Hi,
And welcome to the daily insight for today.
My name is Vidya Malabarj,
And today's meditation is going to focus on how we can use the simple act of breathing in the body as a way of beating stress.
And the reason this works so effectively is because almost inevitably when any of us get stressed,
We tend to hold the breath.
So say you've got a lot of anxious thoughts,
You're really worrying about something,
Your energy,
Your awareness is up in your head.
What you'll find is your breathing becomes shallow and restricted.
Maybe your belly and your jaw get tense and tight.
So a very simple way of beating stress in each moment is simply to allow the breathing to be natural,
Soft and wholesome in the body.
And what this means is essentially allowing the out breath to go all the way out.
And then the in breath takes care of itself.
So when we're holding the breath,
What we're doing is we're restricting the volume,
If you like,
Of the out breath.
And we never allow the out breath to go all the way out.
There's a lovely little phrase,
A little slogan,
Which I sometimes teach,
Which is when in doubt,
Breathe out.
When in doubt,
Breathe out.
Let the breath flow all the way out.
And there's three areas in the body that are helpful to pay particular attention to.
One is the throat.
The other is the belly.
And the third one is the buttocks.
Very often we have constriction around the throat.
We have a tight belly and we've got tension in the buttocks.
So right now let's just see if we can let the throat be soft,
Maybe yawning for a few moments.
Really releasing tension around the jaw,
Softening the lips,
Making sure the teeth aren't clenched.
Let the air of the breath flow freely through this area at the back of the mouth.
And let's soften the belly.
Maybe even loosening your trousers a wee bit if they feel tight in any way,
Just loosening your waistband if you can.
Ah,
Let it all hang out.
Let the belly be soft.
And then let's let the buttocks be soft.
So we're resting down onto the chair that we're sitting upon.
And when we soften the buttocks,
That means that the sensations of breathing,
The movement of breathing can go right down inside the body all the way down into the pelvis.
So let's spend a few moments now resting inside this whole body breathing.
Letting these three areas in particular be soft,
But letting the whole body be soft,
Resting in gravity.
And letting the breathing flow into the body and flow all the way out of the body,
Finding its own natural rhythm.
But seeing if you can allow the out-breath in particular to flow all the way out and the in-breath to quite naturally flow all the way in again.
So let's just do this for a few breaths together.
And as we bring this meditation to a close,
Let's see if we can take the awareness with us.
So we're stopping this formal practice,
But let's see if we can take this attitude,
This embodied breath awareness with us into our activities,
Whatever we're doing next.
And at any time during the day where you find yourself stressed,
Anxious,
Heady perhaps,
Remembering when in doubt,
Breathe out,
Dropping down into the body,
Letting the out-breath flow all the way out,
Letting the in-breath take care of itself,
It will flow back in quite naturally.
And having breathing as your friend to beat stress moment by moment by moment.
And I hope you have a great day.
