Welcome.
My name is Yaesha Bryan and today I'll be guiding you through Kapalabhati or skull polishing breath.
I encourage you to find a comfortable seat.
You may want to place a towel underneath your sitz bones or a blanket.
You're also welcome to come into rock pose which is a kneeling position if you find that more comfortable than a seat.
And today we're going to be learning Kapalabhati breath also known as the skull polishing breath.
This breath is said to increase circulation,
Energize the body,
Bring a high level of oxygen into the bloodstream,
Can also increase your metabolic rate.
So how do we do it?
This breath is going to be done completely through the nose.
So inhale and exhale comes through the nose.
The exhale is the part that you want to focus on.
You're going to powerfully exhale through your nose.
The inhale is completely passive so don't think about the inhale.
Just focus on the exhale and I promise you that inhale will happen naturally.
It's going to sound like this.
The other piece of this breath is that you will contract your abdomen powerfully on the exhale.
So place one hand over your belly button over your abdomen and with your exhale I want you to focus on moving your belly button towards your spine as powerfully as possible.
So let's try this together.
Big breath in and out.
Breathe in.
Hold the breath here and here we go.
Exhale powerfully.
Great.
Take a breath in and let it go.
You're focusing on the exhale alone through the nose.
The inhale is passive.
As you exhale your belly button is moving powerfully towards your spine.
Abdominal muscles are contracting.
So we'll do a series of these so we can get comfortable with the breath.
We'll do 10 take a break and then 10 take a break and then we'll move into doing a few more rounds.
Big inhale in.
Hold at the top and begin.
Big breath in and out.
Here we go in three two one.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Hold your breath here and begin.
Inhale and exhale.
Let yourself settle.
Move into your natural breath pattern and just see what you notice about any shifts or changes.
Now that you're feeling a little more comfortable let's add on another layer here.
Open your hands wide and then your second through your fifth finger ball into a fist so that you're bringing those fingertips to touch the inside of your palm.
Outstretch your thumb like you're giving a big thumbs up.
Then reach both hands up to the sky and come out about 45 degrees so that your thumbs are facing in towards each other.
Your thumbs can basically create an arc between the spaces that adjoin them.
So holding here strong press your shoulders down push your shoulder blades together reach your fists up to the sky.
Imagine an arc of light attaching your thumbs to one another.
We're going to do Kapalabhati again 20 rounds of breath here.
Big breath in and out.
Inhale and hold and begin.
Pumping the navel here.
Big breath in.
Hold your breath here at the top.
Reach your fingertips to the sky.
Slowly exhale and as you exhale gently slowly bring your arms down down down sensing your energy field around you sweeping any negative energy out of your energetic field.
Beautiful.
Big breath in and release.
We'll do one last round this time doing 50 Kapalabhati breaths.
This amount of breaths is something to work up to so if you want to take a break or just do the first 20 that's totally fine.
Assume the position you were in before with your fists balled up your thumbs reaching out arms at that 45 degree angle.
Thumbs could make an arc between one another.
Shoulders down neck long straight spine.
Big inhale in.
Exhale release.
Inhale.
Hold at the top and we'll go for a 50 powerful exhale and begin.
Focusing on the exhale here.
Pumping your navel.
The belly button comes towards the spine.
Big inhale.
Hold at the top.
Out.
Stretch your fingertips long.
Reach up towards the sky.
Exhale.
Slowly release your air.
Sweep your fingers either side slowly removing any negative energy in your auric fields.
Illuminating the space that surrounds you.
Go ahead and bring your palms to your heart center.
Big breath in.
And out.
Feel free to stay here to drop into meditation to connect with your own innate breath.
Or if you feel energized and ready to move to the next part of your day then do that.
