Daily Big Breathing Practice

This is your daily reminder of how to make the most of your day by making the most out of your breath. In this Breathwork practice, I'll guide you to pay attention to your breath in the domains of space and time. Getting you to become fully immersed in your breathing experience.

Transcript

Welcome to this daily big breathing practice.

So breathing is so basic right?

We do it all the time but do we do it well is the question.

In this session we're going to make the best breath we can.

Now if you need convincing why we need to make the best breath you can then check out my full-length course on breathing.

I cover that in detail but I can tell you the conclusion is it's good for you in every way possible.

In this session we're gonna get straight to it though.

Like I say check out the course if you want more details on that but this session we're gonna get straight into it.

So wherever you are get yourself into a nice comfortable seat sitting upright so the diaphragm isn't compromised and if you're wondering what the diaphragm is this is your breathing muscle and by sitting upright we allow it the most space possible for it to work.

I want you up nice and straight shoulders back open chest.

I want you to bring the eyes to close and begin to breathe in and out through the nostrils.

Just taking a moment to get settled in here.

I want the eyes closed today because I want you to feel more than you see.

I want you to really get in touch with how you're breathing and because most of it is out of your sight anyway I find closing your eyes can help you bring that attention inwards.

So while you're sitting there breathing in and out through the nostrils you should know that there's two major ways we can increase our breath.

We can make the breath bigger.

One is in the spatial sense and two is in the temporal sense.

That just means in space and time.

Now time is the slightly easier one to deal with so let's do that first.

As you're breathing in and out through the nostrils I want you just to introduce a gentle pause between the inhale and the exhale.

By doing this you're punctuating the breath.

I want you to inhale pause exhale pause and repeat.

By doing this you're giving the inhale and the exhale both their own moment in the spotlight.

You're making sure one doesn't bleed in to the other making them each a distinct breathing pattern.

Great and it's important to make sure you give your inhale and exhale their own moment in the spotlight because each of them have a very distinct function,

An important function.

Giving yourself time to inhale and exhale is important to your overall well-being.

Again check out the full course for full details.

Now that you have that little pause between the inhale and the exhale and the exhale and inhale let's see if you can extend the inhale and the exhale itself.

So the whole breathing pattern takes much longer.

Remember you are no rush here.

Think about savoring each element of the breath.

The inhale,

The pause,

The exhale,

The next pause.

Like you're enjoying a delicious treat.

Like an ice cream.

Making sure each bite is enjoyed to its fullest and also of course to avoid getting an ice cream headache.

So just enjoy doing that now.

Long breaths in each element of the breath cycle.

As you do this can you feel the pace of the world slow down?

Can you begin to appreciate just how you have enough in the present moment?

Can you start to enjoy this luxury that is to breathe?

And in breathing longer can you breathe fuller?

Nice.

Let's move now to the spatial field.

The actual physical mechanism of our breathing.

To start with begin to track your breath.

Notice where it comes in.

Ideally that's the nostrils but notice exactly where in the nostrils.

This cavity on your face.

With each inhale through the nostrils can you open them a bit wider?

Can you flare them?

As you do this can you increase the passage for air and life force to travel into your body?

Now this may be subtle.

Just pay attention here.

Maybe there's no movement at all but just become aware.

Now track that breath even further.

Where does it go from the nostrils?

You probably feel it in your throat next.

Notice there's any construction here.

Your job is to open this path of air up as efficiently as possible.

Reducing any roadblocks.

Maximizing the amount of air that can come in.

Again these may be subtle movements.

Now let's jump to the part of the body that's pulling in air.

This should ideally be the belly.

Now it may not be but that's okay.

We're gonna work on that.

Can you begin to focus on this area?

Now really what we're looking for here is the diaphragm.

But we can feel it most in the belly.

We can check if this is happening by focusing on the belly.

Seeing if it comes out on the inhale and goes back in on the exhale.

So bring your hands onto your stomach now and feel it.

See if you can notice expansion on the inhale and contraction on the exhale.

Imagine that navel pulling away from the spine on the inhale.

Now when you relax and exhale it just gently returns to that starting point.

See what it's like to use the belly to pull in that air instead of the chest.

Now bring your hands to just above your hips like a corset.

Can you increase your breath sideways?

Can you expand the ribs out with each inhale?

As you do this what you're doing is expanding the thorax,

The chest cavity.

Quite often we don't use these muscles nearly enough.

So can you take this moment to really think about expanding the ribcage out to the sides into your hands using those intercostal muscles.

As you exhale just let it return back to the center.

Still using that elongated breath in,

That slight pause,

That elongated breath out.

Good job.

Lastly let's take those hands bring them onto your low to mid back.

You can use the back of your hands or the palms of your hands depending on your flexibility of your shoulders.

Just spread your fingers out nice and wide though so you get a nice big surface area.

If that's too much on your shoulders you can just bring your mind's eye to feel it.

What does it feel now to try extend your breathing backwards?

Like you're trying to push the back of your ribs out towards the back of the room.

This will be probably the hardest of all of these sensations to really locate and to exercise but that's okay.

Each exhale see if you can push those ribs back and let them return to the starting point.

Great.

Now can we do that all together?

Keeping that lovely slow pace of breath that we started with and now increasing that space of breath.

Inhale opening up those nostrils and exhale.

Then inhale open up that throat and exhale.

Beginning to think about our belly forwards.

Inhale and exhale.

Bring your hands onto your sides.

Inhale expand out and relax.

Inhale expand outwards to the back.

Now trying to do it all together.

Maximizing that breath in through the nostrils and the throat.

Expanding the belly forward,

Sideways and back.

Taking your time and pausing.

A slow exhale to return to baseline.

Inhaling through that nostril and throat cavity as large as possible.

Expanding out in 360 degrees.

Taking your time with that inhale.

Making yourself as big as possible and exhaling out.

Let it all return slowly back to the center.

Just begin to feel what this is like.

Extending 360 degrees.

Taking our time.

Extending the amount of time that we breathe.

Breathing in and out.

Breathing our biggest breaths of the day.

Making the most out of the air around us.

Making the most of the breath that we have.

Making the most out of the time that we have.

As you do this can you feel your breath deepen as you pull more air in?

Can you feel the increase of life force that's coming with it?

Can you feel it dissipate from your lungs to your blood to your heart?

And then can you feel it disperse down every vein in your body?

Bringing energy to all your organs,

Even your skin.

Can you feel this now?

This is you embodying the world around you.

This is you becoming one with the cosmos.

Becoming one with space and time by making the most out of both of those things.

Thank you for sharing your time with me.

We'll see you soon.

Namaste.

Reviews

Doug's breathwork practices increase my body awareness in a way that is both calming and energizing.

This breathwork is brilliant. Really expanding and focusing on breathe and where it begins and ends. Not keen on the music but I didn't hear it after a whole.