Make yourselves comfortable.
And if you.
.
.
Have an eye pillow that you like to use you can put that on.
Sometimes for some people practicing breath work can kind of shift body temperature so if you know you tend to run on the colder side Make sure that you have layers nearby.
That your head is comfortably supported,
But that you're not lifting your head too far up from your support so that you're not closing off the throat.
So you wanna make sure that you're resting back with the spine in neutral alignment.
Once you're comfortable,
Scan your body.
Go ahead and scan your body,
See if there are any other shifts or adjustments that you need to make so that you are as comfortable as possible.
The eyes can close,
You can put your eye pillow on if you're using one.
And we'll take two clearing breaths.
Inhale through the nose.
Audibly sighed out.
Once more,
Inhale fully through the nose.
Audibly let it go.
Give it some noise.
And then take your pointer finger,
Middle finger,
Your peace fingers,
Bring them together and go to the joints of the jaw and just take a few moments here to massage at the joints of the jaw.
The jawline.
You can even make some noises here to further relax the throat.
You can hum or.
.
.
Make some louder noises.
And then take your pointer fingers and your thumbs and gently pull down on the earlobes.
And then use your hands to massage the neck,
The shoulders.
And then with your fingertips going to the bottom of your rib cage and the front body and just kind of walking your fingertips along the ribs.
This is where some of our breathing muscles are.
You can get into the side ribs.
And then walk your fingertips on your abdomen.
All right,
So we want to relax the abdomen area below the navel.
And then take a full body stretch if that feels comfortable for you.
And then settle back in.
And have the breath now moving in and out of the nose.
So taking the first portion of this session to regulate our breathing.
So right now,
Just noticing your breath moving in and out of the nose.
And as you breathe in through the nose,
Feeling the navel float up away from the spine.
And when you breathe out through the nose,
The navel drops down toward the spine.
And if you feel like you need more biofeedback,
You can rest one hand or both hands or a blanket across the abdomen.
So we want to feel the navel moving as we breathe.
The inhale,
Navel moves away from the spine.
In the exhale,
The navel drops down.
This is our diaphragmatic breathing.
And we give space for the abdomen to expand and contract when we breathe.
What we're actually doing is giving space for the diaphragm to move so the lungs can expand and contract.
Giving the opportunity for us to breathe deeper.
Bring in more oxygen into the body.
Keep this going.
The inhale,
Navel floats up.
And the exhale,
Navel draws back or down.
Keeping the muscles of the face relaxed,
Joints of the jaw soft as you continue to focus in on your breathing.
Stay with it.
So if you find that you struggle with chronic tension,
Anxiety.
Stress.
And you find that your breath is in the chest,
This is one of the ways to calm ourselves down and to begin to regulate our breathing pattern.
The inhale,
Navel floats away from the spine.
And the exhale,
Navel draws back.
And if the mind wanders,
Just whenever you catch it,
Tether it back to your breathing.
And see now how it feels to deepen the breath so that the next inhale,
The abdomen expands and the breath moves into the ribcage.
Then as you exhale,
The ribs relax and the navel drops.
The inhale,
Navel floats away from the spine,
And the breath expands into the ribs.
And as you exhale,
The ribs relax and the navel draws in.
Keep going.
Notice if there are any areas in the body that have tightened up.
And just give it the light of your awareness.
Can support a needed tension with your exhale.
Maybe it leaves with the outgoing breath.
Really allowing the edges of the body,
Your skin boundary to soften.
The breath to become fuller.
Stay with it.
Most of the exchange of oxygen happens in the bottom part of the lungs.
So when we breathe like this,
We're breathing in a way that our body was built to breathe.
And so you're signaling to your brain,
Your nervous system.
It's safe,
That you're safe.
It's okay to breathe.
It's okay to pause.
This increases your stress threshold,
Your concentration.
Promotes calm,
Clarity.
Now see if you can deepen the breath even more so that the next inhale,
The navel floats away from the spine,
The breath expands into the ribs and the upper chest.
And as you exhale,
The chest,
Ribs,
Navel drop.
The inhale,
The navel floats away from the spine.
The breath expands into the ribs and the chest.
And as you exhale,
The chest,
Ribs,
Navel drops.
And begin to feel one breath connected to the next.
Conscious connected breath.
Maybe even feeling the breath expand into the sides of the body and the back body.
So that your inhales feel circumferentially expand out to all sides on the inhale.
And the exhale is relaxed and complete.
Keep going.
The breath expanding from the base up.
Releasing from the top down.
And the exhales are relaxed.
One breath connects to the next.
And don't worry about fighting the mind,
Just keep focusing on your breath.
And if you need more of an anchor point,
You can internally say to yourself,
I'm breathing in.
And I'm breathing out.
And breathing in.
And breathing out.
That there is no separation from you and your breath,
From you and the experience of breathing.
One breath connected to the next.
Joints of the jaw,
Stay soft.
Base of the neck is relaxed.
Thighs are relaxed.
Face is soft.
To you and your breath.
This is your full deep breath.
And notice through that progression that there is no force.
Just focus on regulating and breathing.
That there is no strain.
And we meet our body where it is.
One easeful breath to the next.
This is the way that our body was built to breathe.
And if this is what you would like to continue practicing,
Stay with it.
Otherwise,
From here we explore a three-part energizing breath.
Now this is a technique that I will guide you through.
You can practice it anywhere from 20 to 30 seconds to about five minutes or longer depending on the setting and how it feels for your body.
And if at any point,
For those of you practicing the technique,
If at any point it doesn't feel right,
You can always stop the technique and go back to your full deep breathing.
Now for this technique,
You'll drop the mouth open.
And then you'll inhale through the mouth into the belly.
Another inhale into the chest.
And then exhale through the mouth.
So they inhale,
Belly,
Chest,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Belly.
Chest.
Exhale.
So this technique is through the mouth and it helps to bypass the mind stuff.
Can help to energize us.
All right,
So the breathing pattern is.
So keep this going.
I'll be bringing in a drum beat so you can match your breathing to the drum.
Remember,
At any point,
You can always return to your full deep breathing through the nose,
And you can reconvene at any time.
So match your breathing to the drum beat if you'd like.
Slowly releasing the technique And close the mouth,
The breath returns to moving through the nose.
You can swallow to relax the throat.
Now,
Without making any changes to it,
Just notice.
How your breath feels.
How your body feels.
How the breath is moving.
Let your mind rest on the waves of the breath.
And follow now your exhale.
To stillness,
To your internal stillness.
Any distractions float through.
Dropping into a space where all doing stops.
And allow yourself to let go.
Awareness slowly floats back to the breath Feel the breath moving through the nose.
And the breath brings awareness back to the body.
Feeling yourself alive with prana,
With life force energy.
They're flowing freely through all of the nadis,
The energy channels.
Bringing back with you energy and peace and anything else that you need as you bring your attention back.
Begin to wiggle the toes and the fingers.
Taking any gentle movements that you need,
A slow awakening.
Eventually rolling onto your comfortable side and pausing there.
Deepening the breath a little bit more.
Eventually,
And only when you feel ready.
Pressing yourself up to a comfortable seat,
The eyes can stay closed.
Bringing the palms together,
Rubbing the hands,
Feeling the connection between the left and right side,
Feeling the warmth between the palms,
All parts of your being here in this moment.
The hands can rest in the lap or at the heart space.
And I'll invite you here to join me in closing with a humming om.
Let's first inhale.
Sigh this out.
Inhale to hum.
Bowing,
Head to heart,
Honoring yourself,
Each other.
And these teachings.
Jai Bhagwan.
Namaste.
