Breathwork For Igniting The Heart (Live Session)

Recorded on January 7, 2024 on Insight Timer, this breathwork experience helps you connect with your heart and journey into the ocean of all creation. No big deal. The practice is a simple three-part breath that you'll do lying down with your eyes closed, breathing into the belly, then into the chest, and then exhaling. The invitation with these sessions is always to be gentle with yourself, take breaks whenever that feels right, and allow yourself to accept each aspect of the experience as it arises. Enjoy!

Transcript

Hi there,

And welcome to this guided breathwork practice that was recorded here on Insight Timer on January 7th,

2024.

As always,

The breathing pattern that we'll be exploring is a simple three-part breath.

The breathing is all through the mouth,

Both the inhales and the exhales.

And the way it works is you'll lie down,

You'll close your eyes,

And you'll breathe into the belly,

And then into the chest,

And then release.

Again,

That's an inhale to the belly,

An inhale into the chest,

And a release.

There's no particular pace that you need to go at for this practice.

The idea is to simply connect with the breath and pay attention to what your body is comfortable with and feels right for you in this moment.

If at any time it starts to feel too intense,

Or you experience a feeling of not being safe for any reason at all,

You can always take a break from the breathing pattern for as long as you need,

And then go back to that three-part breath when it feels right to do so.

The theme that emerged during this practice was letting go of control,

And also letting go of our culturally reinforced focus on externals,

Whether it's external challenges,

External beauty,

External factors,

And allowing the breath to teach us how to go inwards so that we can connect as deeply as is right for us to do so with the elemental energy of creation,

The ocean of all that is.

With that,

I will send you off to the recording,

And wish you a beautiful breathwork practice.

Thanks so much for being here.

I'll invite you to take a nice slow breath in,

And release it with a sigh.

Again,

A nice slow breath in,

Releasing it with a sigh.

And it's always nice just to gently remind ourselves before we start the breathing,

It is safe for me to be in my body,

And it's safe and fun for me to be curious.

Safe and fun for me to be curious.

One more time,

Nice slow breath in,

Release it with a sigh.

And go ahead and start your breathing pattern all through the mouth into the belly,

Into the chest,

And then release.

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

And it's always the first five to seven minutes of this practice are going to be your chance to find your rhythm with this breathing pattern.

And so,

If it's been a while since you've practiced,

You can just be gentle,

Breathing into the belly,

Or as close to the belly as you can get.

Second inhale into the chest,

And then releasing.

Especially as we begin a new calendar year,

Belly,

Chest,

Release.

The mind can be really busy with goals or pressure that we may be putting on ourselves to have the best year ever.

And so there's an invitation just for these few minutes to let any of that go,

Any of that we're holding,

And try to figure everything out or have all the answers.

And see if we can bring all of the energy that may have been going in those directions just to breathing.

Inhale,

Inhale,

Release.

Inhale,

Inhale,

Release.

And sometimes if things are really challenging the way they are for many of us,

The breath can be a place of sanctuary.

The relief of only needing that one point of focus right now.

Inhale,

Inhale,

And release.

And if it feels right to you,

I'll invite you I mean to take in a little more oxygen into the belly,

Just three or 4% more.

And allowing yourself to notice the expansion of the belly and the chest as you breathe in.

Noticing without any need to change anything where the body expands easily with the breath and where it may feel a little bit tighter constricted.

And just by noticing we start to introduce change into the body into the breath into the system.

Keep breathing,

Seeing if you can get the breath a little bit behind the belly button and a little bit below into that lower belly.

And sometimes if we notice a little bit of tightness,

There can be judgment that comes in.

What if we allow the quality of our attention to be warm and compassionate?

As we inhale to the belly,

Inhale to the chest and release.

You're doing great.

Stay with it.

What we can do is gently ask the breath and the energy that the breath carries to open up a little bit more space in the body,

A little bit more space in the cells.

And so we can ask,

Maybe the hips can soften,

The lower back softens.

If you want to,

You can even take that first breath into the lower back,

Bringing it into the chest and then exhaling.

If you're having trouble finding your rhythm with the breath,

That's fine.

Always take a break and come back to it.

What's cool is the breath can teach us so much about letting go.

So on the exhale,

You don't have to do anything with it.

You don't have to push.

See what happens if you just allow it to come out almost as a sigh.

And that sigh is just a release of control or the illusion of control.

So there's a permission coming up that can be maybe interesting to explore,

Which is I give my heart permission to heal.

I give my body permission to heal.

Stay with the breath,

Breathing into the belly,

Chest,

And release.

And we'll bring just another layer of awareness into our practice,

Acknowledging that the breath we're working with,

The breath moving in through our bodies,

Isn't just oxygen,

It's also energy.

And that energy carries a frequency like a light.

And that light might be warm,

Yellow,

Pink,

Cool blue.

You can imagine that that light now,

With each breath,

With each heartbeat,

It's just coursing through your body like a gentle river,

Flowing,

Flowing,

Flowing in your cells,

Between your cells.

And as it does,

It just gently encourages your cells to relax,

To open.

There may be some emotion that starts to move as we work with this,

Inviting in more light,

More oxygen,

More breath,

More love.

And as we work with this,

You may find that there's like a part of your body,

Might be a hip or elbow,

Whatever it is,

A part that feels like it,

It might even hurt,

But it might feel tight,

Constricted.

Usually that's a part that's holding some kind of old story or old pattern and old emotion.

And so we'll just issue a really gentle invitation to all those parts of ourselves that feel tight or constricted or alone or hurting,

Just to breathe with us.

That's all.

No fixing.

Breathe into the belly,

Into the chest,

And release.

What if just for now,

We welcome all the parts of ourselves to breathe as one?

That doesn't have to make sense,

But to help with it,

You can,

If you want to,

Just imagine that there are roots growing really gently from the bottom of your body,

Down,

Down,

Down into the earth,

Through the soil.

And these roots just gently spread out in all directions,

Down,

Sideways,

North,

South,

East,

West,

Connecting you with the heartbeat of the earth,

With the soul of the mother who holds all of us.

And so as we breathe,

With each inhale,

The earth breathes with us,

Just like we breathed with our mothers when we were in the womb.

So if you need a little bit of extra support or love,

A little extra healing,

You can know that you're not alone.

The earth is with you.

This amazing group is with you.

We can let each breath be a prayer and each breath be a blessing.

We'll be breathing for about five more minutes.

And if you want to,

You can allow this to go even a little bit deeper,

Just by letting go a little bit more.

So letting the jaw release,

Letting the eyebrows release,

Letting the shoulders release,

Just letting the breath take over,

So that it's as if the breath is breathing you.

And if it feels right to you,

I'll invite you to just breathe a little bit more into your heart.

So breathing right into that area,

Right between the heart and the throat,

The upper chest.

And we'll ask the breath to help us open our hearts a little bit,

So you can imagine the heart is a beautiful flower that may have been closed for a while.

And as we breathe together into that area,

It's like the first rays of the sun on a beautiful morning brush up against the flower of the heart and invite it to open,

So that those petals unfold and unfurl,

Revealing their beautiful multi-hued colors.

If you want to,

You can just imagine all the parts of yourself gathered around this flower,

Cradling it,

Nurturing it,

Protecting it.

And soon,

The flower as it continues to bloom and the petals to unfurl,

Each one sparkling with its own beautiful light.

At the center of the flower,

There is a different light,

Something that exists beyond time,

Beyond space.

This light at the center of your heart that is uniquely yours.

And as we take these last few breaths,

Noticing that as we notice the light at the center of the heart,

That light might get a little bit brighter.

Just a couple more breaths,

And brighter.

And if we allow it,

That light that originates at the center of the heart can flow through the entire body.

And that light in our heart is not so secretly connected with the ocean of all that is.

And so in this way,

We can let ourselves connect with that sea of creation.

And on the exhale,

I can just imagine that heart light,

That energy flowing out of you in waves.

If you haven't already,

I'll invite you to transition to your resting breath.

That's just a single inhale,

Still through the mouth,

And then a release.

So all the work is over,

Friends.

These next few minutes are your chance to relax and receive.

You can imagine that there's just this beautiful blanket woven of creativity,

Love,

Gravity that lays over you,

Inviting you into deeper connection with the earth so that the heart can continue to work and open,

Flow.

I'll invite you,

If it feels interesting,

Just to imagine that your body is sinking into the earth in a really beautiful way,

Just like sinking into the most nurturing,

Comforting,

Loving hug.

And as the body sinks into the earth,

Down through layers of history,

Layers of sediment,

And stone,

And dreaming,

You find that you're floating in a vast,

Warm,

Calm ocean.

That this ocean holds you effortlessly as you float.

You can even allow the boundaries of your body to just dissolve.

As your cells remember what it is to be connected with infinite potential and flow,

With this elemental force of creation.

And the beautiful thing is you don't have to do anything to deserve this connection and support.

Simply by being,

You already have access to it.

So we'll just invite any old stuff that's carrying stories that have been keeping you separate.

Just invite those stories,

That energy to wash away in the ocean to be transformed so that our cells can remember connection and harmony.

So that we may take that remembrance with us with each breath.

When you're ready,

I'll just invite you to begin gathering your body back together as you float in the ocean,

Feeling your arms,

Your shoulders,

Your hips,

Your feet,

As you rise back up through the layers of the earth.

Taking a moment to feel the presence of the 70 or so other hearts rising alongside you,

Journeying together as you just gently return to your room,

To your breath.

You can bring the breathing to a more natural place.

Maybe breathing in through the nose and just really gently bringing yourself back.

So I always like to wiggle my fingers and my toes for a few moments,

Maybe wiggle the hips and take your time.

When you're ready,

You can roll on over to your side,

Maybe bring your knees up to your chest and coming up to seated in your own time,

Knowing you might be a little bit dizzy.

And often it can be really powerful and interesting to take a few notes of anything that came to you during the practice,

Knowing you can always return to it.

And I've heard from folks that these tend to be experienced a little bit differently each time we do it.

So thank you so much for being here and for breathing and hope to see you again soon.

Take care.

Reviews

I really appreciate the intention of this session. It’s one I revisit often. The gentle breathwork is more effective for me than pushing hard breathwork🙏

It was a great breathwork for the last day of 2024. Very grateful for this beautiful gift💜🙏💜✨✨✨✨✨🕊️🎁

Beautiful practice 🙏🏼 I enjoyed merging with the ocean 💗

Breathwork in one of nature's best medicines and Michel is one of the best facilitators I've ever experienced on this app! 💞🙏

I so appreciate the recordings, when my schedule won't allow me to participate in the live sessions. I always can feel the energy of the campfire, the support, and your amazing guidance. Deep gratitude 🙏🏼