath move in and move out.
And coupled with the beat of your heart attuning to this place within that is your aliveness,
Your vitality,
The seat of your essence.
The space within that is infinite,
Immortal,
Whole.
Hari Om Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Peace,
Peace,
Eternal peace.
Namaste.
Jai Bhagwan.
