Befriending The Breath - Guided Breath Awareness

This is a guided breath awareness practice focusing on the 3-part breath, helping connect you more deeply to each full breath and centering you in the present moment. It's a wonderful way to unwind and bring more focus to your day.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is April and welcome to our practice today.

Today we're going to be working more in depth with the three-part breath or diaphragmatic breathing.

We're going to be focusing on using kinesthetic or touch to help guide us in the process of really expanding the breath for the full space of our lung capacity.

So you get nice and tall,

Finding a cushion underneath your hips so that your hips and knees are about the same height,

A nice lift and really lengthening the spine up as tall as you can through the crown of your head and then settling back down into your seat.

We're going to start with just checking in with the breath.

So just notice where you start this practice.

Your breath might be super fast from running in or it might be moving around.

Your breath might be a little bit slower,

A little bit sleepy.

Just notice where your breath is.

Notice where you begin the practice.

And as you begin to notice where your breath is at at the start,

You automatically begin to regulate it just a little bit.

Maybe you notice you may be breathing more into the upper chest.

Maybe it's been an anxious and worrisome day.

Maybe you're still a little bit from sleepiness and you're breathing far more into the belly space.

There's no wrong or right here.

There just is where you're breathing in this moment.

Just settling yourself in,

Letting that breath,

That exhale help you get a little bit of tension and anxiety out of the shoulders and neck,

The shoulders soften down just a little bit more.

Then we're going to take our fingers,

We're going to take the hands and cross them over right above the navel.

So right in that space above the navel,

Right in the belly space.

I'm going to put just a gentle amount of pressure,

So not really pushing in,

But just enough where you can really feel the breath expanding in the belly.

This is the belly breath and this is the breath that babies when they're sleeping or small children naturally find to help really find that deep rest,

That deep sleep and that soft parasympathetic nervous system that heal and rest and digest.

So we're going to breathe into the belly first.

Don't worry about if you breathe up higher or somewhere else.

Just focusing that breath mostly in the belly and just feeling that belly press your hand away and then the hand come back and contract.

So we're going to start with about nine breaths here at your own pace.

So inhaling and exhaling.

Just breathing into the belly.

Feeling that rise and fall.

Don't feel like you have too much tension in the shoulders.

You're not holding this in place.

You're just holding space here using touch as a guide.

Maybe you feel the belly expanding a little bit more as you soften into it.

Just about four more breaths.

This may feel very strange to you.

Some people breathe first in the upper chest and the natural breath for them is the opposite direction.

But just focusing that breath here in the belly.

Letting it soften.

We hold our bellies in so tight every day.

We wear tight clothing on them and kind of close that space in.

Allow your breath in your belly to expand and round.

Just one more breath.

Letting your hands rest on your knees.

Notice if you can still feel that gentle pressure of your hands on the belly and notice if you continue to breathe into that belly space.

So taking another three or four breaths into the belly without the hands there.

Notice if it feels easier or harder with the hands gone.

Resting your focus on whatever breath comes naturally without thinking about breathing into the belly or anywhere else.

This is the base of our lungs.

That place where the vacuum is the deepest.

Breath comes in as pulled basically into the body through the vacuum and then it moves up into the higher spaces.

The lungs may look a little bit more like an hourglass.

So maybe the space is a little bit bigger down here,

A little bit wider at the top and maybe a little bit smaller in the middle.

So we're really breathing into that space that's very soft and loose.

Because we're breathing into the belly we're getting more of a diaphragmatic breath and the diaphragm is opening up and down to really kind of add a little massage to the internal organs of this whole abdominal region.

Really good for the abdominals,

Really good for digestion,

Helping move things along and helping just to make everything a little healthier,

A little softer.

So next we're going to take our hands and you can either take your hands around the bottoms of the ribs with the fingers pointing forward or maybe you take the thumbs pointing forward and the fingers back.

A real gentle grasp here again,

Just a gentle touch.

We're not cinching up,

We're just having a little bit of weight there to the sides.

If it's easier you can either also wrap your hands around your belly and just touch on each side but I find this works the best for really becoming aware of how the ribs are expanding outward.

So we're going to take about nine breaths here allowing the breath to expand out to the left and to the right.

So starting with our inhale and exhale.

Just at your own pace here,

Noticing maybe your thumbs are expanding a little bit backwards and your fingers forwards but also your hands expanding out to the sides.

Almost like an accordion breath.

Just about three more breaths here.

Let your body be soft.

Sometimes when we regulate the breath our shoulders get a little bit stiffer.

See how far you can expand out to the sides and back.

Just one more breath.

Letting those hands come back to the lap or the knees.

Rolling the shoulders a little bit to loosen them up.

Here again,

Notice if you can still feel the hands on that side body.

If you can still feel a little bit of that pressure,

Muscle memory and body memory.

With that same memory of that touch there,

Let's take three deep breaths into the side body expanding out like an accordion without the hands.

Letting your breath to go back to whatever it was before.

No thought,

No regulation,

No focusing on any area.

Maybe just noticing what it feels like to have expanded the belly and the side body and breathing into those first two sections of that three-part breath.

You might find yourself feeling a little bit calmer,

Maybe a little more relaxed,

Maybe a little bit more settled and grounded.

This often slows the breath down quite a bit which is what we're trying to do.

We slow the breath down so we can slow us down.

Now we're going to focus on the upper chest,

On the upper part of the shoulders and collarbones.

Taking the hands to the upper space of the chest,

Maybe thumbs winging out toward the shoulders,

You might begin to feel on this breath that we expand out a little bit as the collarbones will widen just a little bit and also forward a little bit.

You might feel the fingers rise and the thumbs reach out on the inhale and exhale.

Everything comes down and in.

Taking a nice deep clearing breath here,

Relaxed here again.

Just taking that weight of the hands on the chest and inhaling nine times into the upper chest.

Nice deep inhale,

Nice deep exhale.

Don't worry if the rest of the breath starts to follow,

Just focusing as much as you can on the upper chest.

Notice if this part of the body feels a little bit more restricted.

There's someone who holds more of the tension in your neck and upper back and shoulders.

It might be that that's kind of restricting the breath on the upper end of that three-part breath.

See if you can soften that space with the breath to make the breath a little better.

Three more deep breaths.

Gently letting your hands fall when you're ready.

Notice you can still fill the hands on the upper chest and shoulders,

Letting the breath be natural.

Maybe a little sigh out.

Without the hands there,

Three breaths really focusing on the upper chest collarbone space.

Taking a nice deep inhale and exhale.

Letting everything soften.

If you're rolling the shoulders,

One and then the other.

Now we're going to add all of those three together.

Letting our breath rest for a few moments.

Letting yourself ground down and feel connected.

Reaching up through the spine,

Feeling a little taller.

If it helps,

You can always take one hand to the belly,

Then one hand to the chest,

And one hand to the upper chest if that feels easier.

Or you can do it without the hands.

Here we're going to take nine breaths again.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Don't worry if it didn't make sense the first few times.

Inhaling belly,

Chest,

Collarbones.

And exhaling.

Think of the body is expanding out in a circle.

Inhale and exhale,

Coming back to rest.

Maybe closing your eyes or softening your gaze.

Just about four more breaths.

Last inhale and exhale.

Just let the breath soften to whatever it may be.

And noticing how you feel.

Noticing if your breath is slower or even.

If the breath is further out,

Contains more of the space of the lungs.

Notice if this seemed the opposite of how you breathe normally.

Or if this breath seems intuitive.

And then thinking about more than just the physical reaction to the breath,

Also notice your thoughts and your emotions.

Perhaps everything feels a little bit slower and quieter,

More grounded.

Taking about three more deep breaths.

I hope you enjoyed this practice of connecting more deeply to that three-part breath,

That full,

Rich,

Deep breath.

Use this breath to soothe any time or to just reconnect to the full expanse of your breath.

Befriending your breath,

Becoming more aware and conscious and present with it.

And while becoming more aware and conscious and present with your breath,

You become more present with yourself and this moment.

Thank you for joining me for this practice.

Peace.

Reviews

Enjoyed the pacing of this session, felt good to fully experience the full capacity of the breath. Thank you for holding this space 🙏🏻💚

Thanks so very much Aprille. Great to have a new outlet for others to find a truly incredible teacher. Wonderful practice and with much gratitude 💜💜💜

Thank you for this relaxing practice.

Thank you Aprille & welcome to this platform 💚. Always good to go back to basics once in a while. Feeling very relaxed and ready for the day ahead, namaste 🙏

Beautiful! One of my favorite breaths and so well explained. It really helped to tame my racing mind this morning leaving me feeling much more grounded and able to tackle my to do list in a calm and orderly way. Can’t wait to do this one again and again. Thank you 🙏

Discovered the 3 part breath today💗 An awesomely delivered exploitative practice. Thanks, Peace💞