Hello everyone and welcome.
My name is April and welcome to the Yoga Ranger Studio and welcome to this meditation practice.
So softly come into your meditation shape,
Whatever that may be.
Could be using a wall or pillows for support,
Sitting in a chair or on the floor.
Just feeling comfortable and supported.
Your spine long,
Space for you to really breathe deeply into your belly,
Your chest,
Your upper chest.
Just take a moment or two here to just settle in and very gently soften your gaze or close your eyes,
Whatever feels intuitive for you right now.
Become aware of your breath and notice wherever you're breathing the most right now.
Maybe it's in the center of your chest,
Maybe it's the upper chest,
Maybe it's your belly.
And begin to focus your breath down in the belly space,
Beginning diaphragmatic breathing,
Which is that lower belly space expanding out to the side waist and the lower back.
Letting your breath begin and end here.
As you breathe into this space,
Softly begin to smooth your breath out,
Making your inhale and your exhale the same.
Same length,
Same speed.
Inhaling through your nose,
Exhaling through your nose.
Feeling your breath is easy,
Even.
And feeling your breath be very quiet,
Almost as if a soft,
Gentle whisper,
Just blowing a feather right in front of your lips.
This will help slow your breath down even more.
Now we begin to count the inhale and exhale.
We use a four-count inhale and a four-count exhale,
Taking a nice deep cleansing breath to start.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And continuing along like this on your own for one minute,
Gently letting go of the count of your breath.
Now we're going to practice alternate nostril breathing,
Or Nadi Shodhana.
And for this breath practice,
We're going to be using a mudra called Vishnu's Mudra.
This is just taking your right hand,
Bringing your pointer finger and your middle finger down toward the base of your thumb or your palm,
Gently placing your right thumb on the indent on the right side of your nose,
And your ring finger on your right hand on the indent on the left side of your nose.
Taking a deep inhale and exhale through your nose,
And then closing off right,
Inhaling through left,
Closing off left,
Exhaling through right,
Inhaling right,
Closing off right,
Exhaling through left,
Inhaling left,
Closing off left,
Exhaling through right,
Inhaling right,
Closing off right,
Exhaling through left,
Inhaling left,
Exhaling right,
Inhaling right,
Exhaling left,
Inhaling left,
Exhaling right,
Inhaling right,
Exhaling left.
Continuing on like this for one minute.
When you next finish,
Exhale on the left nostril.
Just go ahead and release your hands down.
Notice how you feel.
Notice your body,
Scanning from the top of your head down to the bottoms of your feet,
Softly bringing your awareness to your breath and any sensations that you have,
Physically or energetically.
Gently bringing your hands together at heart center,
Thumbs to your breastbone,
And softly bowing your head,
Very slowly opening your eyes,
Taking a few moments here to come back into the space,
Maybe taking some time to journal about whatever may have come up for you or how that felt,
Or whatever thoughts or emotions or sensations came up at the end.
Thank you so much for sharing this practice with me.
Peace.
