Namaste,
Welcome to your practice today.
My name is Sierra and we're going to be going through a meditation along with a breathing exercise called Nadi Shodhana.
Nadi Shodhana is better known as alternate nostril breathing and it works to balance the hemispheres of the brain,
It works to balance the energetic currents of the body and is a really helpful stress management tool if you ever feel overwhelmed,
Maybe a bit of anxiety and stress.
This is a really wonderful and really simple practice to help restore neutrality and balance to the body.
So we're going to start in a seated pose,
Whatever is comfortable for you.
You can choose to sit in a chair or on the floor.
Let's go ahead and move the sitting bones out from underneath you,
So kind of move your hips out of the way so you can settle down a bit deeper into your seat and then let's relax the hands in the lap at first here.
We'll close the eyes and just start to notice your natural breath here for a moment.
So maybe starting to feel yourself root down deeper into your seats.
Let your shoulders soften down away from your ears,
Maybe loosening up around your elbows and the wrists.
Let's lift the ribcage away from the hips,
Sitting up nice and tall and strong,
Feeling a bit of core engagement and then softness around your jaw,
The back of the neck,
Forehead,
Cheekbones,
Maybe even crown of the head.
We'll start here just by taking a few clearing breaths to help us find spaciousness and clarity in the body,
Just help us fully arrive here into our space.
Let's inhale fully through the nose,
Exhale through an open mouth.
Two more just like that,
Inhale through the nose,
Exhale through the mouth.
One more.
Return to a neutral breath here.
Just begin to deepen your breath,
Drawing the inhales all the way down into the base of your belly,
Exhaling all of the air.
Good,
Now coming into our Nadi Shodhana practice,
Taking your right hand,
Let's bring the pointer finger and the middle finger in towards the palm.
You're going to use your thumb and your ring finger for this practice.
So let's take a neutral breath in nice and full and let it go.
Using your thumb,
Let's close off the right nostril,
Inhale through the left.
Using your ring finger,
Let's close off the left nostril,
Exhale through the right.
Then we'll inhale right,
Close it off and exhale left.
Inhale left,
Exhale right,
Inhale right,
Exhale left.
Let's do about 10 more rounds just like this on your own.
Still inhaling and exhaling to your fullest capacity.
Also keeping a sense of lightness to the practice.
So don't really feel the need to grip or push or strain too hard here.
Just allow it to flow naturally.
And whenever you've finished up your tenth round,
You can gently release the right hand back into your lap.
Keep the eyes closed and allow the breath to return to neutral.
Take a moment here just in the seat of the observer and notice how you feel.
Still keeping some softness in the muscles around the face,
Jaw,
Shoulders.
If you've found yourself starting to slouch,
Go ahead and lift your ribcage away from your hips,
Sit up nice and tall.
Let's give ourselves just a few breaths to marinate in our practice here.
Okay.
As you're ready,
Let's gently guide the hands up to heart center.
Letting your thumbs press up against your sternum,
Spread your fingertips out right and let your chin drop in towards your chest.
Honoring this beautiful practice that we were given,
Honoring our ability to share it with one another,
Honoring our ability to shift our energetic patterns,
To create space,
To create balance,
To create joy.
Maybe bringing an intention of balance and presence with you as you go off into the rest of your day.
Raising your thumbs up to your third eye center,
Right in between your brows,
Bowing to the teacher that is in each of us.
Namaste.
