Breathing In Life

Hi,

This is Paige.

Something the yoga tradition has been teaching for eons and that Western science has begun to stress more and more is that when you breathe well,

You have a much better likelihood of being well.

Relaxed,

Easy breathing can have a positive impact on everything from your digestion and sleep to your mood and your energy level.

Pair that breathing with gentle fluid movement and your entire system can be both soothed and uplifted.

That's what we'll explore in today's embodied meditation practice.

We'll begin and end with a short breathing practice and in between we'll move a little bit.

So let's begin in a comfortable seat.

You could be sitting in a chair,

You could be sitting on the floor on a cushion,

Legs crossed or however they're comfortable.

So get yourself settled.

And as you arrive here,

Just allow your breathing to be natural.

Settling into an unforced,

Easy rhythm of your own breath.

And get curious about where you naturally,

Right now,

Feel your breath most.

Could be in your nose,

In your stomach,

In your stomach.

Just.

.

.

You might feel the rise and fall of your chest.

Or the expansion of your rib cage.

Maybe even movement deep in your belly or someplace else entirely.

Absolutely no right or wrong.

Just noticing where you naturally feel yourself breathing.

And if you're not already,

See if it feels okay to experiment with breathing just through your nose so your lips can be gently closed.

Allowing your breath to flow in and out through your nose.

Doing this naturally slows our breath down a little bit.

It filters the breath before it enters the body.

And it allows the breath to warm a small amount before it moves all the way into your body.

Easy natural breathing in and out through your nose.

And we'll begin to move from here through a gentle,

Guided,

Three-part breath.

I'll talk you through it and as it feels comfortable you can follow along.

As you feel ready,

Exhale all your breath.

Still breathing through your nose as you feel ready to inhale.

Let the breath fill up into your chest and then into your rib cage.

And then all the way into what feels like your belly.

And as you feel ready to exhale,

You might even sigh it out and relax your belly,

Relax your ribs,

Relax your chest.

And we'll do that again.

Inhaling into the chest,

In your rib cage,

All the way into what feels like your belly.

Maybe a sighing,

Releasing exhale.

You can relax your belly,

Relax your ribs,

Relax your chest.

Once more,

Inhaling into your chest,

Into your rib cage,

All the way into what feels like your belly.

Maybe a sighing,

Relaxing exhale,

Softening your belly,

Softening your ribs,

Softening your chest.

Relax back into some completely natural breath.

Perhaps notice that breath a little more fully in your entire trunk.

Your chest,

Your ribs,

Your belly,

Extending like life force.

Beginning from your trunk to move into your arms and your hands,

Your neck and face and head.

And all the way down into your legs and your feet.

And as you feel ready,

If you've been sitting with your legs crossed,

You may just want to uncross your legs for a moment,

Extend them.

If you're sitting in a chair,

You could just lengthen your legs and then maybe begin to move into your hands and your feet a little bit more.

You could swirl your wrists around,

Circle your ankles,

Feeling the energy of the life force of your breath moving all the way into your extremities.

And if you want to recross your legs,

You can recross your legs and let's begin to move along our breath here.

So let your right hand come either to the floor beside you or maybe on a block or a pillow beside you or right to the edge of your chair and stretch your left arm up alongside your left ear.

We'll begin to move.

Let your body naturally inhale here and as you exhale,

Lean yourself over to the right any amount that you would like and that left arm arcs up and over.

And when you feel ready to inhale,

You can come back up to upright.

You keep the arms stretched there.

And as you exhale,

Same direction,

Just a little tilt up and over to the right,

Feeling the left side body open.

Two more like that.

Inhale back through center.

Exhale,

Little side bend with that left arm gently extending.

One more time.

Inhale back through upright.

Exhale,

This time we'll pause,

Tipping over to the right.

Your left hip could anchor.

Your left arm isn't really striving at all.

It's just gently arcing,

Feeling your breath touch into your whole left side body,

Wherever you feel it.

Maybe your rib cage,

Maybe your deep left low waist,

Maybe up into the arm,

The wrist,

Your fingertips.

And as you feel ready to inhale next,

Come all the way back up through upright and nice and easy exhale,

Release your left arm back down by your side.

Just pause for a breath.

And we'll do that on the other side.

So your left hand can come down to the floor or onto a prop,

To the edge of your chair.

Your right arm can stretch right up alongside your right ear.

As your body is ready,

Let yourself fill up with an inhale.

And as you exhale,

A little bit of a lean over to the left.

Doesn't have to be far.

And as you inhale back to upright,

You can keep your right arm stretched up alongside your ear.

As you exhale up and over to your left.

Do that twice more.

Inhale,

Come back through upright.

Exhale,

A tilting,

Opening lean to your left.

And once more,

Inhale through upright through center.

Exhale up and over to your left and just pause and notice where the breath is moving.

Your right hip can gently anchor.

You might feel breath deep into your right waist,

Your rib cage,

Maybe your shoulder,

Arm,

Wrist,

Even your fingertips.

And bring yourself all the way back up through upright.

And as you exhale,

Lower your right arm and pause.

And then let both of your hands walk back behind your hips so they could hold onto the back of a chair if you're sitting in a chair.

They could just come to the edge of whatever you're sitting on.

Let your hands just come somewhere where they can plant.

And use that bracing of your hands against some support to broaden through your collarbones.

Maybe gently puff your chest.

Maybe gently squeeze your shoulder blades together so you feel almost as if you're cupping your heart from behind.

And you're just enjoying a few beautiful full breaths all the way into your chest,

All the way into your collarbones,

Maybe all the way out to the edges of your shoulders.

One more breath here.

And then bring yourself back through neutral.

You can bring your hands back maybe to your thighs and we'll move into a few rounds of seated cow and cat breathing here.

When you're ready to inhale,

You can do that little arcing motion in your spine again.

You can draw your shoulder blades together.

You can broaden through your chest.

And as you exhale,

Simply reverse that rounding maybe all the way into your low back and then your middle back and then your upper back again.

It doesn't have to be a deep rounding.

You can drop your chin toward your chest.

And then as you inhale all the way back up through upright and maybe a little arcing action in your spine.

And as you exhale,

Slow motion rounding in,

Feeling breath in your back body.

As you inhale,

Coming up and maybe opening through your chest.

And as you exhale,

Gentle,

Slow,

Easy rounding in.

One more like that.

Inhale all the way through upright,

Maybe drawing your shoulder blades together and broadening through your collarbones and opening through your chest.

And as you exhale,

Just an easy round through your low back,

Your middle back,

Your upper back.

You could drop your chin to your chest.

And then inhale all the way back through a long tall spine again.

Pause,

Take that in.

And one more time,

If you've been sitting with your legs crossed,

It might feel nice to stretch your legs out.

And they can just stay stretched out.

If they're not completely comfortable there,

You could tuck a little something underneath your knees.

If you're sitting in a chair,

You can stay just as you are.

You can lengthen your legs any amount.

And we'll let our body pulse in a little twist to each side.

So gently twist your way to the right.

You can cross your left arm over your body and just let that left hand anchor on the outside of your right thigh.

You're not cranking yourself into this twist at all.

Just allowing your body to move there.

And as you inhale,

You might lengthen through your spine a little bit more.

And as you exhale,

Your body might naturally ring its way out to the right any amount.

And as you inhale,

Come out of that twist,

Maybe about halfway lengthen through your spine.

And as you exhale,

Same direction,

Twisting your way to the right.

Two more like that.

As you inhale,

Pulsing out of the twist,

Maybe about halfway.

As you exhale,

Allowing your body to ring itself out to the right,

Emptying the breath.

Once more,

Inhale,

Pulsing out of the twist some.

And exhale,

Letting your body ring itself out to the right.

And as you feel ready,

You can unwind back through center.

Pause and take that in along your spine.

Take that in in the cadence of your breath.

And we'll do that same thing to the left.

So begin by moving your body into a gentle twist to the left.

You can cross your right arm across your body.

Maybe let it anchor on the outside of your left thigh.

Let your body inhale right here through a long,

Tall spine.

And as you exhale,

See how much your body wants to ring out and twist to your left.

And then as you inhale,

Maybe unwind about halfway out of that twist.

And as you exhale,

Once again,

Ring yourself out,

Twisting your way to your left.

Twice more.

Inhale,

Pulsing out,

Maybe about halfway.

Exhale,

Moving your body as much as it wants to ring out toward the left.

And once more.

Inhale,

Pulsing out some.

And exhale,

Twisting,

Ringing out.

And then inhale,

Unwind again all the way back through center,

Feeling perhaps a little bit cleansed.

A little bit more spaciousness for breath to move along your spine,

Move throughout the trunk of your body.

And we'll begin to finish here again,

Just settling back into some breathing so you can recross your legs if you would like.

If it's more comfortable to you to finish this practice,

Reclining on your back,

You can do that.

You could tuck a little cushion beneath your knees if you're on your back.

Settling into a position that feels supportive,

Gently restful.

And once again,

Notice your natural breath.

It could have a subtly different quality from how it felt at the beginning of this practice.

Just begin to rest your awareness on your breath and your chest.

Let it expand into your ribcage.

Let the feeling tone of your breath move into your belly.

And as it becomes naturally more three-dimensional,

See if you can sense breath in your upper back,

In the middle part of your back,

In your lower back.

Again,

Your whole trunk breathing.

And beginning to feel that life force and vitality of your breath moving into your throat and neck,

Even subtly into your face,

In your head,

Into your shoulders,

Your arms,

Your hands,

All the way into your fingers.

Now sense your breath moving into your hips,

Feeling tone of breath in your legs,

Your ankles,

Your feet,

All the way into your toes.

Allowing your whole self to be animated,

Yet relaxed,

Nourished,

And gently humming with the vitality of your breath.

Thank you so much for making this time for yourself.

I look forward to being with you again soon.