Exactly as you are,
Take three smooth and steady breaths.
Allow the body to land.
Your shoulders releasing down,
Your hips,
Your legs,
Your feet,
Your hands,
Your arms,
Everything just draws downward.
It's like you say to gravity,
Okay,
Hold me.
I won't resist,
Hold me.
So just notice how that plays into the space of the face as well,
The muscles softening,
Releasing,
Relaxing.
And then make your attention,
Draw it to your eyes and your eyelids and allow the eyelids to gently close down,
Not forcing them shut,
But just letting them soften,
Soften,
Soften.
And imagine now that the muscles just behind the eyeballs were softening too.
So you're creating this spaciousness within.
Start to notice your breath now just as it is without having to change anything,
Alter anything,
Just become aware of your breathing.
Notice that the inhale,
There's that life luster,
That moment of drawing in new energy.
And then with the exhale,
There's that slow release,
Letting go.
And then with the exhale,
Let go of the breath and let go of the breath.
And then with each breath that you take now,
Notice how the body starts to feel more relaxed,
More released,
Tuning into the present moment through breath awareness,
Anapanam.
And as you start to marinate within your breath,
I'll just drop in a seed of inspiration from the great philosopher Rumi.
And he says,
Stop acting so small.
You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
Stop acting so small.
You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
And just notice as you're with your breath,
If anything comes to mind,
As those words are placed into your awareness,
This idea,
This aspect of being so large,
So full of potential that you are the universe in ecstatic motion.
And now that you've arrived in the body,
Let's deepen and move into the breath.
And we're gonna be working towards breathing in for a count of 10 and breathing out for a count of 10.
It's quite an expansive breath.
And we'll be breathing in and out through our nose.
To begin with,
Let's start with a four breath in and a four breath out.
So with the next inhale counting yourself up to four,
And with the exhale counting back down for a count of four.
And this is just a start now to use the rib cage,
The stomach,
A little bit of the chest,
But mainly in the ribs and stomach.
And it's like you are slowly expanding and slowly contracting.
There's a bit of a controlled element to this practice.
Your conscious mind is just a little bit more relaxed and more relaxed.
And you're just taking a little bit of a moment to this practice.
You're consciously shaping and molding your breath in for four and out for four.
Notice if there's any rigidity,
Any limiting feeling in the body,
And just soften into it.
And then if you're taking this super seriously,
Take 10% of the seriousness out,
Keep a lightness of being,
A little bit of curiosity to your experience.
So now that you're in the motion of the four in four out,
Every time the mind wants to journey away,
Simply choose to come back to the breath.
You might say to yourself,
I choose my breath.
I don't choose to follow the thought,
I choose to come to the breath.
So going from the count of four to 10,
It's quite a jump.
So you might spend some time now extending up to six or seven,
Just starting to increase for the next minute or so,
Breathing into the count of six or seven and out to the count of six or seven.
Soften the jaw,
Soften the forehead.
Nicely done.
Moving into the full balloon breath now up to 10.
So it might be a very slow increase,
And your timing can work for you.
So make it count.
You don't have to push yourself beyond your limit,
But do find that sense of unbound,
Going beyond something that you thought was possible for yourself.
Notice how much more space there is in the back of your chest that could be used.
Notice how there's a little bit more space in the stomach for a little bit extra breath.
And as you breathe in and breathe out,
There's that element of controlling and shaping,
Suspending the breath when you need to.
One more minute for yourself with your balloon breath in for 10 and out for 10.
Instead of thinking that you're breathing now just in your body,
Imagine your breath are expanding into the space beyond you,
Beyond your body.
Taking up the whole room with this beautiful breath,
Feeling supported and held by the ground as you breathe.
So nice.
Allow the holding and shaping and molding of the breath to subside,
And allow the natural breath to return.
Is there more sense of space from within?
Perhaps there's this state of pure presence that's been cultivated by the breath.
And just allow yourself to be here on the back of that breathing without having to be anywhere else doing anything,
Just being here.
Gently blink the eyes open.
Make some small movements in the toes,
The fingers,
And come back into the space that you're in.
Until next time,
Wondrous one.
