Welcome to today's practice of the belly breath meditation.
Go ahead and get started by making yourself comfortable either in your chair or lying down and close your eyes if that feels comfortable and if it doesn't feel good to close your eyes you can maintain a soft gaze where you're focusing on nothing in particular.
And go ahead and place your hands on your belly.
Now just start by breathing deeply into your belly to a count of four or a count that feels natural to you.
Breathe deep,
Deep,
Deep and then let the exhale come out naturally either through your nose or your mouth.
And as the air comes out just notice the belly shrink back in and as the breath comes in notice the belly expand.
Now try extending your exhale longer than your inhale.
So for example breathing in to the count of four into your belly and breathing out to a count of six.
Just notice how your whole body responds as you gently breathe in and out into and through your belly.
And if you want you can even imagine the image of a baby totally relaxed in slumber breathing deep into its body so that its belly expands as it breathes in and then contracts as it exhales.
It's very natural to start our life breathing from our belly.
And belly breathing is a real helpful resource when the emotions are high or intense and the whole body feels charged or activated by a perceived or actual threat.
So it's good to practice when there's no threat to train our body to breathe deeply into our belly.
In and out naturally.
Very simple and very straightforward.
Now if you're still counting your breaths you can let go of the count and allow your breath to breathe you through the belly.
Just notice as knee tension or burden starts to melt away and your natural ease in your body emerges.
And see yourself walking through your world breathing relaxed into and out through your belly.
As you go about your tasks in the day you don't need to hold on to the breath.
You can allow your body to stay relaxed even as you're in a doing mode.
So just imagine yourself tuning into your body checking in and noticing where you're holding your breath or possibly restricting your breath and give it a little support to move this breath into your belly and out through your mouth or nose even with a sigh if that feels good.
Now take a few more moments to enjoy deep belly breathing and when you feel ready you can open your eyes or stand up if you were laying down or sitting down and move your body around shake it a little bit and you can move into your day with a little more support a little more love from yourself to yourself through the belly breath.
Have a beautiful day or night.
Namaste.
