Breathe Counting Focus For Regulation

This Track has Guidance from gross sensation to more subtle and expands into the focus of breath counting for parasympathetic activation. Suggested to Be seated during practice. It is encouraged to extend your meditation past track time as there is guidance throughout.

Transcript

Welcome.

Thank you for joining for meditation.

Thank you for taking some time to make yourself a priority.

So today we're going to be focusing on the breath,

Utilizing it as our concentration focus.

To some,

I often hear,

Why do we focus so much on the breath?

I want to focus on this,

That,

The other thing.

And all these other things are wonderful tools,

They're wonderful techniques,

But there's a there's a special power in the breath.

There's a special way in which it connects our mind and our body,

And it's only in this unified resonance that the mind and body are both able to function appropriately.

So practice is focused around the breath,

The quality of the breath,

The management of the breath.

One of the deepest paths,

The deepest practices,

Mainly because you always have your breath with you at all times,

Every moment of every day.

There's never a time where you don't have your breath.

So it gives you a tool that you can never lose,

That you can always utilize to engage,

To ground,

To center,

To go in.

A very powerful tool.

There's multiple ways in which to engage with the breath when it comes to our meditation practice,

And today we're going to utilize the breath for a form of concentration,

A focus,

Parasympathetic activation,

Engagement.

And while with meditation there are no hard,

Fast rules,

Today I'm gonna make a strong suggestion that I encourage you to practice this meditation sitting up,

Sitting in a comfortable seated position.

Try not to lay down.

Now for many,

And for certain practices,

This laying down is beneficial,

Especially if you're listening to this meditation as you're going to bed.

And if that's the case,

Then obviously you can make your practice your practice.

But when it comes to utilizing meditation,

There's a,

There's an extra benefit that comes in when we maintain our practice in a full upright seated position versus laying down.

So when we're laying down,

And then we start our meditation practice,

It becomes too easy for the body to be calm,

To relax,

To simply go from that thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

Slipping right into sleep mode,

Skipping over that middle period.

But it's in that middle period that the magic happens.

It's in that middle period that the steel of the mind becomes softened,

That the resonance of that deeper,

Abstract,

Universal self becomes expanded.

It's in that period that the subconscious begins to bubble up.

This is why for most,

We attempt to go from doing,

Doing,

Doing right to sleep.

And for those that are carrying,

You know,

Traumas,

Both big and small,

They're often able to fall asleep,

Apparently no effort at all.

There's a mental defense in which the mind does not want to allow the subconscious to escape,

To bubble up.

And so it goes right from sleep,

Right from awake to sleep,

Apparently the blink of an eye.

So we get to utilize our meditation to expand that space in between,

That awake and sleep state.

This is when the brainwaves change and shift.

This is when the magic happens.

So it's encouraged that you maintain your practice in an upright seated position.

There's many techniques,

Positions,

Placements,

Suggestions for how to maintain that upright seated position.

Yet again,

I'll make some suggestions,

But ultimately the practice is yours.

Main principles I try to apply is that my sits bones are firmly rooted down into whatever I'm sitting on,

Cushion,

Floor,

Chair,

Bed.

And my spine is elongated while allowing the natural curves.

Crown of the head,

We're reaching up towards the heavens.

So we have both rooted groundedness through the hips and the sits bones.

And we have the length,

The expansion,

Connection to the universe.

So through our meditation practice,

We are already that cross bridge between the earth and the heavens.

As we find this comfortable seated position,

We've already started to observe and analyze the room around us,

The space in which we are in.

A room,

Maybe we're in the backyard,

Maybe we're in the living room,

Maybe we're sitting in our car.

Whatever space we're in,

We begin this observation by looking around,

Assessing the room around us,

Analyzing for safety,

For exits,

Just giving our body what it needs to let it know that it's safe,

That it's okay to begin to let its guard down,

That we can breathe.

If it feels safe to do so,

I encourage you to close your eyes gently.

If you'd like to keep your eyes open,

I encourage you to find a gentle soft gaze,

Eyelids as closed as possible,

Finding a space in front of you that's not moving,

Cultivating that soft gaze.

Now that we've tuned down the eyes,

We listen to the room around us.

Again,

Assessing,

Experiencing,

Noticing any sounds we find,

Maybe labeling them,

Whether it's a car,

A dog,

A bird,

The air conditioner.

Whatever sounds are around us,

We make peace with them,

Acknowledge them,

And then we start to further bring that awareness from the room around us.

Tone it down a little bit to the awareness of the experience on our body,

And maybe the temperature of the air on our skin,

Maybe the contact,

The surface in which we sit,

Maybe the contact of anything we're leaning against,

Any clothing we may have,

Brushes on our skin,

On the inhale and exhale.

Maybe we find the experience,

Our pulse,

Our neck,

Our wrists,

Our ankles,

Any other experiences with the body.

Just notice.

We further bring that awareness,

We further bring that focus,

Drawing it in further.

We come to the focus,

To the awareness of the breath,

To the experience of the breath on the inhale,

On the exhale,

Just as it is.

Make no attempts to manage,

To adjust,

To control.

Just simply notice the breath as it is,

Maybe the area around the nostrils,

Maybe notice the temperature change on the inhale and exhale,

And maybe you feel where that breath happens,

The ribcage,

Diaphragm,

The belly.

Just notice the experience of the breath as it is,

And before we begin our counting portion of this practice,

It's important to recognize the breath as it is.

It's important to experience reality as it is.

It's only in this state of seeing how things truly are that we're able to properly shift,

Change,

Manage,

Improve,

Grow.

So we must first practice seeing things as they are,

And we practice this with the breath as it is,

Observing the inhale and exhale.

So whether our inhale is shallow or deep,

Or whether our exhale is shallow or deep,

You just experience.

Now we start to invite the mind into our experience.

So wherever you're at and you're breathing,

When you start your inhale,

We'll start to count.

We're simply counting the inhale,

Yet again not trying to control it or manage it,

Just counting to whatever we count to on the inhale.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

And then we count on the exhale,

Whatever we count to.

Two,

Three,

Four.

It does not matter which one's bigger,

Which one's smaller.

Just simply count the inhale as it is,

And we count the exhale as it is,

Keeping this counting in our mind,

Keeping this focus of counting the inhale and counting the exhale.

Maybe we add in the visual counting of the inhale and exhale,

Visualizing these numbers.

And as we spend our time counting the inhale,

Counting the exhale,

Noticing when the mind wanders,

And coming back to the counting of the inhale and exhale.

After a period of counting,

We may notice that naturally these numbers start to expand.

As we start to focus the mind,

As we stop allowing the mind to bounce from place to place,

From topic to topic,

That this focused counting starts to give rise to the expansion of the inhale and exhale.

I'm going to invite that length.

So on our inhale,

As we're counting,

We'll expand that inhale another two seconds,

Maybe another four seconds.

And we'll invite that exhale to expand,

Maybe another two seconds,

Maybe another four seconds.

You find a comfortable expansion on the inhale and exhale,

And keep this expansion,

This pattern,

As it is.

Just slightly expanding both the inhale and the exhale,

Keeping the counting,

Keeping the visualized counting,

If need be,

If desired.

And as we continue counting,

As we've expanded this inhale and expanded this exhale,

We'll add one more layer.

And it's whatever pattern we find the breath breathing at with this expanded state,

We'll invite a slightly longer exhale.

We'll add another two seconds,

Another four seconds,

Maybe another six seconds to the exhale,

To allow the exhale to be slightly longer than the inhale,

Keeping the counting,

Keeping the visualization of the counting,

Keeping the length of the exhale.

We add this lengthened exhale.

This adds a parasympathetic component to this particular practice,

Which,

When we slightly lengthen the exhale,

It's the mechanical cue,

The nervous system,

That the tissues need,

Which tells them that it's okay to let their guard down,

That there's no work that needs to be done.

This tells them that it's all clear.

If you think about times where you're startled,

Or something surprises you,

Or you hear a sound that you don't know what it is,

The body's first inclination is to take a quick,

Short inhale and hold it.

And so when we invite that elongated exhale,

We're telling the body that we're safe.

It's a false alarm.

And we keep this counting going.

And every time the mind pulls us,

We come back.

And sometimes the mind pulls us into places that are not enjoyable.

Other times it pulls us to places that are enjoyable.

This isn't necessarily the time to debate the goods and bads.

And this is a time for the practice of focus,

Concentration,

Of noticing when our mind has wandered down a path.

And we return to the counting,

To the inhale and exhale.

We continue to keep this pattern,

This expanded inhale,

Of this elongated exhale,

Of this counting in the mind's eye,

Of this connection of both mind and body through the breath.

I wish for it to be understood,

The power of the breath,

To be just that.

That connection between the mind and the body.

And we can go weeks,

Possibly even months,

Without food.

We can go days without water.

But we can only go a few moments without breath.

A few moments and we're done.

So how fascinating that the one thing we can go the least amount of time without is also the one thing that we can manage,

That we can manipulate,

That we can speed up,

Slow down,

Pause all together.

The thing we can go the least amount of time without is the one thing that we can pause.

This speaks to the power of the breath to be that crossbridge,

That middleman,

That interface system,

That operating system between the conscious mind and the otherwise unconscious autonomic systems of the body,

That through the breath we're able to engage with those otherwise unengageable systems.

And this is the power of the breath,

The link our thinking mind to our unthinking body,

To create union,

To create resonance.

So this power of the breath,

To be that tool,

Must not be underestimated.

Through your relationship with your breath,

You find the relationship with your life force,

With your life,

With your being.

It's the inhale and the exhale.

Continue this breath,

This practice.

Enjoy the spaces and we find ourselves wandering down paths.

We return always back to the breath,

Always back to the inhale and the exhale.

Aho.