Week 1 Pranayama

The first guided body scan and meditation practice of eight: over the course of eight practices, we progress the listener toward the full 3-part breath (Dirgha Pranayama). This week's practice is a simple guided concentration where we learn to follow the breath, let go, to relax, and be fully embodied in the present moment.

Transcript

So find your way into one of the comfortable supported positions of your choice either lying on your back in Shavasana corpse pose with support beneath your knees and perhaps your head or in Balasana child's pose face down with knees apart,

Toes touching and a bolster under your belly chest or you can be seated upright in Sukhasana easy cross-legged seated pose on some height a blanket or a block and for additional support with your back perhaps resting against the wall.

And just take a moment to settle into this position making any micro adjustments you need in order to feel completely supported and comfortable.

We'll see if you can find a position that will support you throughout the duration of today's half hour practice.

Eventually you may be able to maintain this 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 in order to be comfortable.

And just for now see if you can soften your hold of the activities of your day and see if you can relax your grip on your thoughts or ideas about what has happened so far and what is to come in the future.

And see if you can just rest in this moment noticing what comes up for you.

Perhaps your body is still adjusting to the position you have found yourself in.

And really just allow yourself to take your time to explore what it is to be in your body to be in your mind.

Notice what thoughts might be coming up for you.

And notice without judgment what sensations you're feeling in the physical body.

See if you can find yourself in the role of the observer noticing your thoughts as they come and go.

Noticing the sensations in your physical body,

In your emotional body,

In your mental body.

In today's practice we're allowing ourselves the time and the space to begin to get to know our experience a little bit more intimately.

Take a few more moments to really see if you can soften into your physical position.

We'll just begin to scan the body from head to toe.

Noticing the position of your head,

Your neck.

Is there anything you can do to allow your head to feel more comfortable?

Can you soften your eyelids so your eyes close?

Can you feel your eyeballs resting?

The muscles around your eyes softening,

Letting go.

Can you unhinge your jaw?

Allow your tongue to release from the roof of your mouth and settle.

Can you even soften your forehead allowing the eyebrows to relax?

Allowing the scalp to soften.

See if you can let go of tension around your ears,

The organs of listening,

Of receiving.

See how much you can soften and allow yourself to really fully be present and really fully receive the benefits of this practice.

Relaxing your throat,

Perhaps swallowing once or twice to clear out the throat to feel a sense of spaciousness of freedom in the region of the neck.

Can you relax your shoulders with gravity toward the earth?

As we scan through the body,

Anywhere you feel a physical sense of tension or constriction,

Just allow yourself to notice that place and see if you can relax and let go.

Not becoming frustrated if you can't,

Just noticing,

Taking stock,

Observing without judgment.

Can you let go of the space behind your collarbones?

Can you soften the shoulder blades,

The ribs?

Can you allow your breathing to simply come and go at its own pace without any control of the breath,

But more with a sense of curiosity,

Of curious observation?

Can you notice how your ribs move with each inhale,

With each exhale?

Can you notice if your spine moves ever so subtly with each passing breath?

Noticing the sensation of your skin as it moves across your clothing,

Gently with your breathing.

Just enjoying that awareness of the rib cage for a few more moments here.

Again,

Not controlling the breath or doing anything to change it,

But simply checking in with your natural way of breathing.

And with that curious sense,

Draw your awareness down into your belly.

Notice if there's any movement here with your passing breaths.

Notice if there's any sense of constriction or holding of the muscles.

Perhaps you notice the sounds of digestion or perhaps not.

Maintaining that curious sense,

Draw your awareness toward the back body.

And again,

Without changing what you're doing,

Simply notice the sensation in the back body,

In the spine,

In the low back.

And just notice if there is any subtle movement with the breath or perhaps there is not movement with the breath.

And there's no right or wrong here.

We're just exploring,

Just noticing.

Practicing this art of self-awareness,

Beginning on the physical level,

Noticing the sensations in the body.

Draw that subtle awareness down to your low belly,

To your pelvis,

To the bony structures that support the weight of your body as you move through the world.

And just notice the quality of your pelvis,

Of your hips,

Your thighs.

Notice the quality of that low belly,

Of the soft tissues that fill your pelvic bowl,

Belly.

Breathing in your own natural rhythm without changing or doing.

Instead,

Simply observing the breath as it moves through your physical body with your awareness.

And as in all of life,

You may notice distractions,

Sounds,

Sensations from around you in the environment.

You don't have to do anything with those,

But acknowledge and allow it to pass.

So perhaps a nagging thought is coming in.

All you need to do is acknowledge that thought and return to that inner awareness of your physical body.

Drawing the attention down to the thighs,

Down to the knees,

And simply noticing sensation there,

Noticing the quality of your legs resting here.

And seeing if you can soften any tension that you might discover.

Traveling down to the calf muscles,

The shins,

Allowing your lower legs to relax and be free from tension.

Observing the feet,

Noticing the quality of the feet,

The toes,

The arches of the feet,

Allowing them to relax and absorb the gentle awareness that you're offering in this moment.

Feeling settled in now,

Noticing the quality of your mind after the gentle awareness of the physical body.

And as thoughts arise,

Which they naturally do,

You can acknowledge the thoughts and then allow them to pass,

Gently guiding your awareness back to your breath.

Drawing your awareness now to the natural rhythm of your breathing,

Noticing the duration of your inhale,

The duration of your exhale,

Noticing the texture of your breath as it comes in and out of the body.

Noticing,

Are you breathing through your nose or are you breathing through your mouth?

And if it's possible for you,

Close your lips and see that you're breathing through the filtration of your nose,

Warming the air,

Humidifying your breath as it comes in and slowing and smoothing the duration of your breath as it goes out.

Moving into gentle awareness of the breath as you inhale through your nose and exhale through the nose.

Noticing if your breath is longer on the inhale or the exhale.

And without rushing or over-efforting,

Let's see if you can just allow the exhale to last a few moments longer than your inhale did.

You might find it useful to count,

One,

Two,

Three on the inhale,

And one,

Two,

Three,

Four on the exhale.

And again,

Not trying so hard,

But just inviting this gentle length to the exhale.

Maintaining that slightly longer duration of your out-breath.

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

Perhaps you feel the breath move into and out of your upper chest,

Near your clavicles,

Or even your shoulders.

Perhaps you feel your breath expanding your ribs,

Your middle region of your torso.

Perhaps you feel the breath traveling down toward your belly,

Swelling the belly.

There's no right or wrong here.

We're simply noticing,

Simply watching the breath.

Watching how it is that you experience the breath when we add just a little longer duration to the out-breath.

Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose just a little longer.

And again,

The thoughts will arise.

Distractions may happen in your external environment or in your internal environment.

And you can simply acknowledge those distractions and then gently guide your awareness back to your breath.

Breathing in through your nose,

Feeling where in the body does the breath travel.

And breathing out through your nose,

Seeing if you can lengthen the duration of your exhale so that it lasts just a bit longer than the breath.

Continuing with that sense of curiosity as though your breath is the most fascinating thing you could possibly maintain your attention on.

Become captivated by the rhythm of your breath.

Notice how the breath moves your muscles,

Your bones,

Your organs.

Notice the difference between the movement of the body on the inhale versus the movement of the body on your slow,

Smooth,

Gentle,

More complete exhale.

Feeling the body gently expand as you fill with breath.

And feeling the body softly release as you exhale completely.

Noticing the warmth of your breath as it travels in through your nose and out through your nose.

Feeling that gentle exchange of air across your upper lip.

Feeling the support beneath your body almost rising up to hold your body in this position as you breathe.

And as any distraction arises from within or from without,

Gently acknowledge that thought or sensation and then draw your awareness back inside to the fascinating rhythm of your soft inhale and your slower,

Smoother,

Deeper exhale.

Carrying on with your breath awareness.

Expanding on the inhale and softening on the exhale.

And very gently release your control of the breath.

Release that lengthening of the exhale and simply watch your natural breath now.

Thank you.

Reviews

calming & centering. Needed that balancing

Very calming and centering, thank you 🙏🏻

Very nice and calming. Thanks

Very nice guidance! I enjoyed it very much, thank you 🙏💜

Very lovely and relaxing. Thank you!

Very clear, peaceful and inviting

So smooth and relaxing! Very nice! I’m going to do the others!

Thank you for this! You helped me become calmer, it wasn’t easier to stay still and the 30 minutes felt like 10! Thank you! 🙏🏼 will continue the whole week!

I really enjoyed this meditation. Love and peaceful through out

Thank you for this practice.

Very nurturing, thank you🙏🏽

Thank you, this practice is such a wonderful way to start my day with the intention of complete self acceptance starting with the breath.

Exceptional meditation 🙏
Thank you.

Thank you your reminders were very helpful

Really lovely gentle body scan & breath awareness. Felt very still. Slightly abrupt ending x

Looking forward to week two.

A wonderful addition to Vipassana practice. A guided relaxation body scan with a simple control of breath exercise. Beautiful calming voice. Soothing and slow. Not to chatty. Adding as part of my insight practice. Morning is better as this would probably have me sleeping at night!

Very relaxing. I took I fell asleep

Very nice. Nice body scan into some sweet breath awareness. Lovely, soothing instruction. Thank you.