Vastrika or bellows breath practice.
Find yourself in a comfortable position,
Either on a chair,
In kneeling or cross-legged,
Long spine,
Shoulders,
Jaw,
Hips,
All free of tension.
Let them soften,
And then bring your awareness to the belly,
And practice by bringing your navel or your abdomen out,
And then in,
Draw it close to the spine.
On the inhale,
Draw the belly away from the spine,
And on the exhale,
Force the breath out by drawing the abdomen back towards the spine,
Out,
In.
This is the action of the bellows breath.
We'll start with a slow pace,
So first ten breaths.
Relaxed body,
All our attention on the abdomen and the breath.
Taking a breath in,
Take a moment to observe,
Release tension,
And now we're going to do another round,
This time increasing the pace,
All our attention on the abdomen and the breath.
Taking a breath in,
Natural breath,
Scan for tension,
Let it go.
Another round,
This time twenty breaths at the faster pace.
If at any point it feels too much,
Go back to the slow or medium pace.
Taking a breath in,
Exhale,
Natural breath.
Simply notice your experience throughout the practice and after each round.
So another round of twenty breaths,
This time we'll practice our internal kumbhaka or attention.
If you need to breathe at the slower pace,
Feel free to do that.
Last round,
Long spine,
Relaxed body,
All our attention on the abdomen and the breath.
Breathing in,
Exhale,
Inhale,
Hold,
Relax,
Breathe,
Take a moment to observe.
Notice the breath.
So we'll take one more round of pastrika,
Choose your pace,
Slow,
Medium or fast.
And at the end we'll practice internal kumbhaka or attention as well as external kumbhaka and holding.
I will hold for quite some time,
If you need to breathe in before I give the instruction,
Obviously feel free to do so.
Always being patient with the body,
With the breath and going at a slow pace.
Allowing the body to get used to each pranayama.
Tension free practice.
Taking a deep breath in,
Exhale,
Inhale,
Exhale and hold.
Natural breath.
Checking in again that the body is in a relaxed state.
Simply notice your experience.
And then you can continue for up to five rounds with your pastrika.
At this slow,
Medium or fast pace,
Choosing how long you'd like to hold the breath in and out at the end.
Using the pastrika to energize,
Create heat in the body,
To vitalize.
And if you'd like to finish,
Start to wake up the body through small movements.
Listening to what feels good and where you need to stretch.
And then when you're ready,
Taking on the rest of your day.
