So welcome.
This is Susan at Yoga for Modern Life.
And this is a short audio just explaining a breathing technique that's really useful in pregnancy called the golden thread.
And this is a really lovely breathing practice in which we focus on the exhalation,
The out breath to ease the body into a deep sense of rest and a calming place.
And just helping us becoming more aware of the power of our natural breath and helping us to visualize the breath too.
And the aim of the practice is to lengthen the exhalation,
Allowing you to go deeper into a healing stillness.
And it's often naturally adopted,
This kind of breathing by women in the first stage of labor.
But it can be useful at any time that you want to focus on the breath and bring the mind into a calm and more centered place.
And you can do this practice sitting or lying,
Even standing up.
So just taking whatever position feels good for you right now.
If you're sitting in a chair,
Just sitting with the back gently straightened and crossing the legs,
Having the soles of the feet flat on the floor and just starting to tune into your natural gentle pattern of breathing.
Just allowing the breath to come and go effortlessly and softly,
Not trying to change it in any way.
You might want to gently close your eyes,
Helping you to take the attention inwards.
And just checking the jaw feels relaxed,
The teeth aren't gripped together,
The shoulders are relaxed,
Maybe taking a little yawn just to release the jaw separating the teeth.
And then allowing there to be a really small space between the top and the bottom lip and your top and bottom teeth.
Just a really narrow little space,
Just enough that you might imagine there's a little piece of tissue paper held between the lips.
Really small gap,
Almost invisible.
And then breathing in through the nose,
Just breathing out through these gently softly parted lips and feeling a fine cool breeze passing out between the lips.
Breathing in through the nose and breathing out softly gently through these softly parted lips,
Keeping the cheeks,
The lips,
The face nice and relaxed,
Making sure we don't purse the lips,
Keeping them lovely and soft.
So feeling the breath travelling in through the nose,
Out through this small space between the lips,
Allowing that breath to be so fine that it feels almost like a fine gold and silky thread is spinning out between the lips.
Like a thin silky thread smoothly spinning out away from you with every exhalation.
As you gently tune in to this pattern of breathing,
Just trying to allow each exhalation to lengthen gently,
Naturally without forcing it.
Simply letting the out breath increase in length as this golden thread of breath spins out into the air in front of you.
And with each inhalation,
Allowing for the breath to go in through the nose and just feeling that soft breeze of the exhalation travelling between the lips,
Out and away gently softly into the air in front of your closed eyes.
Letting the end of the golden thread carry your mental attention further away,
Out and away with each exhalation that you take.
And just keeping everything beautiful and soft in this practice,
Making sure the lips are soft and the breath that's passing between them is silent and gentle.
This lengthening of the exhalation is achieved effortlessly simply because of the gap through which the breath passes.
It's so small,
It's just taking a longer time for the breath to pass out.
So no sense of force in the body.
Simply watching the breath lengthen and following it out,
Imagining it flowing out as this golden thread into the space in front of you.
Feeling entirely effortless,
Completely comfortable and really soothing.
And this can be a really helpful breathing technique as an antidote to any pain or tension or tightness in the body.
This extension of the exhalation makes it really powerful.
Great for managing anxiety and stress and also pain management.
And the farther and farther out you imagine this golden thread traveling as the exhalation lengthens,
The further away your mental attention travels and the more the body can relax into a quiet,
Gentle serene space of ease and healing.
And the longer the exhalation is,
The greater the distance between the mind and the body.
So just letting that golden thread travel out as far as it's comfortable for you,
Allowing the body to come into its state of ease for rest.
And just continuing with this practice as long as you need to,
As long as that feels good for you.
Thank you.
