One Complete Cycle Of Breath

Let's begin by taking a moment to allow your body to settle.

Find yourself in a comfortable position that allows your spine to be long but with a natural curve in the lower back.

You may close your eyes or keep them open with a soft gaze looking downward just a few feet in front of you.

As you just focus on the breath just let the belly and shoulders relax.

So today I'm going to guide you through one complete cycle of breath.

So before we start let's just take a full deep breath in,

Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.

And now just allow the breath to just find its natural rhythm.

Breathing in and breathing out,

Breathing in and breathing out.

So throughout this practice I'll share the instructions and when the time is right for you to begin to apply your full attention to one complete cycle of breath.

So first what we're going to do is notice when the inhale begins,

How it continues and then when it ends.

Next we're going to notice when the exhale begins,

How it continues,

When it ends and whether there is a brief pause before the inhale begins again.

And then on the final inhale and exhale we're then going to use the full attention like this to follow one complete cycle of breath,

Completing this practice.

So let's begin.

So let's notice first when the inhale begins,

Taking a deep breath into the nose and just notice when it ends and hold.

Then notice the moment that the inhale turns to an exhale as you continue to breathe out when that also ends.

So now we're just going to try it one more time.

So let's take a deep breath in through our nose,

Hold before we release that breath.

So as we pause for a moment you may choose to follow another breath,

Focusing on the inhale,

The hold and the exhale.

We now just bring ourselves back into the room,

Just opening your eyes and maybe stretching.