Namaste.
This is a guided breathing practice to help calm your nervous system and soothe your mind and body anytime you're feeling anxious or stressed out.
We have a tendency to breathe shallow or to breathe in a way that is not conducive for relaxation when the mind is being agitated and the body is feeling fidgety.
Anxiety can show up in a number of ways through a number of triggers.
You might feel tightening of your jaw,
Uncomfortable feelings in your stomach,
Pain in the lower back,
Just a general sense of not feeling at ease.
When you bring your awareness to your breath,
When you direct it back to this source of life,
The source of prana within you,
You begin to soothe and calm your nerves thereby helping you feel more present and calm.
So to do the practice today I invite you to sit up in a tall comfortable posture,
Perhaps on your chair or seated on your yoga mat.
Maybe you're doing the practice at home or perhaps you are about to do something at work and are taking a few minutes off your desk.
Just allow your body to come to a natural place of stillness and place your palms on your thighs or cup them gently in your lap.
You can also choose to place your hands on your belly,
Right hand under,
Left hand on top.
This allows you to just notice the way in which you're breathing.
As your body comes to a place of stillness,
Gently bring your awareness to your breath and there's no need to change the way that you're breathing.
Just observe breath flowing in and out.
Perhaps there are too many thoughts in your mind right now,
Your body is not feeling ready to be at rest and that's okay.
Just notice where you are in this moment and begin there.
So with the help of this practice I will now be gently guiding you towards restoring the natural calm way of breathing.
I shall give you a count and you just need to follow along.
You will breathe in for four counts,
Hold for two,
Breathe out for four and hold for two again.
For a sense of deeper relaxation you may inhale through your nose and exhale from your mouth.
So take a normal breath in and a normal breath out.
And let's begin.
Breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four hold two and relax.
Allow your breathing to come back to normal.
Take a long breath in and a long breath out.
Let's move on to the second round.
This time we shall exhale for five counts.
So inhale for four,
Hold for two,
Exhale for five,
Hold for two again.
Alright?
Okay,
Let's begin.
Normal breath in,
Normal breath out.
Breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two and relax.
Release all effort.
Let your breathing come back to normal once again.
And now we move on to the third and final round where we shall continue the same breath count as the last one.
Four counts for inhalation,
Two for pause,
Five for exhalation,
Two for pause again.
Okay,
Let's start.
Normal breath in,
Normal breath out.
Breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two breathe in two three four hold two breathe out two three four five hold two deep breath in and breath out and relax.
Allow your breathing to be natural as it flows in and flows out and just notice how you feel now.
You can come back to this practice anytime you need to or else I'll see you again for another meditation.
My name is Somya.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Bye bye.
