Finding The Strawberry In The Present Moment With Breathing

Time for yoga.

Happy spring.

So this is a classic story.

It's called The Hungry Tiger or The Tale of Two Tigers.

It probably has a number of different names.

I've heard it both ways.

So here's how the story goes.

Once one day,

A man was walking through a forest when a tiger spotted him and gave chase.

The man ran as fast as he could,

But as he reached the edge of a cliff,

He lost his footing and fell.

Desperately,

He grabbed onto a vine dangling high above the ground and hung there.

Looking up,

He saw the tiger still watching him.

And looking down,

He saw another pack of hungry tigers pacing below.

And then from a crack in the cliff,

A tiny mouse appeared and began gnawing at the vine.

Hmm.

In that moment,

The man noticed a ripe,

Glistening strawberry growing nearby.

He reached out,

Plucked it,

And popped it into his mouth.

And how sweet,

How delicious it was.

So we can see the tiger above as representing our worries about the past.

The tigers below can symbolize fears about the future.

And the mouse,

The mouse represents that relentless passing of time.

And yet,

In the middle of all this,

The man finds joy.

And it's joy not by changing his situation,

But by fully embracing and experiencing the present moment.

So that strawberry is that nugget,

That gift that we can find.

The beauty,

Even,

The Native Americans would say that they're the beauty of being present,

Of what you can find.

No matter how overwhelming life feels,

Or the outer world feels,

There's always something to savor if we pause and connect with the present.

So we're going to go ahead and close the eyes,

Coming into the body.

So even with the eyes closed,

You can connect with your senses.

Sense of smell,

Are there any smells around you right now?

Smell of sunshine.

Smell of incense burning.

Smell of your room warming up with the hot sun outside,

Spring sun.

Listening to the sounds around you.

Sounds in your room.

Sounds further away.

What is the furthest away sound that you can hear right now?

Just noticing.

Then noticing sounds that are closer to you.

A sense of the soundscape.

Noticing the temperature of the air on your skin,

Back of the hands,

On your face.

And even that taste in your mouth.

Maybe it's a strawberry.

So really feeling that sense of being immersed in your senses.

And then take a moment to find your breath.

A little effort involved in shifting your awareness to find your breathing.

Feeling the air moving in and through the nostrils and back out.

And as you continue to focus on your breathing,

Let it be a continual strand of one breath leading into the next.

Developing a wave-like quality and rhythm.

And you might even notice your body kind of swaying rhythmically with your own breathing.

Breathing diaphragmatically,

So noticing if you are or not.

Trying to encourage a diaphragmatic breath,

So taking your hand to your lower belly.

Below the navel,

You can even rest your thumb inside your navel.

And as you're inhaling,

Letting that expansion occur.

Releasing your belly into the hand.

Fill up,

Feel the bottoms of the lungs inflating.

Filling with air.

And then when it's time,

Don't force it,

Don't think it.

Let the body tell you it's time.

Exhaling.

Feeling the contraction or the drawing in.

As you exhale,

Belly moves in.

And see if you can,

Don't think it,

Just feel it.

See if you can bring the exhalation to its natural end.

Coming to a moment when there is no need to exhale anymore and no need to inhale yet.

That natural pause.

You've reached Kevala.

Just to rest in that pause for a moment.

And then,

Don't think it,

Feel it.

When it's time to inhale again.

Expanding.

Filling back up,

Feeling the air as it inflates the lungs.

And it fills you up from the bottom.

Up.

Continuing in this manner.

Exhaling when it's time.

Breathing with the whales.

So you can let your hand come to rest on your leg now.

And we're going to practice an end of 12.

Breath.

So you're going to be using your power of creative visualization here.

Something that we all have the capacity to do in our minds and our brains.

So with your eyes closed,

I want you to imagine a spot that's about 12 inches,

More or less,

In front of your nose.

So it's in that space in front of you.

Imagine an area.

And you're going to start to take the inhaled breath in from that area.

As if you're breathing it in from that spot,

That area.

Breathe it in.

Still breathing in.

As much as you like.

And you're breathing into,

Filling a spot that's about 12 inches internally,

Deep in the body.

So maybe on the inside of the breastbone.

About 12 inches down the trachea,

Down the neck.

Into the depths of your being.

And then you're going to exhale the breath out from this 12,

Spot of 12 inside.

Back out again.

Out through the nose,

Back into that spot that's 12 inches in front.

Breathe.

If you like,

You could even open up your mouth now.

But just only if you know that you're going to be able to do this and not get anxious.

Still breathing slowly.

So you're going to breathe it in as if you're sucking it in through a straw from that area that's in front of you.

Maybe envision it as a field of golden energy.

Breathing it in.

Into that area that's 12 inches down.

Letting that golden energy expand.

Maybe it's a different color for you.

That energy that you need.

Just let it be.

Maybe it's a rainbow,

Kaleidoscope of color,

Energy.

But continually,

Once you inhale and you feel full,

Then you can gently blow the breath back out.

Back out into that space.

And so if you like now,

You can change your end of 12 to be above your head.

So 12 inches above your head.

And then you can add in the chant or the mantra,

So hum.

So the so is the inhalation.

And it's kind of silent.

You're going to breathe in through the nose.

Connect with that almost silent sound as you're inhaling,

Imagining the energy coming from over the head.

Into the area about 12 inches in below the nose.

Deep in the body.

And then as you exhale,

Imagine that there's a portal or a doorway that you're just going to exhale out through the heart.

Inhaling from above the head.

And you can make a sound now.

So you're just going to slightly part your lips for the hum.

Whatever the sound is.

Maybe it's like a humming sound.

Maybe it's just a whooshing sound.

Maybe it's just the sound,

The vibration of love.

So.

And just let your body vibrate as if you've plucked a string on a guitar or a violin.

Just have that resonance as you're humming.

You can almost feel the waves of energy moving out from the center of your heart all the way out to the edges and beyond.

Your own unique frequency.

Vibration.

And now you can.

Let your breathing return to.

It's to be its own.

Connecting to now a sense of that you are breathing.

The body is breathing.

You are aware that the body is breathing.

And then that sense of who is it that is aware.

Or another way to connect with it is I am breathing.

I am here.

And I am aware.

That I am here.

Now.

The strawberry.

All right.

And then when you're ready you can bring yourself back.

And we're going to just push your bolster back.

Just so that when you lie back down now it's going to be under your head.

Just your head.

So this is going to cause your just just push it out so that the back just the base of your skull is on the bolster.

You can feel it.

Kind of the lower portion of your cranial of your cranium.

Your occiput.

That's the bump in the back of the head is the occiput.

So the lower portion of your occiput is resting on the on the bolster.

And your chin now is really being encouraged to snuggle down into your throat.

And so then you can take your arms out wide and now press the base of your occiput into the bolster and lift your chest up.

And just hold it for three four seconds.

And then lower yourself back down.

So it's not something that you're going to hold for a long period of time.

But yeah three four seconds maybe you inhale the breath now.

And as you're exhaling push yourself up.

Keeping your chin down just look down towards your chest.

And then let go back down.

Relax.

And we'll do another couple a couple more.

So this is resetting the where your cervical the base of the cervical spine meets the top of the thoracic.

Tends to be a problematic area.

So we're trying to work with that.

Bring that area back online.

So when you're ready.

Notice before you push up that your chin is down towards your throat.

That you're pressing pressing the back of the head the base of the skull as you lift your heart.

And then when you you need to come down and we'll do one more.

So take a break.

Okay.

You ready.

Press the chin down to the throat.

A gentle pressing.

Press the lower occiput to the bolster and lift the chest.

And then come back down.

You've got this.

All right.

So you can slide your feet in ending the knees roll to your side again into that fetal position.

You can scoop your head so it doesn't bang on the floor and push yourself up.

Okay.

So let's do.

What is fast being referred to as the best setu bandha.

So you're going to take.

I like doing it with the one block up on the high tower version.

And then the second block is going to be more the medium height.

But you can also take it down so that the block that's going to be under your head is at the middle setting.

And that the block that's under the shoulder blades is going to be at the lower setting.

Okay.

But you can decide what is your your best placement block placement here.