Welcome.
This breath practice is for the moments when life feels a bit tight.
When you've been carrying a lot,
Responding to a lot,
Holding a lot,
And somewhere inside yourself you can feel that things have started to contract.
Maybe you feel like your body is bracing or your mind is gripping.
You might feel your energy becoming scattered and maybe you just need a little bit more room.
So this practice is here to help you soften,
To widen,
To take up some space and come back to yourself.
So you can be sitting or lying down.
Either way works.
You're just gonna begin to invite the shoulders to settle back and down just by bringing your awareness onto them.
Notice the front of the shoulders,
The sides of the shoulders,
The back of the shoulders.
Let your awareness wash over them.
Your shoulder blades.
A gentle invitation to relax.
Maybe bringing your awareness to your jaw,
All the sides of your jaw,
The hinge of the jaw.
And bring your awareness to the mass of the jaw.
Inviting it to relax and rest.
Let it settle and soften.
Bring your awareness to your tongue,
All of your tongue,
The root of your tongue,
The back of your tongue,
The taste buds,
Middle of your tongue and the tip of your tongue.
Bringing your awareness to all the parts of the tongue.
Inviting a gentle relaxation back and down.
And take a moment to simply notice how you are arriving in this moment.
Notice what feels tight,
Tense.
Let your awareness scan your body for places of tightness or tension.
You might scan from the very top of the head all the way down to the tips of the toes.
Where is the tightness,
The tension?
Just noticing.
There's no judgment.
We're not blaming.
We're not judging.
Just noticing with our awareness.
And do another scan from the top of your head down to the tips of your toes.
Noticing what feels busy,
Maybe jittery.
Like a lot of activity is going on.
Aware in your body.
Scanning with your awareness.
You might feel that sense of busyness,
Jitteriness.
Like lots of energy in a small space.
Without judgment,
We're just noticing.
Just becoming aware.
That's interesting.
You have a little busyness here.
And then allowing your awareness to scan one more time from the top of your head down to the tips of toes.
Noticing where in your body you feel like there's not enough room.
There's not enough space to take up.
Without judgment.
Without blame.
Just noticing.
Oh,
There's not enough room here.
This part of my body wants more room.
We're going to begin to breathe.
We're going to start with three physiological sighs.
A physiological sigh is two gentle sips in through the nose.
Pause at the top.
And then a sigh out the mouth.
And it sounds like this.
That's all.
We're going to do it three times.
Two gentle sips in through the nose.
Hold and sigh out through the mouth.
Do that two more times at your own pace.
And now that you know the physiological sigh,
We'll be doing three more.
And every time we exhale through the mouth on that sigh,
Releasing any effort,
Allowing all the effort and all of the holding tight to release through that sigh.
So let's do three more.
Two gentle sips in through the nose.
Holding and releasing the effort.
Inhaling two gentle sips in through the nose.
Holding and releasing.
And one more time.
Inhaling through the nose.
Two gentle sips of air.
Holding at the top and releasing.
Letting go of the effort.
Letting go of the control.
Now pause for a minute.
Allowing your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
Do you notice any shifts in your body?
Bring your awareness to the center line of the body.
You have the base of the body,
That root chakra,
The low belly,
The sacral chakra,
The solar plexus at the navel,
The heart chakra and heart space in the chest,
The throat chakra,
The space between the brows,
That third eye,
Ajna,
And the crown of the head,
The top of the head.
You don't need to picture all of these perfectly.
Just know they make up this center line of the body.
And let your awareness move from that base of your body,
That root chakra,
And gently allow your awareness to lift up that center line.
Let it trace that inner pathway.
And as you inhale and exhale in your natural breath,
Just imagine that breath rising up on the inhale and slowly flowing back down on the exhale.
You don't have to breathe any kind of way.
Just allow your natural rhythm of breath to be present.
And imagining as you inhale,
That breath rising from the base to the crown.
And on the exhale,
It gently flowing back down from the crown to the base.
Inhaling and rising.
Exhaling and softening.
And this is in your own time with your own breath.
Inhaling and rising through the center line of the body.
Exhaling and settling through the centers of the body.
And while you're breathing this way,
We'll add a sweet,
Quiet intention to the breath.
As you're inhaling from the base to the crown,
You can think,
Widen,
Take up space.
And as you exhale,
You can think,
Soften,
Receive from the crown to the base.
So let's do a few together.
We're going to inhale from the base all the way up to the center line.
Widening,
Taking up space.
And as you exhale,
Starting at the crown all the way down to the base,
Soften,
Receive.
Let's do it again.
Inhaling from the base all the way up to the crown.
Widen,
Take up space.
And as you exhale from the crown to the base,
Soften,
Receive.
Inhaling from the base to the crown.
Widening,
Taking up space.
And exhaling from the crown to the base.
Softening,
Receiving.
And now you continue in your own rhythm.
And as you inhale,
Let there be more space.
Take up the space in your physical body.
A little more room in the chest.
The belly,
The throat,
The spine.
And as you exhale,
Let the body soften around that.
Inhaling from the base to the crown.
Widen,
Take up space.
Exhale,
Soften.
From the crown to the base.
Continuing for just a few more breaths.
Take up space.
Rising through the whole inner body.
And softening through the whole inner body.
Now letting go of that pattern.
Just let your breath return to its natural flow.
And just notice.
Notice if there's a little more room in your body.
Is there a little more quiet?
A little more softness?
Is there just a little bit more of you here now?
And silently to yourself,
If it feels true,
You can repeat to yourself,
I am held,
Softened,
And fully here.
I am held,
Softened,
And fully here.
You're ready.
You can simply begin to flutter your eyes open.
Gently.
You might roll your shoulders or your head.
You might take a full body stretch.
You might put a hand to your heart or a hand to your belly.
You might give yourself a little head massage for a minute.
Just come back.
And go about your day,
My friend.
Namaste.
