Hey there,
Welcome to this guided practice today to help you cultivate inner calm,
Focus,
Groundedness and balance.
So go ahead and come into a comfortable seat.
And if you'd like bring your eyes to close.
Taking these first few moments to soften into your body.
And you might do that with a nice deep breath in through the nose,
Gentle sigh out through an open mouth.
Repeat that twice more just taking a full breath in through the nose.
Relaxing the jaw,
Breathing out feeling the outer shell of your body softening and releasing.
And doing that one more time,
Feel the breath slowly flowing in through the nose.
And then as you breathe out through an open mouth,
Slow that down as well.
Sign out slowly emptying all the air out from your lungs.
Letting go of whatever you've been up to before this practice today and whatever's to come.
Beginning to arrive here in the present moment.
Making a connection with yourself.
And to do that we often need to navigate our attention away from the outer world and even away from our mind.
And so I want you to take your attention and bring it in to yourself and bring it down into the space of your body.
And as you connect with your body just noticing how your body is doing today.
If there's any intense aches and pains or if there's any overwhelm or emotions that are uncomfortable for you to feel.
See if you can take another breath.
As you notice those intense sensations or emotions.
And as you breathe out softening that intensity a little bit.
Understanding that these sensations and these emotions are here for a reason.
And they're not here to purposely cause us pain or suffering or to make us uncomfortable.
They're showing up here for a reason today.
And if we can allow them to be here with us.
Things will shift.
Things will change.
And of course at any time if there is a lot of intensity going on you can shift your attention to also what may be happening inside of you that feels good.
Is there any part of your body that you can sense into that feels neutral or relaxed?
Soft open?
Is there any part of you that is feeling emotionally peaceful,
Joyful or balanced?
Whatever you discover whatever you experience,
Breathe with it.
The breath is a powerful tool for helping us continually be renewed and to move through things with ease and grace.
And we're going to work with the breath more specifically now.
And we're going to just add a really simple count to the breath.
We're going to breathe in for a relaxed count of four.
And at the end of those four counts we're going to hold the breath for four.
And then we're going to slowly breathe out for a count of four.
And then hold the breath out for four.
And then we'll repeat that whole process.
This is a really simple breathing practice.
It's called square breath or sometimes it's referred to as square breathing.
So you can imagine through the inhale and then holding the inhale and then the exhale and then holding the exhale you're traveling around a square shape.
So let's start by breathing all the air out of the lungs.
And then breathing in for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold for three,
Two,
One.
Inhale for four.
Hold for four.
Exhale for four.
Hold for four.
Inhale for four.
Hold for four.
Exhale for four.
Hold for four.
And inhale.
Hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
And hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
And hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
And hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
And hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Inhale.
And wherever you find yourself at in that cycle,
Completing it and letting your breath come back to a slow,
Steady,
Easy natural rhythm.
Still inviting the breath to be deep,
Feeling the belly moving as you inhale and exhale.
And noticing now after that short breathing practice how you feel on the inside.
There's no wrong answers.
How you feel genuinely in this moment is the truth.
And again,
If there is intensity that you come in contact with,
Emotional or physical,
Can you pause there for a moment and take a breath in as you meet that intensity and then breathe out,
Softening a bit.
And can you also acknowledge a place inside of you that feels relaxed or soft.
Place inside of you that feels good both physically and emotionally,
Where you can step into for a moment be with and receive that gift of feeling good.
And again,
Just noticing the flow of your breath,
Allow it to be deep and complete.
And to close the practice,
If you wish you could rest one hand over the chest,
One hand over the belly,
Honoring yourself and honoring this practice,
Honoring your breath and this moment and all that is here with you in this moment.
Let's take one last inhale in through the nose,
Side out.
May you move out into the rest of your day with a sense of calm,
Groundedness and balance.
Thanks for being here.
