Hello my friends,
Welcome back to Your Journey Yoga.
My name is Natalia and today we have a pranayama practice to soothe the nervous system.
This practice is best done lying down so I'll invite you to find any elements of support that you'd like to have with you,
Whether that's a pillow or a blanket or a bolster.
Give yourself some time to attune to what feels best for you and we'll begin.
As you're coming to lie on your back,
Let yourself fidget and adjust until you find a sweet spot of stillness.
And you can have the legs and arms extended or you can find some sort of bodily connection by letting the hands rest on the belly and the heart,
The hips,
Or maybe you bring the legs into supta baddha konasana,
Bringing the feet together knees wide.
Let yourself attune to what feels best,
What would allow you to drop into a sweet spot of stillness.
And as you're adjusting here,
Welcome in some big full body breaths,
Keeping your exhales smooth and slow.
Start to unfurl your brow,
Relaxing the space between your ears,
And unclenching your jaw.
Let the shoulders be heavy,
The arms relax,
And feel a sense of openness in the hands and the fingers.
Feel the way the breath moves in your chest and in your belly,
And noticing the way that gravity keeps you connected to the earth.
Sensing your hips and your legs,
Feeling an openness in your feet and your toes as well.
And invite a sense of surrender into the physical body,
Imagining the pores of your skin opening and the muscles and the bones of your body becoming more interconnected with the earth beneath you.
Welcoming ease to any tension that may be alive in the body.
Lovingly acknowledge where you may be gripping or holding,
Not only in the body but also in the mind,
With your energy,
With your emotions.
Not to judge,
But to simply notice so that you can truly meet yourself where you are in this moment.
How does the landscape of the mind feel right now?
How does your emotional and energetic landscape feel right now?
Release any labels,
Any narratives,
Any judgments that you have towards the state that you're currently in,
And just feel.
Feel how this is manifesting in the body and plant a little seed of trust.
Anything that feels like it may not be serving you right now can be transmuted into something that does.
So begin to attune to the breath as it is right now by noticing where you feel it most prominently in this moment,
And just let your awareness settle there,
Observing the pace,
The depth,
And the temperature of your breath as it is without changing it.
Then begin to gradually let your inhales be a little bit longer and your exhales to become a little bit slower.
You don't need to make a big change,
Just let it be gradual.
And just continue in this process of allowing your inhales to become bigger each time you draw breath in and continuing to allow your exhales to be longer,
More easeful.
Imagine allowing your inhales to fill the entire torso all the way up to the crown of your head,
All the way into your arms and your legs,
And letting each exhale bring you more and more ease and more depth in the present moment.
Allowing the breath to travel into parts of the body that it normally doesn't get to when you breathe naturally.
Continue to allow your inhales to be this full,
Continuously,
And we're going to add an open mouth,
Slightly audible exhale,
Letting your inhales be big,
Full body,
And slow.
Allowing your exhales to be open-mouthed,
Slightly audible,
And soft.
Continue with this cadence in this form of breath.
You may reach a point where the open mouth,
Audible exhale feels annoying or uncomfortable to do.
The invitation is to let yourself move beyond any resistance that arises,
To let yourself see what's on the other side of this resistance and of what may feel a little uncomfortable.
There is expansiveness and spaciousness on the other side.
So even if you feel like you don't want to continue with the pranayama,
Let yourself explore what happens if you do.
Letting your inhales be slow,
Full,
And expansive.
Let your exhales bring you ease,
Cleansing,
And clearing.
You are grounded where you are.
You are safe in this moment.
You are seen,
Held,
Loved,
And appreciated.
It's not uncommon for emotions or energy to come up,
To come out in a pranayama practice.
So if tears come,
If there's some sort of release that needs to happen in this practice,
Know that you are safe to do so.
Let it flow.
Let it come up to come out and trust in the breath.
Trust in your ability to transmute.
Continue to trust.
Keep your heart open.
Know that whatever needs to be alchemized is being alchemized in this moment.
Quiet the mind.
Open the heart.
Staying grounded in where you are in the now.
Deeply connected to the flow of your breath and everything that it is transmuting.
You do three more rounds of this full body breath with the open mouth exhale.
And then allow the breath to soften into something a little more natural.
You can wiggle your fingers and your toes a little bit if that feels nice.
Reorienting to where you are physically.
And just take a moment here to notice how you feel.
Mind,
Body,
Spirit.
I'll encourage you to journal,
If that's part of your practice,
About anything that came up for you here.
There's no right or wrong,
But just notice and track how you feel throughout the rest of your day and maybe even the rest of your week.
This practice is here for you anytime that you would like to reaccess it.
So until then,
Thank you for choosing you.
Thank you for showing up.
And I'll see you in the next one.
Namaste.
