The focus of this meditation is the breath or pran vayu in Sanskrit.
So start yourself by finding yourself in a quiet room,
Somewhere where you won't be disturbed for the next few minutes,
Somewhere where you can just be at peace.
And either come to a seated position with your legs crossed in padmasana,
Lotus position,
Sukhasana or whichever cross legged position feels comfortable to yourself.
But ensure that your back is straight,
The top of your head is lifting up towards the ceiling.
Or,
If you find it more comfortable,
Lie back in savasana with your feet at hip width apart,
Legs and back rested on the ground,
Hands about 30 degrees outside of your body,
Fingers pointing upwards,
Shoulders nice and relaxed.
Gently raise the head,
Look down at the body,
Make sure it's symmetrical,
Lower your head back down,
Make sure your neck is nice and soft and start to take your awareness to the breath.
Start to focus your awareness on your in-breath and on your out-breath.
Start to become aware of the length of the in-breath and the length of the out-breath.
Start to make sure that you're getting equal length between your in-breath and your out-breath.
The in-breath produces an active energy that relaxes you,
Energizes you.
This energy in Sanskrit is known as pranvayu.
And as you breathe out,
You produce an opposing energy which roots you to the ground.
And in Sanskrit,
This is known as a pranvayu.
And ideally,
To come into balance,
To practice meditation,
You should have equal pranvayu,
Equal a panvayu.
And in order to do this,
You must ensure that if you breathe in for a count of three,
You're breathing out for a count of three.
If you're breathing in for a count of four,
You're breathing out for a count of four.
So just for the next few seconds,
Ensuring the length of your in-breath and the length of your out-breath match.
Now take your awareness to the actual quality of the breath.
And see if you can deepen your breathing at all.
So you breathe in as deeply as feels comfortable and breathe out as deeply as feels comfortable.
As you slow down your breath,
You'll slow down your heart rate.
As you slow down your heart rate,
You bring your body deeper into relaxation.
But Anjali,
The author of the Yoga Sutras,
Taught that the breath is linked to the mind.
So if the breath fluctuates,
So does the mind.
But if the breath is still,
Your mind comes to stillness.
So to take yourself to a quiet place in your mind,
Allow your breath to be nice and slow.
Breathe gently,
But as slowly as feels comfortable.
And again,
Remind yourself to keep that equal length between your in-breath,
Between your out-breath.
And focus once more for the next few seconds on the slowness of the breath.
Now start to become aware that the breath itself has its own natural sound.
In Sanskrit,
We call this Soham.
Translated,
That means I am that.
And as you focus on the sound of the mantra Soham,
You remind yourself that I am that point of peace within myself.
And you take yourself to a very peaceful place within your own mind.
And you remind yourself,
This is your true nature.
This is where you feel most comfortable.
This is where you connect with yourself.
And this is where you connect with everything deeper to yourself.
Essentially,
This is your connection to the universe.
You can't connect to the universe when you're stressed,
When you're angry.
But when you're here,
In this point of peace,
You feel your natural being.
You can connect to everything outside you.
You bring yourself back to relaxation.
And then you think about the meaning of that mantra,
Soham.
The sound So is the beach mantra,
The root mantra,
Or the natural sound of the in-breath.
The sound Hum is the beach mantra,
The natural sound of the out-breath.
So now as you breathe in,
Think the sound So.
As you breathe out,
Think the sound Hum.
So you think the sound So as you breathe in,
Hum as you breathe out.
Just spend the next few seconds thinking So on the in-breath,
Hum on the out-breath.
And take yourself back to that point of peace.
Connect with your beach mantras,
With the root sounds of your breath.
So now as you breathe in,
Think the sound Hum as you breathe out.
As you focus more and more on these sounds,
You feel yourself moving deeper towards this point of peace.
Now to make yourself more aware that the breath is moving correctly,
Take your right hand to your belly button and your left hand onto your rib cage.
And as you breathe in,
Become aware of the belly button contracting towards the base of your spine.
Become aware with the left hand of the movement in the rib cage.
So the rib cage expands on the breath in,
But the belly button remains still.
And as you breathe out,
Become aware of the rib cage contract,
But the belly button again remaining still.
So on the in-breath,
All that moves is the rib cage.
Rib cage expands,
The lungs fill with oxygen or pran vital energy.
And as you breathe out,
A pan,
Tiredness moves out of the body.
And as it does,
The rib cage contracts,
The lungs contract,
Belly button remains stable.
And just spend the next few moments focusing on movement just within the rib cage.
Focusing on the lungs expanding and contracting.
If you do find yourself out of breath,
Just return to your normal breath.
But if it does feel comfortable,
Just focus on movement in the rib cage,
Movement within the lungs,
And allow the lungs to fill with oxygen as you breathe in.
And allow the lungs to remove the waste products of metabolism,
To remove carbon dioxide as you breathe out.
Just spend the next few moments with this focus on the movement in the rib cage,
Pran value entering on the in-breath,
Pran value leaving on the out-breath.
Nothing more.
And now,
Let's come to visualize the breath.
So now,
As you breathe in,
Imagine a very light white color smoke entering into your body,
Filling your body with a positive energy,
Filling your body with relaxation,
Filling your body with pranvayu.
And as you breathe out,
Imagine a dark cloud,
A dark smoke leaving the body.
And as it does,
Imagine tiredness,
Any wasteful thoughts you might have,
Any negative thoughts you might have,
Leaving the body on the out-breath.
So that as you're breathing in,
More and more light is filling your body,
More positive energy is filling your body.
And as you breathe out,
A pranvayu is leaving the body.
All dark negative energy is leaving the body.
So you spend the next few moments focusing on the light energy of pranvayu,
The white smoke entering the body,
And on the out-breath,
Focusing on the dark smoke,
A pranvayu,
And any negative energy,
Negative thoughts leaving the body.
So just keep this focus for the next few breaths.
And just remind yourself now that as you focus on the breath,
You're constantly bringing your mind to a point of peace,
A point of stillness.
Remind yourself that any time during the day or during the night that you feel your thoughts have anger,
Peacelessness,
Stress.
Return your awareness to your breathing.
Allow your breath to take yourself deep within your own being,
Your own self,
And bring yourself back to this point of peace.
Remind yourself of the power of the breath.
Remind yourself that the quality of the breath is related to the quality of the mind.
And to slow your mind,
To regulate your mind,
Your thoughts,
To make them peaceful again,
Focus your awareness on the very natural process that your body possesses.
Focus your awareness on the breath.
And now just rub your hands together.
Rub up the bottom of the hands over your eyes.
Just allow warmth to enter into the eyes.
Remain here for a few seconds.
And then slowly move your hands away.
And as you do,
Very slowly open your eyes,
Looking at the insides of the palms.
Slowly return your gaze back to normal.
