Let's go ahead and get comfy.
Comfort is absolutely king,
Or queen in our case.
And we are going to make sure that our sit bones are even,
That we're sitting up straight,
Head kind of gently balanced without dipping forward or back.
Let your shoulders drop and go ahead and let your eyes gently close.
Let's start with just taking three slow,
Intentional breaths to bring ourselves present to our own physical being here in this moment.
Breathing in and breathing out,
And breathing in and breathing out.
One more.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Now if you'll bring your attention to the very tip of your nose.
Is it warm?
Is it cool?
Now as you're breathing,
Can you notice the feel of the air coming in at the tip of your nose?
And on your next breath,
Follow it.
Can you feel it up into your sinuses?
As you continue to breathe,
Can you notice the air flowing down your throat?
You feel the air as it warms with your body heat?
Bring your attention now to your chest.
And as you breathe in,
Notice how your chest expands.
And notice when you release the air,
How your body falls back into relaxed stillness.
Notice your back as you breathe in.
The ribs as they expand in the back,
And as they fall down again as you exhale.
Drop your attention a little lower to your belly.
Can you take a slightly larger breath and allow your belly to expand?
Do you feel tension or holding in your core muscles as you try to do a belly breath?
Can you consciously relax those muscles?
And just allow your belly to expand.
Now let's concentrate on the out breath.
Nice big breath in,
And slow down on the out breath.
Just extend it and let it flow very slowly all the way to the end of the breath.
How is that different than watching the breath coming in?
Keep breathing.
And if you notice thoughts popping in,
That's what they do.
Just notice and let them go.
Now let's notice in between the breaths.
You'll see that in between the in and the out,
There's a little pause.
And right before you breathe in again,
There's a little pause.
So in your own time,
Let's take a couple of breaths and notice the pause before your body just automatically breathes again.
And how is noticing the pause different than noticing the flow of your breath?
Just notice,
Be aware of how your body breathes.
It doesn't need you to think about it.
It just breathes.
Now let's move to a technique that is particularly helpful when you're feeling stressed,
When your thoughts are swirling,
When you feel like you need to calm yourself,
Maybe before a meeting or a call,
Is counting breaths.
Very simple.
And if you count backwards,
It forces your mind to really pay attention.
So we're gonna count backwards.
We're going to count our breaths from 10.
So breathing in and breathing out,
10.
And breathing in and breathing out,
Nine.
Nine.
And breathing in and breathing out,
Eight.
And I'll let you do it at your own pace.
Keep going.
Breathing in,
Seven.
Breathing in,
Two.
And breathing in.
Notice how your body feels after that countdown,
That focus.
Does it feel calmer?
Maybe a bit more relaxed.
Maybe your breathing's a bit steadier.
And the last technique that I'll teach you today around your breath is called heart breathing.
And this one is really to help you center,
To bring your attention completely back to yourself,
To the now.
It's quite simple.
As you breathe in,
You picture the air coming in from the back of your heart,
That space back between your shoulder blades.
And as you breathe out,
You picture that breath blowing out from the front of your chest,
From the front of your heart.
And all the while,
You're calling yourself back to that place in the center of you.
So let's try that.
Breathing in from the back of your heart and breathing out from the front.
Let's do that two more times.
Breathing in from the back of your heart and breathing out from the front.
One more time.
Big breath in from the back of your heart and blow it out through the front.
And if you'd like,
You could bring your hands to your heart,
Continue heart breathing,
And maybe use the mantra,
Peace.
Breathing in,
Peace,
And breathing out,
Peace.
One more.
Breathing in,
Peace,
And breathing out,
Peace.
Now bring your hands to prayer position in front of your heart.
With a little head bow,
I offer you the blessing.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
And may you know peace.
Namaste.
