Breathwork For The Full Moon (Live Session)

Recorded on November 26, 2023 on Insight Timer, this breathwork experience welcomes the energy of the full moon, breathing into fullness and partnering with the energy of the moon to facilitate healing. 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, 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 everybody and welcome to this full moon breathwork meditation that was recorded live on November 26th,

2023.

In case you're not familiar with this practice,

All you're going to do is lie down and close your eyes and the breathing itself is a simple three-part breath.

You'll be breathing all through the mouth and there'll be two inhales and an exhale.

The first inhale is into the belly,

The second inhale is into the chest,

And then the exhale is simply a release.

As always,

The invitation throughout the experience is to pay attention to your body.

There may be moments where you want to speed up or slow down or take a break.

The idea is that this is really your space to play with connecting with the breath in whatever way feels right to you in this moment.

So with that,

Thank you so much for being here and I will send you off to the recording.

Enjoy.

So Sutra number 105.

When you gaze in wonder at the stars,

Become enthralled with the vast spaciousness between them.

Space is an incomprehensible being,

An invisible presence,

Independent,

Independently wealthy,

Without beginning or end,

And giving.

Space bestows an unbounded theater for suns,

Planets,

Constellations to dance in their graceful orbits.

Space offers you an infinite arena to play,

Explore,

And experience.

Receive this gift of freedom.

So there's a couple of invitations in that for us on this full moon eve.

One is this idea of that when we embrace space and we open space in our bodies,

It can provide an infinite arena for play and exploration and surprise for new experiences.

And so especially for those of us who have been doing this breath work for a while,

In my case 12 years,

There's a beautiful invitation to do it as if it is the first time,

As if it is our first exploration of spaciousness.

The other invitation is to become enthralled with the vast spaciousness between stars,

Allowing ourselves to become fascinated with the space between breaths,

The space between ideas,

That kind of liminal space that often we tend to avoid because it's uncomfortable.

All right,

My friends,

So I'll invite you just to take a nice slow breath in as you lie down and close your eyes and release it with a sigh.

And sometimes it's nice just as we start to remind ourselves,

Maybe even whisper out loud to yourself,

It's safe for me to be in my body.

It's safe for me to embrace spaciousness.

And just take a nice slow breath in,

Release it with a sigh.

And with that,

I'll just invite you to start that breathing pattern all through the mouth,

Breathing into the belly,

Into the chest,

And release.

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

So as always,

These first few minutes of this breathing,

Ah,

Belly,

Ah,

Chest,

Ah,

And release.

Belly,

Ah,

Chest,

Release.

These first few minutes are really just your chance to get used to this breathing pattern and to allow it to find its relationship with your body,

With your heart and lungs.

It's not uncommon at the beginning to feel a little bit of constriction around the breath as we breathe into the belly,

Into the chest,

And release.

The invitation is to just be gentle with yourself.

We don't need to force the breath anywhere.

So if you can only breathe into the solar plexus at the beginning,

That's fine.

We'll just all hold this intention of opening up a little more space as we move into it.

Belly,

Ah,

Chest,

Release.

And something that I always like to play with is just letting the exhale be a release.

We don't have to blow the air out or put any effort into the release at all.

It's just a letting go.

You're doing great.

If you're finding that your mind is a little bit busy as we start,

You can allow the mind to just focus on the breath and maybe even think the words,

Inhale,

Inhale,

Release.

Inhale,

Inhale,

Release.

And if your mind gets pulled into stories or to-do lists,

You can always just bring it back,

Especially here at the beginning,

To inhale,

Inhale,

And release.

And so as we move into this,

I'll invite you just to pay attention really gently to the sensation of the breath moving in and out of the body.

So feeling the expansion of the belly,

The expansion of the chest,

And the release.

Maybe feeling your body against whatever you're laying down on,

Wiggling your hips a little bit,

Wiggling your shoulders,

Just opening up the body a little bit.

As you continue to breathe,

Finding your rhythm,

Belly.

So with the fullness of the moon,

There's an invitation to breathe a little bit more fully if you can,

Taking in about two or three percent more oxygen into the belly,

Just allowing that belly to expand,

To fill with air,

And then bringing that fullness into the chest,

And then releasing.

Before,

Just as with the moon,

The cycle begins again.

Filling,

Filling,

Empty.

Good.

And wherever you're breathing into,

See if you can get it an inch or two lower.

So if you're breathing into the belly,

See if you can get that breath maybe two inches behind the belly button and two inches below.

If your breath is kind of hovering around the solar plexus,

See if you can get it just a little closer to the belly.

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

Sometimes if we're struggling a little bit with the breath,

It can be useful just to bring awareness that whenever we breathe,

And specifically in this way,

We're breathing in connection with all that is.

So this breath we're breathing is the same breath that whales breathe,

That eagles breathe.

It's the same energy that flows through the oceans.

So you can imagine as you breathe in,

Into the belly and into the chest,

It's like a gentle tide coming in,

Washing up through the body.

And when we exhale,

We release those molecules of carbon dioxide back into the vast ocean,

All around us in the space between molecules and moments.

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

You may be starting to feel a little bit of a shift as we move a little bit more deeply into this spaciousness.

I'll invite you just to notice any tension you're holding in your any tension you're holding in your face as you breathe.

And see if you can allow just your eyeballs to relax.

If your brows are knit together,

Just ask them to unfurl.

Allow the jaw to release.

You may become aware that when we allow the jaw to release,

The hips and lower back also may open a little bit.

Just keep breathing.

You're doing great.

And I'll invite you just to,

As you breathe,

Invite in an awareness of anywhere in your life right now that feels full.

And that fullness might be in your relationship with family or a pet.

It may be as simple as the feeling of fullness you get from the first cup of coffee in the morning.

I'll invite you just to honor those places in your life and in your world where you're experiencing fullness or spaciousness,

Openness.

Openness.

And as you breathe,

Allow the breath to be just an honoring of that sense of fullness and spaciousness.

And so allow that energy just to move through the body because this isn't just oxygen we're working with.

It's the elemental energy of life and of creation.

That we're infusing with that sense of fullness.

And so that energy can move through the blood,

Through the cells,

Through the muscles,

With each heartbeat,

With each breath.

Sharing that sense of fullness and spaciousness that we experience in one space with the whole whole beingness of our body.

Keep breathing,

Belly,

Chest,

Release,

Chest.

And probably all of us also have places in our body,

Places in our lives or our work that feel like they've been kind of shut away or not feeling the light of the sun or the full moon.

Sometimes it might be our creativity or a sense of hope,

Our belief in magic or spirit.

Whatever those spaces are,

We don't even have to know what they are.

We'll just invite them to breathe with that energy of fullness and spaciousness.

Just inviting them to be with us,

To breathe into the belly,

Into the chest,

And then releasing.

And as we move into like the last four or five minutes of this breathing pattern,

We'll invite the breath just to open up a little bit more space in our bodies.

So we can invite it to create a little bit more space between bones,

A little bit more space between cells so that our body can take up a little bit more spaciousness.

And anything that's been feeling tight or constricted,

We can just invite it to open up to flow with the energy of the full moon and the tides,

The oceans.

Sometimes that spaciousness can feel a little challenging,

So we can always ask for help.

Ask the moon for help.

Teach me about space.

Teach me about fullness.

Ask the oceans.

Teach me what it is to dance with the moon,

To dance with nature.

Belly and release.

And if you're not already,

I'll invite you to bring the breath a little bit more up towards the heart,

Into that space between the heart and the throat.

Really expanding,

Creating space between the shoulder blades.

And as we just breathe into the heart for just a couple of minutes here,

You can imagine maybe that there are little wings or not so little wings.

And then as we breathe in to that area,

They start to open and unfurl and take up space.

And then you can let the breath kind of soften.

Everything can soften.

We'll just be breathing for about another minute.

And then as we breathe out,

We'll just be breathing in and out.

We'll just be breathing for about another minute.

And if you want to,

You can even allow the breath to breathe you a little bit,

The same way the oceans allow the moon to pull at her waters.

We can just allow the breath to move into the heart and the heart to open those wings to spread wide,

Wide,

Wide,

Wide,

Wide.

So you can imagine those wings in the back of the heart opening and unfurling.

Each of the feathers in those wings filling up with moonlight,

Which really is a reflection of the sun.

So in some ways,

The fullness of the moon reminds us of the power of the sun as well.

Both of those combining in those wings in the back of our heart and flowing towards the center,

Towards our heart,

Our heart,

Which is secretly connected with the beating heart of all that is.

When you're ready,

I'll just invite you to transition to a resting breath.

And a resting breath is simply a single inhale still through the mouth,

Breathing into the belly,

And then just letting it go.

So the work is over.

And these next few minutes are an opportunity to relax,

Receive,

Integrate.

And if you want to,

You can allow your body to get a little bit heavier,

Like there's a beautiful blanket woven of moonlight,

Gravity,

Fullness,

Love.

This blanket just settling over your body,

Allowing you to come into deeper connection with the earth.

And if you want to,

You can even imagine,

As your body settles to the earth,

That the boundaries of the body begin to dissolve.

And the spirit,

The imagination,

Can float up off the body,

Up,

Up,

Up through the ceiling into the sky,

Feeling the space between molecules,

Brushing against your energy.

And then you can even allow yourself to float up through the atmosphere until you're in the sky and the stars all around you.

Seeing up close the full moon,

Filling your heart,

Filling your cells with beautiful,

Silver,

Gentle energy.

What would it be like to reflect the light of the sun as beautifully as the full moon does?

To allow each of our hearts to be a reflection and an emanation of that light.

And if you want to,

You can imagine that around our shared campfire,

The moon is floating at the center,

Just connecting with each of our hearts,

Bringing wisdom,

Insight,

Comfort,

Love.

And still,

Just staying heavy and relaxed,

You can bring your breathing to a more natural place.

Feeling the tides of breath and energy in your body,

Ebb and flow,

Rise and fall.

It can be nice just to honor the moon with our breath.

So with the inhales,

Just to honor the moon with our breath.

And with the exhales,

Just to honor the moon with our breath.

Taking in the beauty and the light of the moon.

And on the exhales,

Maybe sharing a little bit of light,

Sharing a little bit of your genius,

Your heart,

Your creativity,

Your beauty.

And taking a moment just to send some of that light to anybody in the world,

Anybody in your world who might need it.

And if you need it,

If you need a little bit of light in your world,

It's right there for you flowing in whenever it feels right to allow it.

Light from this group,

From the moon,

From the sun.

And I'll invite you just to gently start bringing yourself back.

I always like to wiggle my fingers and toes,

Maybe roll on over to your side.

And take as much time as feels right to you to integrate.

You may want to make some notes in a journal or on a scrap of paper.

And as always,

Thank you so much for breathing with us.

And especially in this moment of honoring the full moon,

Whenever we may be honoring her in this recording.

Thanks so much for listening,

And hope to see you again soon.

Reviews

Practiced on the next full moon, just after Christmas 2023. Lovely, connecting session - thank you!