Come into a comfortable position.
You can sit,
Have your spine long and relax your shoulders.
Arrive in this very moment in your body,
In your seat.
Close your eyes and guide your awareness towards your breath.
Notice the air flowing in through the nose.
And notice how it feels when the air flows out of your nose.
Does it feel the same?
Is the quality of the air the same?
Or does it feel different?
Different how?
Can you observe if the breath is dry?
If the air is moist?
If it is fast or slow?
Is it the same when you breathe in and breathe out?
Or how does it change between an in-breath and an out-breath?
And can you notice if one nostril is more dominant than the other one?
Where do you feel more air flowing in and more air flowing out?
Is there a big difference between the two nostrils?
Or an almost undetectable difference between right and left?
Guide your awareness a little bit further back into your throat.
As the air is coming in through the nose,
Towards the throat,
How long can you follow your breath?
How long can you feel the cool air flowing in?
And where can you feel the breath getting so warm and moist that it's very hard to still feel it?
And as you breathe out,
Is there a point in your throat where you catch the stream of air Is there a point in your throat where you catch the stream of air and where you can bring your focus along with it as it flows out through the nose?
Try and stay with your breath as it flows in until you lose it just before it enters your lungs.
And connect back to the breath as it exits the lungs as you feel it in your throat and you feel it leave the nose.
Guide your awareness now to your shoulders.
Is there any movement as you breathe in?
And is there any movement as you breathe out?
And if there is movement,
Do you feel your shoulder blades slide up as you inhale or do they slide down?
Do they slide to the side?
And what kind of movement can you feel as you exhale?
Is the movement in your shoulders strong or is it very soft?
If you feel strong movement in your shoulder blades,
Try and soothe that movement.
Try and soothe that movement.
Try and calm that movement down.
So that there is still movement but very soft movement and your shoulders remain relaxed during in-breath and out-breath.
And guide your awareness now to your chest.
Can you feel and observe movement as you breathe in or as you breathe out in your chest?
Does your chest go forward as you inhale?
Does it move to the side?
Can you detect movement going back in as you exhale?
Observe if the movement is strong and big or if it is soft and small.
Try and relax that movement.
Yes,
You want your chest to move but it's a very soft and gentle,
Very quiet movement.
Guide your awareness then to your ribs,
To your ribcage.
You can place both hands on either side of your ribcage and feel the movement with your hands as you inhale and exhale.
Here the movement can be very big.
See if you can detect 360 degrees of movement.
Your ribs opening to the front,
Expanding to the side and even to the back.
And as you exhale,
360 degrees are relaxing back in.
Bring your awareness then to your belly.
Place one or both hands onto your belly and notice the movement in your belly as you breathe in and as you breathe out.
Breathing in,
The belly expands to all sides,
To the front and to the side.
There's even a little bit of movement detectable in your lower back.
And as you exhale,
The belly and the lower back both relax back in.
For the last five breaths,
I invite you to feel everything.
The air flowing in through the nose,
Going into your throat,
Your chest and your shoulders creating a little bit of space as you breathe in.
Your ribs and your belly creating a lot of space as you breathe in.
And as you exhale,
Your belly relaxes,
The ribcage relaxes,
The shoulders and the chest relax.
And you feel the breath leaving you through your throat and then your nose.
Expand your awareness to all different parts of your breathing.
Notice how you feel now.
Has anything shifted since the beginning of this practice?
How do you feel in your body?
How relaxed are your thoughts?
How much space do you feel on the inside?
Notice,
Relax and have a beautiful rest of the day.
