Week 2 Pranayama

The second guided pranayama and meditation practice of eight. Learn to let go, to relax completely with this simple and effective practice.

Transcript

And for this week's practice, I invite you to try either Shavasana corpse pose lying on your back or Sukhasana easy seated pose sitting upright on some support. If these two poses are not accessible or comfortable for you, You can always feel free to find Balasana child's pose at any time throughout the practice. These two poses will just allow our practice to be a little more accessible, But please honor your body and do what you need to do to stay comfortable and safe. So getting comfortable here, Taking a few moments to settle in, Get your body into a position that feels supported and sustainable for our half hour long practice. Eventually you may be able to maintain the gentle static position for the entire duration of the practice, But for now just allow yourself to move if you need to, When you need to. Now begin with just a gentle body scan from head to toe. Simply noticing, Observing, Almost as though you're floating above yourself, Aware of the sensations, The position of your body and space from an outside perspective. Notice if you're holding on to any tension from the day, Any tension from expectations of what is to come, And see if you can just let that go. Sometimes it's challenging to let go of tension even once we've observed it in the body. One tool that you can use to facilitate a deeper letting go is to take a nice inhale through the nose, And then exhale through the mouth, An open mouthed sigh. As you exhale in this way, You can use the power of your mind to imagine any of that tension you feel just melting out of the body or leaving the body, Almost riding on that exhale. So inhaling again, And exhaling a sigh. You can make an audible sound as you inhale through the nose. And then exhale, Just let go. And at any time throughout any of our breathing practices, You're always welcome to use that open mouthed exhale to really help facilitate a letting go. As we work with the breath and as we work in this subtle body, Sometimes there's constrictions or tensions that we become aware of that really become a distraction. It's just one way we can help to facilitate a letting go of those tensions. It's a nice way to begin practice if you are emerging from an active day or maybe you just haven't quite woken up yet. It's a nice way to feel embodied and let go. And so notice now after we've taken just a moment to let go of the day, Notice your current state. With a completely natural breath, Notice the rhythm of your breathing in this moment without doing anything to it. Simply observe. Notice the activity of the mind, The thoughts. And without doing much to the thoughts, Just noticing them as though you're an outside observer looking in. Noticing the thoughts as they come and go. Observe the head, The skull. Feel the brain sinking toward the back or the base of the skull, Allowing the front of the brain to feel relaxed. Softening the creases in the forehead, The edges of the eyes, The cheeks, Allowing your face to rest. Relaxing the neck, The throat, Perhaps swallowing to clear some space. Softening the shoulders, The upper back, The arms. Relaxing the chest, The side chest, And the belly. Allowing the low back to relax and release, The pelvis to feel heavy, Supported, Grounded. Feel the legs relaxed and supported, Not needing to do any work here, But just surrender and let go. The feet, The toes. And see as you scan over your body once more from this outsider perspective, Are you able to cultivate a feeling of gentle, Loving kindness as you observe your body? Never forcing or grasping or even striving too much, But instead just feel that sense of ahimsa, Of non-harming, Of gentleness toward yourself. Just as though you're seeing yourself as a small child. And draw your awareness with loving kindness toward your breathing. Feel curiosity about the breath, Noticing today the quality of your inhale and the quality of your exhale. Notice the temperature of your breath on your skin. Notice the texture of your breath as it comes in through your nose and goes out through your nose. Notice what muscles in your body move to facilitate your breathing. Do you feel the muscles in your neck becoming active with your inhale? Perhaps you do not. At this point, There's no right or wrong. You are simply observing as you breathe in and out your nose, Notice do you feel muscles in your shoulders, In your upper chest activate as you inhale? Do they relax as you exhale or perhaps they stay active? Notice do you feel the ribs expand and contract with each passing breath? You may not and again there's no right or wrong here. We're simply cultivating awareness with loving kindness with ahimsa as we observe our natural rhythm as we breathe. Notice your upper back as you continue to inhale and exhale through your nose. Do you feel the shoulder blades spread apart? Perhaps you feel the shoulder blades lift toward the ears or maybe your shoulder blades don't move at all. Just notice. And then draw your awareness down to the belly. Notice if there is any sense of expansion or contraction or both of the belly, The abdomen with each passing breath. If there is a sense of movement, Notice does that movement expand around the sides of the belly? Notice does that movement expand around to the back body? And perhaps for you there's no movement at all and that's okay. We're just practicing observing our bodies as we breathe slowly and mindfully with a sense of curiosity and a gentleness. And then draw your awareness back to wherever it is in your body that you feel the most dynamic movement as you breathe. For you that might be at the level of the collarbones, It may be just above the chest, Maybe the side body, The front ribs, The back ribs, It may be the belly. Wherever it is for you, Simply notice your most expansive space in your body for the inhale and where in the body moves the most on your exhale. With a sense of truthfulness, Honesty, Satya, Noticing in a very curious way, Where do I move when I breathe? And now take your hands with your palms facing your body onto your belly below the level of your navel. So low, Low belly. And we'll begin to very gently move toward practicing the belly breath. So when the diaphragm is moving efficiently, It lowers down toward the belly on the inhale, Pushing the abdominal contents out. And then as we exhale, The diaphragm moves up toward the ribs, Toward the heart, And the contents of your abdomen move back in. So again, Maintaining this sense of curiosity and trusting that if this doesn't make sense today, With practice, It will become easier, More effortless. Can you stay soft, Full of that sense of ahimsa as you inhale and allow your lowest belly to begin to expand gently? And then as you exhale, The navel comes in toward the spine. With your hands on your belly, It's helpful to feel perhaps the hands being lifted on the inhale as the belly expands, And the hands coming back together as you exhale, The navel moves toward the spine. Inhale expands. Exhale, The navel moves closer toward the spine. Moving with your own pace and again, Not grasping or over-efforting here, But instead simply inviting a little bit more movement of the belly on the inhale and allowing the navel to draw in toward your spine on the exhale. And as you breathe in this way with belly breaths expanding on the inhale and letting the belly fall toward the spine on the exhale, See if you can keep the shoulders relaxed. And hinge the jaw and allow the neck, The chest even, To remain soft and uninvolved as you gently invite the belly breath. The inhale expands. The exhale draws in. If you find that the placement of your hands is still comfortable and helpful, You can keep your hands on your belly. Otherwise, You can return them to your lap or the floor. And maintain this belly breathing, Gently inviting a slow, Deep, Full inhale down into the belly. You can almost imagine your pelvis filling with air. And then as you exhale, Relaxing all of the muscles of the belly and allowing the navel to come toward the spine. Inhale to soften and expand and allow the belly to become large, Full, Creating space for the diaphragm to move down and out. And as you exhale, Softly drawing navel toward spine, The belly moves in a concave direction. Inhale, Expand the low belly. Exhale, Draw slowly the navel toward the spine. If at any time you become lightheaded or uncomfortable, You can always just return to your natural breath. If you're able to, Keep practicing this deep, Full belly breath. Inhale, Feel the belly expand down and out. Exhale, Slowly draw the navel back toward the spine. The movement of your inner body, The inhale feels like down and out. And on the exhale feels like up and in. By breathing in this way through the nose, As we use the belly, The diaphragm becomes more strong. We rely less on the accessory or secondary muscles of the neck and shoulders to oxygenate our bodies. So with loving care and kindness, Without efforting too much, Maintain this deep and full belly breathing. Breathing in through the nose to fill the pelvis, Fill the low belly. And as you exhale, Allow the navel to draw in gently toward the spine, Perhaps finding a concave shape. And truly moving at your own pace, Your own rhythm. Inhale to expand and exhale to draw in. Inhale to feel that sense of down and out of the low belly pelvis. And exhale ever so gently drawing up and in. Inhale toward spine. Breathing for a few more minutes in this way. At your own pace and your own internal rhythm. Let's call it applause.

Reviews

Excellent, thank you 🙏🏻

Beautifully relaxing

Thank you so much for this beautiful practice. I felt very ill when I started and the breathing helped me feel so much better. Namaste’

Belly Breath with a much deeper and more focused awareness 🙏 Namaste Jessie

Terrific introduction to pranayama. For the first time I understood this practice - and let’s note that I’ve been practicing yoga for ten years and have cultivated a personal occasional pranayama practice for about two or three years. Very exceptional.