A Guided Experience Learn How To Breath Life Back Into Your Life

The Breath Inhale and God approaches you.

Hold the inhalation and God remains with you.

Exhale and you approach God.

Hold the exhalation and surrender to God.

This is a quote by Krishna Macharya.

For thousands of years,

Wise teachers have been using the breath as a tool to anchor the mind into the now and create an access point to enlightenment.

Just observing the breath and focusing the mind on the breath creates an access point to the window of the mind where the answers to all the questions ever asked reside.

I'm going to share with you how to use the breath to access this window and eventually open it.

First,

You must understand that the breath has three main parts,

The inhale,

The suspension of the breath,

And the exhale.

In yogic scripture,

There are three main components of creation.

Brahma,

The creator,

Represents the inhale,

Which is deemed the birth.

Vishnu,

The preserver,

This is recognized in the suspension of the breath or the experience of what is.

Shiva,

The destroyer,

Is the exhale and represents the part of creation where energy is released to be transformed,

Otherwise known as death.

All parts are to be revered,

Honored,

And accepted.

All are grace.

In grace,

There is a liberation from all perceived suffering.

Grace is freedom.

In freedom,

The path begins to emerge.

The inhale is the beginning or birth,

Utilizing all five senses to experience your inhalation.

View the inhale as Brahma,

The creator.

The creator wants nothing,

Does nothing,

And is everything.

Feel the breath move into the belly,

Expand in the lungs,

And eventually fill the whole torso.

This natural movement of the breath is ascension towards creation.

With all the power of the mind directed and focused,

Observe from a place of deep connection what is.

Feel this from a place of wanting nothing,

Doing nothing,

While feeling connected to everything.

Try and feel like the creator.

Pause for a moment at the top of the inhalation,

Look around,

Clear the mind of all obstructions,

And realize this moment is all that is real.

The second part of the breath is the suspension of the breath.

This is Vishnu,

The place that is fulfilled with life force and has no desire,

No yearning.

Remain in that moment,

Preserving its perfection until the desire to exhale emerges.

Mastery comes when without grasping or clinging,

You surrender here.

Then,

The breath is released along with the moment,

Never to return or be revisited.

This is willingly releasing creation as you exhale,

All life force leaves the body,

Just as it does at death.

Cutting all ties and attachments,

Everything disappears,

Destroyed by Shiva,

And then the whole process begins again.

Mastery over the breath eventually becomes mastery over life.

We utilize the breath to anchor us into the present moment,

And it's through accessing the present moment that anything becomes possible.

The moment that we can escape the traps of the mind,

Drawing you into the past,

Or dragging the past into thoughts of the future.

It is here in the present moment that we can access freedom.

Let's do this together.

Practice the art of the breath and learn how to access this gift of the present moment.

If you are not ready,

Find a comfortable seat.

For this practice,

I urge you to find a seat where you feel supported,

A seat maybe where your feet can be on the ground,

You feel comfortable,

And you can lean your spine against the back,

Sitting up nice and tall.

Once you've found a seat like this,

Find a perfect position for your hands.

They can be resting in your lap,

They can be palms up,

Palms down,

But make sure that they feel comfortable.

And then close your eyes.

With your eyes closed,

Become aware of the present moment.

Do this by using your five senses to anchor into now.

Observe with your eyes closed the sounds in the space around you.

Notice the sensations on your skin.

Become aware of the parts of you that are being supported by the chair beneath you or the ground beneath your feet.

And notice the parts of you in connection with the air,

The space.

Bring your attention to the space just between the eyebrows in the center of your forehead and give permission to your whole body to relax and soften.

Maybe do a quick scan,

Observing any places where you may habitually hold tension.

This could be your shoulders,

Could be your belly.

Move your awareness through these parts of the body and ask them to soften.

Allow the shoulders to slide away from the ears.

Let your belly relax.

Let your hips sink into the comfortable seat.

Relax all the muscles on your face,

Your jaw,

Your lips,

And begin to tune in to your breath.

Just observe the natural flow of the breath,

Noticing the inhale as the expansion of your body.

You begin to take up more space.

And observing as you exhale the contraction of your body,

You become smaller as the space around you increases.

Just notice the natural flow of the breath.

Maybe with each exhale,

Releasing more tension,

Any burdensome thoughts or worries.

And then bring your attention to your belly.

With your next inhale breath,

See if you can bring that breath into your belly,

Filling just the belly with the breath,

And allowing it to expand as big and full as it can.

Stretching the belly just like you would imagine a balloon was within the belly being filled to the very,

Very top.

And then as you exhale,

Feel the balloon deflating as the belly draws back towards the spine and all the air leaves.

You become empty.

Begin again,

Inhaling into your belly,

Letting it expand as big and as full as it can,

Filling all the way to the top.

And then exhaling,

You'll draw the belly button towards the spine,

Exhaling all the air from the body,

Squeezing that last dropout.

Do this again,

Inhaling through your nose for 1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

7,

Hold,

3,

2,

1.

Now exhale,

7,

6,

5,

4,

Belly pulling tight to spine,

3,

2,

1.

Again,

Inhale,

Fill the belly.

This time as you inhale,

Letting it expand nice and big,

See if you can invite the breath to go beyond the belly,

Just into the low lungs.

You'll feel the diaphragm,

The low lungs and your low ribs expanding out with the belly,

Filling all the way up.

Now exhale,

Draws the ribs in as you empty your belly.

Feel all the muscles contract as you squeeze the air out.

Do this again,

Inhaling for 1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

Get those low ribs to expand,

7,

Hold the breath here,

3,

2,

Exhaling,

7,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1.

Inhale again,

This time you'll fill the belly with the breath,

Let it go as big and as full as it can,

Getting it bigger each time,

More air.

Only this time you're going to bring the breath not just into low lungs,

But invite it into the upper lungs,

Filling the chest and the belly with this breath,

Filling all the way up,

Feel the chest expanding,

Front,

Sides,

Back,

Hold.

Exhale,

Exhaling from your chest and exhaling the belly towards the spine.

All the breath leaves and you become empty.

Do this again,

As you inhale you'll fill the belly,

You'll fill the chest,

You'll feel the whole torso expanding with the breath,

Even the spine grows a little bit taller to make room.

Filling up front,

Sides,

Back of the ribcage,

Exhale,

Exhale all the way,

All the way empty for 4,

3,

Belly to spine,

2,

Empty.

Do this again,

Inhale's going to fill the belly,

You'll fill the chest,

You'll fill the whole torso.

At the top of the breath,

When you think you can't take in any more,

See if you can feed the breath into the shoulder blades and the collarbone.

Feel them expanding,

They might even ache a little bit as they fill up for the first time,

Hold it 3,

Hold it 2,

Exhale all the way.

You'll feel the shoulders fall,

The ribcage contract,

And finally belly to spine squeeze.

Continue like this,

Inhaling as big and as full as you can,

Filling all the way up,

Expand,

Expand,

You'll hold the breath at the top,

And then you exhale all the way.

Now,

Find your natural breath again.

Just let the breath return to its natural cadence and rhythm.

You might even find there's space between the breaths.

Not just space between your inhale and your exhale,

But between your exhale and your desire for an inhale.

And just sit in that space,

Letting the mind be still.

Moving your awareness now to the space,

The center of your forehead,

Just between your eyebrows.

Hold your awareness here,

Allowing the breath to find its natural cadence and rhythm,

The mind still and quiet.

And from this place,

Feel these words as you speak them in your mind.

I want nothing.

I am doing nothing.

I am nothing.

Nothing.

Sit in that space,

Free of all wanting,

All doing,

All desires,

Just you.

When the mind begins to wander,

You'll bring it back to the mantra,

I want nothing.

I am doing nothing.

I am nothing.

Nothing.

You can hold this space as long as you would like,

Continuing to return to the mantra.

Every time the mind tries to distract you and pull you away with stories of doing,

Desires,

Needs,

Come back to the mantra.

For this time that you sit here in this space,

You want nothing,

You are doing nothing,

You are nothing.

And when you begin to feel the desires dissipating,

And you feel the peace entering,

It is here that you can change the mantra from I want nothing,

I'm doing nothing,

To I am everything.

I want nothing,

I'm doing nothing,

But I am everything.

And feel the sensation of no separation.

There is no desire or need to do or fill the space because you are the space.

You are everything.

Again,

Stay here as long as you would like.

I urge you to return to this meditation as often as you can.

Thank you so much.