Week 4 Pranayama

I'm very happy and excited to invite you to week Four of an eight-week pranayama practice progressing the three-part breath (Dirgha Pranayama). This is the first week we integrate the full three-part breathing practice.

Transcript

Begin lying on your back in Shavasana,

The corpse pose,

With a bolster or blankets beneath your knees to allow your back to feel completely supported and comfortable at rest.

Settle into your body,

Allowing the activities of the day,

The to-do list for the future,

The thoughts to simply fall away as you arrive in the present moment here on your mat in your body.

Begin with a gentle scan from head to toe and notice anywhere you might still be holding on to some tension,

Making any micro adjustments to your body in order to feel completely comfortable.

Let the back of your neck lengthen as the chin draws ever so slightly toward your chest.

Feel the support of the floor or blanket under the back of your skull.

Lengthen your shoulders down,

Away from your ears,

Maybe even tucking the shoulder blades back underneath the back body so that the upper arms can rotate out and your palms can open toward the sky in a gesture of receiving.

Notice your breath,

Notice the quality of your breath when you're doing nothing to control it,

To modify it,

To guide it in any way.

Simply watch your natural rhythm of breathing.

Notice where in the body you're sending your breath.

And with as little muscular effort as possible,

Simply bend your elbows and draw your palms to rest on your lower abdomen beneath your navel,

Just touching your belly.

And it's okay if the hands don't quite meet in the center,

If the hands are more toward the sides of the belly.

Just see that your elbows are resting on the floor or resting on a block so that your arms have to do no work.

And ever so gently with ahimsa,

With loving care and kindness,

Begin to invite your in breath to travel down and feel an expansion in your pelvis,

In your low belly.

Pause and then exhale,

Softening the pelvis,

The low belly.

And at the end of the exhale,

Drawing your pelvic floor up and your navel toward your spine.

Pause.

Feeling that gentle engagement and then inhale,

Allow the breath to flow down into the low belly,

Into the pelvis.

As you feel a sense of expansion in all directions,

Down,

Front,

Back,

Sides of the belly of the pelvis.

Exhale,

Soften,

Emptying out and at the end of the exhale,

Drawing navel in,

Pelvic floor lifts.

Pause.

Inhale,

Finding that belly pelvic breath.

Inhaling down and out.

Pause.

Exhaling,

Drawing in and up.

Pause.

See if you can isolate this breath into the low belly and pelvis,

Relaxing the neck,

Relaxing the shoulders,

The chest,

Allowing the upper body to be completely uninvolved as you use the belly breath to expand down and out on the in breath.

Pause.

And slowly,

Mindfully,

Deeply drawing up and in on the out breath.

Pause.

Inviting that sense of expansion and releasing the breath to draw up and in.

Just explore this belly pelvic breath at your pace,

Seeing how much can you lengthen the duration of your expansive inhale.

Find that gentle pause.

And can that exhale last even longer than the in breath did?

Slowly pausing,

Observing the space between the breaths before you inhale to expand again.

And exhale to draw in.

Once more,

Your fullest,

Deepest,

Most expansive in breath into the low belly,

The pelvis.

And exhale slowly,

Deeply,

Engaging the muscles at the base of the pelvis around the circumference of the belly,

Drawing in.

And at the end of this exhale,

Simply release the control of breath and simply observe your body as it breathes you,

As it breathes naturally without you having to control it.

Observe if there is a different quality from the start of our practice.

And maintaining just that observation of the breath,

That gentle curiosity.

Take your palms and rest them on your lower ribs.

Again,

If you need to,

You can place a block under your elbows or if the elbows can remain on the floor,

Allow them to be supported.

Allow your shoulders to relax as your palms are face down on your low ribs.

As you inhale here,

See can you expand just that sense of the ribs spreading apart from one another,

Your lower rib cage expanding.

As you exhale,

Drawing the ribs in towards center,

Toward one another.

You may notice as you inhale,

The fingers spread apart from one another,

The hands spread away from one another.

As you exhale,

Gently releasing the air and then knitting the ribs toward each other,

Toward center.

The palms come closer together.

See if you can continue with this middle chest breath,

Middle ribs breath without involving the low belly,

The pelvis and without involving the collar bones area,

The upper chest.

Getting that sense of curiosity of exploring what is this body capable of doing when we're asking just to expand the ribs on the inhale and draw them in towards center on the exhale.

Not becoming frustrated if it's challenging to isolate this very specific movement,

But instead just knowing that the next breath will come and a new opportunity to explore this new sensation.

Inhale the ribs spread,

Feeling maybe the fingertips spreading apart from one another,

The palms spreading away from midline of the body.

And exhale softly,

The ribs draw in.

Beginning to expand,

Feeling the front ribs lifting toward the sky,

The side ribs spreading out toward the sides and even perhaps the back ribs expanding into the support of the earth beneath you as you lie in Shavasana.

Exhale letting everything draw back in towards center and finding that subtle engagement on the exhale.

Drawing towards center to empty out completely.

Inhale to expand the rib cage in all directions.

Feel that three dimensional sense,

Your body's ability to expand.

And as you exhale releasing the stale air,

Drawing the ribs toward your center,

A very gentle squeeze in at the end without involving the neck or shoulders.

Before you inhale again,

Softly spread and expand.

Pause.

Exhale drawing ribs in.

Pause.

Inhale.

Filling,

Expanding just that middle ribs region around your torso.

Exhale to soften and draw in at the very end of your exhale.

Continuing with this middle ribs breath at your own pace.

Perhaps these next few inhales can spread and broaden your rib cage just a little bit more each time.

And these next few exhales can draw everything in just a little bit more,

Emptying out the last ounces of air.

Let your next round of the middle ribs breath be your fullest expression.

Inhaling to expand.

Pausing at the top of the inhale.

Continuing to draw in.

And release your control of the breath completely.

Just let it go.

And observe the quality of your natural breath in this moment.

Here we've practiced the low belly breath and the middle ribs breath.

With as little muscular effort as is required,

Take your hands up above your chest to the place just beneath your collarbones.

Perhaps your fingertips are touching the collarbones.

Perhaps here you might need some support under the elbows so that you can be completely supported here.

Now keeping the low belly soft,

Keeping the middle ribs uninvolved,

Can you experience the breath pooling into the upper lobes of the lungs on the inhale,

Expanding the collarbones,

Expanding the upper chest.

Even as you maintain a relaxed,

Supple neck and shoulders.

Exhale to allow the upper chest to descend with gravity towards the earth.

Inhale,

Feel that lift and broadening of the space between the collarbones.

Pause.

And exhale,

Soften every muscle completely.

Let the breath naturally leave the body.

Inhale to feel a broadness and a lift and an expansion.

Exhale to soften and let go of the breath.

Inhale to broaden and expand.

Exhale,

Soften and let go.

Continuing the upper chest breath here at your own pace.

Feel the expansion in the front collarbones.

You can almost imagine your breath traveling to the area of the armpits and then also back between the upper shoulder blades.

As you inhale,

Expand.

And then as you exhale,

Just let everything go soft.

Inhale,

Expand the front upper chest,

The side chest and the back,

The space of the neck,

The shoulder blades.

Feel the breath.

Spread these areas on the inhale and softly let go on the exhale.

Enjoying one more full,

Complete inhale into the upper chest,

Upper shoulders region.

Enjoy a full,

Complete exhale,

Allowing all of the air to leave your body.

Before surrendering your breath,

Letting go of control and simply noticing the quality of your natural rhythm here.

And I invite you to take just a moment to reflect upon which section of this three-part breath felt the most challenging for you to feel,

To feel expansive or to feel the engagement on the exhale.

And place one hand on your low belly and the other hand on whichever region,

The middle ribs,

The upper chest,

Maybe also that hand goes to the low belly.

Whatever region was more challenging or whichever region you feel would be most beneficial for you to have that feedback,

That physical contact with the hand.

So one hand on the low belly below the navel and the other hand wherever you'd like to focus some attention on as we begin to integrate the full three-part breath.

If you can't decide,

Simply place your second hand on the upper chest.

Each time you practice this,

You may try a different position.

And with this sense of curiosity,

Of exploration,

We'll begin the full three-part breath.

As you inhale,

Feel the low belly,

The pelvis expand down and out.

Feel the breath,

Swell the belly and move into the middle ribs,

Feeling an expansion in all directions.

Then travel up to the upper chest,

Expanding the upper chest.

As you exhale,

It's the opposite order from the inhale.

So emptying the upper chest first,

Drawing,

Knitting the middle ribs together and then drawing navel to spine,

Pelvic floor lifts on your exhale.

You may be breathing at a different pace than I'm speaking and please honor your own rhythm.

So the inhale begins at the pelvis,

The belly spreads into the middle ribs and spreads into the upper chest.

The exhale empties from top to bottom,

Chest,

Ribs,

Belly,

Pelvis.

Inhale to fill from the base of your spine up toward the top of your spine.

Exhale,

Emptying out from the top to the bottom.

Inhale,

Spreading the belly,

The middle ribs expand even toward the back body.

The upper chest swells.

Exhale the upper chest softens,

The ribs draw in toward center and the pelvic floor lifts.

Inhale,

Fill up the low belly,

The middle ribs,

The upper chest.

Pause.

Exhale,

Empty the upper chest,

The middle ribs,

The low belly.

Inhale to expand and fill from the base to the top of your spine.

Exhale,

Emptying out from the top down,

Maintaining that gentle curiosity,

That deep inward focus as you allow the breath to move into the inner world of your body.

Exhale from the top down.

Inhale,

Feeling the pelvic floor spread down and out,

The belly inflate like a balloon,

The middle ribs expand like wings,

The upper chest open.

Exhale,

Softening the upper chest,

Drawing the ribs in toward center,

Drawing the navel back toward the spine,

The pelvic floor lifts.

At your own pace,

Continue with this three part breath.

It's okay if you lose track of where you were.

Maybe catch back on by filling the low belly,

Ribs,

The upper chest and emptying out the upper chest,

Ribs,

The belly.

A few more breaths in this way at your own rhythm.

Exhale,

Moving the upper chest,

Drawing the navel back toward the spine,

The upper chest,

The navel back toward the spine,

The navel back toward the spine.

Last breath,

Be your fullest,

Most expansive,

Most complete in breath,

Followed by emptying out completely in the out breath and then totally let go of your control of the breath and return to your own natural rhythm.

Observing the effects of this very nourishing,

Very complete breath on your body,

On your sp Detox.

You

Reviews

Amazing! Very useful & relaxing.

Very supportive, great guidance

Jesse, I’m really appreciating this series. I’ve breathed deeper engaging more muscles than I knew was possible. The pace keeps me focused and allows me time to really feel the subtleties. Thank you for your energy and time in creating this and sharing it.

Another great breath meditation. For me, focusing on breath and body sinks me into deeper meditation. These have all been so good. Hope there will be more. Thank you. ☮️🙏💖

I found the concentration on the breath and its movement through the areas of the body very relaxing. Have bookmarked. Namaste Carol