Week 8 Pranayama

Week eight: the final week of this series of eight guided practices that progressively built toward the three-part (Dirgha) pranayama practice. This week we work with the yogic idea of surrender. We also move into a more independent 3 part breath practice, where you can choose any of the techniques from the prior weeks as you wish for this thirty-minute practice (observation, visualization, metering / counting, etc).

Transcript

In yoga, We use these tools of pranayama, Asana, Dhyana to facilitate our path to the inner self, To happiness, To freedom. And we find that all we need to do is get out of our own way. We do this through building awareness and letting go of illusion. The yogic idea of surrender is not the idea of giving up. It's the idea of letting go of our crystallized concepts about ourselves and the world and opening our hearts to a deeper truth and expansive possibility. We can utilize the physical body in our practice of surrender to feel what it is like to remain fully vibrant and conscious while simultaneously letting go of physical tension that we encounter in our bodies. And so find your way into shavasana, Corpse pose, Lying on your back with some support beneath your knees and a small fold of blanket behind your head. Feel the length of your spine, The natural curves as your back and pelvis is touching the ground, The lumbar spine, The low back arches away from the floor, The middle back and shoulders touch and the neck again, Arches gently away. The back of the skull rests. See if you can lengthen the back of your neck by extending out through the crown of your head and tucking your chin toward your throat slightly. Walk your shoulders back and down away from your ears and feel the shoulder blades supported on the floor. Feel how that broadens the front chest and even into the side chest. Release the hips so your low back also feels supported. And begin with an awareness of your entire body scanning from head to toes, Almost as though you're looking at yourself from outside of yourself. Looking back up to your head, Notice your forehead, Your face, Your temples, Your cheeks. Notice your ears are the muscles surrounding your ears. Feel taut. Are they relaxed? Can you feel a deep letting go of those muscles around your ears on your next exhale? Notice the muscles surrounding your eyes, Your eyelids. Allow the lids of the eyes to softly close if they're not closed already. With compassionate awareness, Can you let go and relax these muscles surrounding your eyes? Sometimes we're curing tension in the physical body that we're not even aware of. Sometimes engaging a muscle and then relaxing it allows for us to feel that sense of letting go a little more deeply. So see with your next inhale, Can you engage the muscles of your face? Maybe scrunch your face, Poke your lips, Squint your eyes tightly shut, Draw your eyebrows in, Even feel your ears engage. And then on the exhale, Soften completely letting go. Remaining aware, Observant, But unattached. Draw your focus to your mouth, Your lips, Feel the gums, Your teeth. Swallow once, Release your tongue away from the roof of your mouth so that it rests. Unhinge your jaw and soften those muscles that connect your jaw to your skull. Sometimes it's helpful to perhaps cleanse your teeth for an inhale and then as you exhale, Let the jaw relax and release and let go. You may choose to swallow again as you relax your throat completely. Allow the muscles of your neck to soften as though they're melting into the earth. Relax your shoulders into the floor. They're perhaps propped under you because of the position you've placed them in. If there's any muscle holding action happening now, Perhaps engage that even more on the inhale, Maybe pressing your shoulders toward each other into the floor and then exhale, Soften, Let go. Moving down to the forearms, The wrists, The fingers on your next inhale. If you choose, Clench your fists and isometrically tone your biceps like you're lifting a barbell but you're frozen in air. On your exhale, Melt all the tension out, Letting go, Relaxing your arms onto the floor. The palms can face up. The fingers may just curl gently without any action or tension in the hands, Letting go. Draw your awareness to the space around your heart. Feel where the shoulder blades touch the floor, Cradling the back of your heart. With your mind's eye, Follow the ribs from the spine out to the sides, Curling around your side body, Coming to meet in the center of your chest, This protective rib cage, Encasing the heart. You take your next inhale, Feel your ribs expanding as much as possible. So beyond what you think is your fullest capacity, Expanding, Expanding in all directions on your inhale. And then as you exhale, Relax the entire thoracic cage, Relax the muscles between your ribs, The shoulders, Let it all melt heavily into the floor. Draw your focus down to the area of the low back, The belly. Just observe the sensation of your natural breath for a moment here. Take a deep full inhale into the belly space, Imagining prana flowing into that space of the low belly, The pelvis. And as you exhale, Just let go all the way, Surrender. Feel like you can fully trust that deep sense of letting go. As your belly softens, Your spine relaxes the muscles of your back, Disengage and soften. Draw your awareness to your hips, Your glutes, Your upper thighs. Some of us carry tension here. See if you can find any area that perhaps was outside of your realm of awareness. And as you inhale, Maybe clench the glutes, Squeeze the legs together, Engage the thighs, The hips. And then exhale, Letting go completely, Loosening, Softening these muscles and feeling as though you're melting into the air. Awareness traveling down to the lower legs, The calf muscles on the backs of the lower legs, The muscles that support the ankles, The feet, Even the toes. As you find it, Your next inhale, Clench the feet like you clenched the fists and engage the calves and feel any tension just building your awareness of that tension building and then exhale, Soften, Let go, Surrender. Letting your entire body from your head down to your feet surrender into the support of the earth. As you surrender in this way, Feel a sense of deep trust that you are exactly where you're meant to be in this moment. Enjoy this sense of vivid awareness and deep relaxation. Fear is not sleep. It is a deep sense of trust, A deep sense of peace. Breathing naturally, Simply bask in this awareness of your entire physical body, Soft and relaxed. And now see if you can maintain this sense of deep peace, Of deep surrender. Relaxation as you begin to engage the three-part breath. Notice if that suggestion caused any muscular tension. Just release on the exhale and at your own pace in your own supported way, Begin to softly, Ever so gently engage the three-part breath. Perhaps you just start with the belly breath with a pause after the inhale and a pause after the exhale. Taking a few breaths to explore that sense and then progressively moving your breathing up to the middle ribs and then progressively moving your breathing up toward the upper chest. Using the pause, Finding that gentle drawing in at the end of each exhale while also feeling a deep sense of peace, Of surrender even as you practice this three-part breath. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Ribs, Belly empty on the exhale followed by a pause. Keeping the three-part breath engaged for the rest of our practice. The remainder of our time today will be spent in a very simple practice. I will not be speaking much but the tincture bells will chime every few minutes and this chime is a way for you to use the sound of the tinctures to simply remind you to return to your three-part breath using the tinctures to refocus on the breath when your mind wanders or you release the breath. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Ribs, Belly empty on the exhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Belly, Ribs, Chest fill on the inhale followed by a pause. Allow the next breath to be your fullest expression of the three-part breath. Allow your exhale to enable you to surrender completely. And after your exhale, Return to your natural rhythm of breathing, Letting go of technique. I'm just taking a few moments to absorb the effects of your practice today. Feel your fingers and your toes, Move your ankles and your wrists, And rack your head gently from side to side. I invite you to move through the rest of your day, Seeing if you can maintain an awareness of your connection to this feeling of deep peace, Of surrender, Of letting go.

Reviews

Thank you so much. I did all 8 weeks and was profound for my practice . 🙏

Thank you for all these nice meditations. Calming and centering. All about the breath.