So,
Welcome.
This is a practice of balancing breath,
And this can help you to connect with your breathing,
To find a sense of space and ease and balance to your breath,
Which can be really calming and soothing.
And you can do this in any position.
You can do it seated.
It can be nice to do lying down on your back,
And you just want to be comfortable.
So,
Letting yourself just come to settle,
Find some ease in your body,
And just letting your eyes close and letting your awareness fall to notice your breathing,
And letting yourself just soften and relax into the natural flow of your breath.
And as you breathe,
Sensing the cool air entering your nostrils,
And see if you can gently guide the breath equally to come in through the right and the left nostril equally,
And then equally back out again.
So,
Really being aware of the flow of the air through your nose on the inhale and the exhale,
And having a sense that there is an equal balance of breath through the right and the left nostril,
And just taking some breaths to really tune into that.
Letting the air travelling in,
And then maybe noticing the slightly warmer breath travelling out of the nose.
Let that be your focus of awareness.
And then could you let your focus be on balancing the length of your in and your out breaths,
Letting them be really easy,
Relaxed,
And slow,
And equal in length.
And taking some breaths,
Sensing an equal time and length of the inhalation,
Followed by an equal time for the exhalation.
And if it's helpful as you inhale,
Just to count in your head how long your inhale takes,
And then slowly letting the exhale become balanced.
So,
Take the same amount of time,
But in a really gentle way,
Not forcing,
Not holding or creating tension,
But just letting the inhale and the exhale become of equal length,
Balanced and easy.
And just taking a few breaths to let your awareness settle on the length of your breath now.
And then could you bring your attention to balancing the strength of the in and the out breaths,
So that one part is not more dominant than the other.
And just taking a few breaths here now,
Levelling the length and the strength of each inhale and exhale as the breath comes and goes.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And now could you gently think of breathing evenly into the bottom,
Then the middle,
And then the top of your lungs,
And then back out again,
Releasing the breath from the top,
The middle,
The bottom,
In one smooth flow.
So,
Feeling the depth,
The height of your lungs,
And following your breath all the way till it fills,
All the way down to the bottom of the lungs,
And then empties all the way back,
Releasing the full breath out.
And as you breathe,
Really sensing the full height and depth of your lungs through the inhale and the exhale.
And just letting your awareness rest now on the depth,
The height of your lungs as you breathe.
And then could you bring your awareness to the sides,
The edges of your lungs.
So,
The outer edges by your ribcage,
The side seams of the body,
And also the inner edges that are by your spine on both the left and the right lung.
So,
As you breathe in and breathe out slowly,
Spaciously,
Gently,
Feeling into the width,
The breadth of your lungs,
The expansion,
And then the release.
Sensing,
Feeling,
Imagining the edges of both of your lungs as you inhale and you exhale.
And taking a few breaths,
Really sensing in to the width,
The breadth of your lungs now.
And then could you widen your attention to the front and the back of your body,
Breathing evenly into the front and the back of your lungs.
Feeling the front and the back of your ribcage expand and open with each inhale.
And then release and move back towards each other with each exhale.
And as you take some easy,
Spacious breaths now,
Feeling the front and the back of the body,
The space in front and behind you as you breathe.
Inhaling and exhaling,
Letting there be a spaciousness and evenness in front and behind your body as you breathe.
And then finally,
Could you cultivate a sense of even smoothness at the beginning and ending of each inhalation.
So,
There's a smooth fluid cycle and transition through the parts of your breath.
Smoothly flowing in,
Smoothly flowing out.
Finding an easy rhythm,
Pattern,
Cadence,
And smoothness to your breath as it rounds,
Cycles,
The inhale and the exhale.
And just drawing your awareness to a sense of smoothness and ease of your breath.
And just taking a few more breaths here now.
Really enjoying,
Savouring the sense of balance and sense of space and calmness in your body and your mind and your breath.
And letting those feelings of balance,
Spaciousness,
Calm,
Stay with you for the rest of the day.
