Hello friends and welcome to this breathwork practice that was recorded on Insight Timer Live on April 9th,
2023.
A brief introduction to the practice in case you're new to it,
And then I'll send you straight off to the recording.
So to do this breathing practice,
You'll be lying down with your eyes closed,
And it's a three-part breath,
Really gentle and all through the mouth.
You'll breathe into the belly,
Into the chest,
And then exhale.
Into the belly,
Chest,
And then release.
There's no particular pace that you need to go at,
No particular intensity.
The invitation in this practice is to really pay attention to your body and use this space together as an opportunity to connect with the breath,
Connect with yourself,
And move through the process and the journey that we went through live together.
So that even by doing this after we did it live,
You're still a part of the circle.
You're around the virtual campfire with us.
So I'll send you off to the recording for our reading from the Radiant Sutras,
And hope you have a beautiful breathwork practice.
Thank you for being here.
All right,
So reading from the Radiant Sutras,
Sutra number 88.
Wander and wander to the point of exhaustion.
Whirl until you lose all control.
Dance until you are ready to drop.
Then drop.
Fall to the earth.
Surrender to the swirl of sensations surging through your form.
Dissolve in awe as arising energies continue the dance in your inner world.
Beyond motion and commotion,
Become the body of ecstasy.
I love this.
Surrender to the swirl of sensations surging through your form and dissolve in awe as arising energies continue the dance in your inner world.
There's a beautiful invitation in this.
There's always such great invitations in these verses just to surrender to whatever's going on,
To dance with the breath,
To dance in the moon,
And to be in awe of what our bodies experience,
Of what the breath can bring to us.
I'm glad you like it,
Kate.
All right,
My friends,
I'm going to get ready to breathe.
And as we do,
I'll just invite you to lay down or sit up if that's what you're choosing,
And take a nice slow breath in.
Release it with a sigh.
And before we start,
As always,
It's beautiful to remind ourselves and each other it's safe for me to be in my body.
It's safe for me to feel my emotions.
And tonight even,
It's safe for me to be reborn,
To rekindle the parts of myself that have felt desiccated or dry.
Nice slow breath in.
Release it with a sigh.
Go ahead and start the breathing all through the mouth,
Into the belly,
Chest.
Release.
Belly,
Chest,
Release.
These first few minutes,
As always,
Are your chance to get into relationship with the breath.
Noticing the racing mind,
Noticing the beating of your heart as you breathe into the belly,
Into the chest,
And releasing.
And if the mind is busy,
You can have fun with it and see if you can allow it to maybe focus so much on the breath that it's like a high-intensity laser,
Thinking inhale,
Inhale,
Exhale.
And seeing how much you can notice about the breath,
How much can your incredible mind take in about the expansion of the belly,
About the flow of oxygen through the body,
About the sensation of your body against the earth.
And now can be a good time to take in a little more oxygen.
If that feels interesting to you,
Maybe three or four percent more oxygen into the belly.
And for some of you,
There may be that mental busyness or even like an intensity of energy in the body.
So if it's interesting,
You can give that a sound,
Maybe a sigh or the elephant scream or a laugh,
Or simply allow the breath to be infused with the energy of your body and mind.
And see if you can get the breath a little bit deeper into the belly,
Maybe two inches behind the belly button and two inches below.
And as we breathe in,
There's an invitation to each of us and all of us just to let go of any intention,
To let go of the mind's need to analyze or understand or have a goal.
And to support our practice,
I'm just going to gently invite in the energy of the spring,
Of the turning seasons,
That energy of revitalization,
Of growth,
Getting ready to burst through the soil,
The buds blooming on the trees.
And at the same time,
If you're breathing in Australia or anywhere in the southern hemisphere,
Inviting in the energy of fall,
That falling away,
The dying away of old growths that have served their purpose and shared their beauty with the world and now are ready to fall back to the earth.
So with each breath,
Inhale,
Inhale,
Releasing,
We're holding these two energies,
Falling away and rising up,
Death,
Birth and rebirth,
And maybe we're just letting go of the old growths that have served their purpose and shared their beauty with the world.
And maybe each exhale can be a little bit like the falling of a leaf from the tree,
Just a gentle letting go and a floating down towards the earth.
And some of you may start to feel a little bit of energy or emotion start to move as you breathe.
Just keep breathing and trust where the breath wants to lead you.
And if you want to,
We can start to let this practice go a little bit deeper just by letting go of a little more control if that feels interesting to you.
And to do that,
Maybe notice places in your body that are experiencing constriction,
Maybe the muscles of your forehead,
Your eyeballs,
Your ears,
Your jaw,
Your shoulders,
And ask those areas to simply surrender a little bit.
They've been whirling and whirling and whirling in the dance of our day-to-day lives.
And maybe this is the moment that they fall to earth so that the breath and the energy of the breath,
The energy of life can flow in to those spaces,
Sharing light,
Sharing energy,
Inviting them to release anything that may have been stuck in there that's ready to be let go.
And as we breathe,
I'm just going to gently invite in the energy of the thawing rivers that so much that has been maybe frozen or moving very slowly can start to flow.
Our blood,
Our breath,
And there's a really beautiful invitation that if you want to just maybe breathe into a space in your body,
A space in your life,
In your world that feels like it wants to come back to life,
Maybe your creativity,
A relationship with family or a loved one,
A dream,
And imagine that it's just hovering right above you just like a little ember,
Never went all the way out.
And on the next couple exhales,
You can gently direct a little stream of air towards it,
Just like we're kindling a fire or rekindling a fire.
And notice how that ember soaks up the oxygen,
The energy,
And maybe burns a little bit brighter.
Maybe you can feel the sparks of that piece of you start to catch on yourselves.
Stay with the breath just about six more minutes,
Really gently letting that spark of whatever wants to be re-energized,
Reborn,
Revitalized,
Start to light up the cells in your body,
The cells of your heart,
Your blood,
Your muscles.
And as we breathe with this,
Another invitation to just let go of the breath,
And as we breathe with this,
Another invitation as you breathe is to allow the breath also to carry anything that's ready to leave out of the body,
Just like the river carries sediment away.
And you can imagine that sediment just sinking out of the body into the beautiful earth or rising up from the body in a dancing smoke where it makes its way to our fire and can be transformed into some new form,
Color.
Stay with the breath.
And for some of us,
There may be some,
A little bit of grief present for those parts of ourselves or our lives that we've had to let go of,
Loved ones.
And just know that just as there are those of us experiencing this grief,
There are those of us who are here to support and we can hold each other during the sacred time and allow ourselves to be held by the breath.
We'll just breathe,
Breathing for a few more minutes,
And we'll invite you wherever you're at with this.
Breathe a little bit more into the heart and take the breath a little bit more into the center of the chest.
And as we breathe into the heart,
Just maybe imagining that it's a cavern,
That area is a cavern that starts to open a little bit more with each breath.
And the walls of this cavern are filled with beautiful iridescent crystals glowing with an infinite array of colors.
And as we breathe a little more into the heart and the cavern opens and opens and opens and the light grows and grows and grows,
You notice that your cavern connects with the cavern of another person in the circle and another and another and another until each of our individual hearts and our caverns are linked together,
Creating an unspeakably beautiful tapestry of light and shape and breath.
And these last few breaths that we take before we relax together,
See if you can feel the presence of the 70 or so other people whose hearts are opening and glowing,
Supporting and being supported.
You are worthy of that support and love simply by virtue of existing,
Of breathing.
And I'll invite you to transition to a resting breath so all of the work is over.
There's nothing left to do.
These next few minutes are your chance to relax and receive,
To simply be.
And I'll invite you to allow your body to get a little bit heavier on the earth,
Like there's a beautiful blanket woven of gravity,
Woven of joy,
Woven of heart and grief,
Woven of death,
Woven of birth.
All the elements of existence settling over you like a heavy comforting blanket bringing you into deeper connection with the earth.
And as you allow yourself to become heavier,
The earth rises up to receive you,
Welcoming you home,
Supporting you,
Holding you.
And if you want to,
You can allow your spirit,
Your imagination,
Your heart to rise up out of your body.
You won't get lost.
And imagine that you're standing around our joint campfire under the night sky,
Chest up towards the star and the moons so that they can see your heart glowing.
And as we stand around the fire under the night sky,
If you want to,
You can begin to whirl gently,
Turning in place,
Feeling the energy,
The light and the molecules of air around you start to respond to the movement of your spirit.
And as we whirl together under the night sky around the fire,
This energy of our hearts,
Of our humanity,
Of our beauty just begins to spin outwards and spins and it spins and it spins,
Reaching all the corners of the earth to the bottom of the ocean,
To the furthest stars.
Until finally,
When you're ready,
You fall backwards into your body and that dance,
That world continues inside you gently,
Gently,
Gently,
The inner universe,
Dancing with the energy of creation.
See if you can feel yourselves vibrating,
Dancing,
Orbiting each other,
Life moving through your body with each breath,
Each beat of your heart.
And see if you can feel the tips of your fingers,
Your arms,
Your shoulders,
Heavy against the earth.
Your back,
Your hips,
And see if you can feel the earth's body beneath you,
Just as an extension of you and you an extension of it.
You can bring the breathing to a more natural place,
Maybe send a little bit of love out to anyone in your world,
Who might need a little bit of extra support.
And to anyone in this circle,
Who could use a little bit of extra love and healing and support,
Just know that it is already on the way to you.
And just gently start to bring yourself back,
Maybe wiggling your fingers and your toes,
Getting some water,
And taking as much time and space as you need to integrate this.
Thanks for listening,
And hope to see you at one of the live sessions at 6pm Pacific Time Sundays soon.
Thanks for listening.
