The Four Seasons Of The Breath

My name is Cori,

Let's meditate together.

Thank you for joining me in this meditation this morning.

Let's figure out,

See whatever comes through that will help us to let go of feeling bound or trapped in our current situation.

The first thing that I'd like you to do,

Encourage you to do is to make sure that you're completely comfortable in your meditation position.

Whether you're still in bed,

Late listening,

Whether you're sat down,

Whatever it is,

Please just make sure that your body is comfortable.

If you're in a seated position,

Then let's go with a nice straight spine,

But allow your shoulders and the rest of your body to soften and relax around your spine.

So on the next exhale,

Just allow your shoulders to get heavy,

Make more space between your ears and your shoulders.

Use your exhales to encourage the sensation of softening,

Because we naturally subconsciously soften every time we release.

Metaphorically,

The breath means so much and we just do it constantly without much thought unless we're purposefully focusing on the breath like we are right now.

I want you to just follow along with me here and see if you can get a more close relationship with your breath.

When you breathe in for the next couple of breaths,

Just focus on the inhales for me.

Feel as the breath slowly comes in through your nose.

Feel the journey of your breath as it goes down your throat,

Down into your lungs,

Possibly down into the base of your tummy,

Depending on how deep you're breathing.

Just focus on that journey alone for a while.

Just breathe,

Feel the breath come in,

Feel it go down into your chest,

Feel it go down into your tummy,

And then release with no thought,

Just the inhale.

And just feel it.

You're starting to wake up,

Starting to build a relationship with it.

So we start slow.

Now notice on the inhales,

All the tiny subtle movements within your body,

How your body responds.

It kind of makes room for the breath to come in.

So as you breathe in,

Feel it travel down,

Feel your chest expand.

Feel how your abdomen expands.

The whole front part of your body expands and moves forward as if it's stepping forward to the breath.

See if you can feel that.

Now let's start to feel the subtle emotion that's not even noticed 99% of the time.

Metaphorically,

Spiritually,

Your body is opening as you breathe in.

So when you breathe in,

On so many different layers,

Things are happening.

But if you just sit with the breath,

Like we are doing right now,

You'll start to see and feel the things.

So yes,

You can feel the slight physical movements in your body,

But what is subconsciously behind those movements in your mental state,

In your thinking,

Is an opening.

You welcome the breath,

Like you're opening the door to it and saying,

Good morning,

Come on in.

Your whole body welcomes this oxygen,

This air that's coming into your being.

Subtly,

Subconsciously knowing that it's good.

It's good for your body.

It's required.

So your body breathes it in with enthusiasm.

It just takes it in without thinking.

Welcome.

See if you can pick up on that.

This is all very subtle.

This is quite advanced,

But it's very subtle.

Just see if you can pick up on that opening and what that opening of the lungs does in the mind.

And now what I want you to do is just let go of your inhale.

Take no thought about it and start to just focus on your exhale and start slow like you did with the opposite.

Just breathe out for a few breaths and just get a general overall feeling of what the breath feels like as you exhale.

And then connect to the subtle movements of your body.

Feel as your chest,

Your abdomen,

Everything pulls back and contracts as you breathe out.

The shoulders soften and drop.

Your chest muscles relax and soften.

There's a slight contraction in your lower abdomen,

Whereas when you breathe out,

It just kind of gets soft and floppy and expands.

But when you breathe in,

It's almost like you're activating the abdomen muscles just slightly.

So there's a little bit more of a tension in the tummy as you exhale.

Metaphorically as you breathe out,

You give.

You bring in and receive.

You breathe out and you give.

And within that giving,

There is a very obvious sense of letting go.

So we enjoy the pleasure of release,

We let go,

Welcome and require.

It's a necessary,

Something we need.

On the exhale,

We let go,

We give,

Thank you,

Thank you.

We let go and release.

We soften.

And the most important,

I noticed like milliseconds of surrender.

And within that surrender,

We're not in defense mode.

We're completely open,

Authentic and vulnerable.

So we breathe in,

We breathe in,

Pull in life force,

Welcoming,

Opening the front door,

Completely different energy and sensation to the in-breath.

And then as we breathe out,

We soften,

We slowly release.

You can feel the difference in your body,

The subtle movements.

And then at the very end,

There's that tiny section of complete let go,

Complete surrender.

Now the breath is a journey and there's four parts to this journey.

Just like there's four seasons,

There's no mistake here.

Source and the universe knows exactly what it's doing when it created us.

So on your next inhale,

As you breathe in and you fall to capacity,

Hold your breath with me for a few seconds.

Enough time to start to become friends with this space,

This season of the breath.

What does it feel like on this fullness?

What's the energy?

What's the mental thinking?

What's the emotion?

Yes,

Your lungs are expanded.

Your tummy is expanded.

And there's a pause.

And within that pause,

Within that quiet,

That's our moment of connection.

In that complete quiet and stillness of holding your breath,

We're at our most acute awareness.

What does it feel like to be full?

Obviously,

Keep breathing.

And every time you do breathe on the inhale at the top,

Hold it and see if you can feel more different sensations that I'm talking about.

On that fullness,

There's nothing that you need.

That's why you're full.

You're not searching for the next breath yet.

You're not searching for that sense of emptiness yet to breathe out.

You're just completely full.

There's a sweet spot of having all that you need.

See if you can feel it for a few seconds before you get that urge to let go and breathe out.

You can feel your heartbeat.

Life is good.

And within that spacious kind of feeling,

It feels a little bit euphoric.

It's like a peace.

Because there's no need,

No grasping for the next thing.

And that brings a sense of peace.

It's very subtle,

Guys.

The breath is so amazing when you dive into it like this.

But you'll feel it if you pay attention.

It's like your arms and everything get floaty.

Like you just want to lay back on the top of the ocean and float.

That kind of peace.

That's what I'm talking about.

And then let's switch it.

Go around to the other season.

The season where we're completely empty.

So start to hold on the empty.

After you've completely exhaled,

Hold.

Take a few normal breaths in between first,

Just so you can level out the oxygen level in your blood.

And when you're ready,

Start to hold on the end of your exhale.

This,

To me,

Is definitely winter.

There's a space.

A change.

Almost like a death.

See if you can understand what I mean in it.

And I don't mean death in a bad way.

I mean that in just a transition.

Ready for the next life.

Ready for the next breath.

Within this emptiness,

It's like you can hand yourself over to whatever is next.

Another complete surrender.

This is my favorite,

By the way.

I love this part of the breath.

Holding on the empty starts to make your whole body buzz and tingle.

It's like,

Where is my life?

Where's the next breath?

Let me take it.

Where is it?

Where is it?

But before you get to that point,

There's this sweet death.

This sweet,

Okay.

It's like an acceptance.

And within that,

We find we can let go of all bounds,

All burdens,

All heaviness.

We don't even have to focus on anything visually.

We can just use the breath to bring us back to a point of acknowledgement that everything that we are,

Everything that we need is in the four stages of the breath.

It's a circle.

Metaphorically,

The circle means oneness.

The circle means eternity,

Never ending.

The cycle of life going on and on,

Around and around,

Just like the breath.

And when we sit quietly and come back to all of this that's going on in every cycle of one breath,

We come back to a place of power,

Back to a place of complete amazement at the creation of what we are.

And within that,

I hope that you know that nothing has to bound you.

You can simply sit with the cycles of the breath and allow yourself to be freed.

To surrender,

To step forward,

To take hold,

To recycle and transcend and pass away and die,

And then to come back and grab life and pull it back in over and over.

I'm going to count to three,

And when I get to three,

You can open your eyes and come back into your space.

You'll be feeling super calm,

Very peaceful,

Very powerful,

I hope.

Just knowing what's going on every second inside of you.

One,

Two,

Three.

Open your eyes,

Come back into the space.

Let your breath regulate and fall and find its natural pattern,

And it'll just drift into the background once again as you get on with your day,

As if all of that isn't even happening.

How cool is that?

Namaste,

My friends.