Welcome to a short meditation.
This is one of the most ancient meditation techniques on the breath.
It is called So Hum meditation.
And the premise of this is simple.
On the inhale,
Be quietly mentally,
Hear or speak the sound So.
On the exhale,
The sound Hum.
And So Hum refers to two things.
Hum means I or the ego self.
And So can refer to life,
God,
Inspiration,
Divinity.
So as we inhale with So,
We are taking in life.
As we exhale Hum,
We are releasing the limitations of ego,
Limitations of the smaller self.
So when you're ready,
Begin by coming into a comfortable upright seat.
Any position with the legs so long as your spine can feel stable,
Your shoulders relaxed,
And the crown growing tall.
Let your sitting bones nestle in and your hands find somewhere that feels restful,
Perhaps on the lap,
Face up or down.
You could also gather the hands into one another and form a gentle cup,
The base and centre.
Begin by taking a few quiet observing breaths in and out,
Just watching the natural flow of your breath.
Observe the sound quality of your breath.
Lingling with all the other sounds that might come to you.
There is no need to resist or shape any of the sounds,
Simply quiet and watching.
If you feel tension or tightness in the neck and shoulders,
Perhaps use the next few rounds of exhales to remind or invite those tensions to soften.
Let the eyes,
The jaws and the cheekbones relax.
Just begin to find a steady rhythm for your breath.
You might see or sense the quality of the wave arriving on the shore.
As you exhale,
Releasing out through the nose,
The rhythmic steadiness in your two breaths,
In and out.
Inhale arrives,
Exhale departs.
Watching more and more of that steady rhythm,
Matching the inhale and the exhale.
Kind of equanimity.
And as you're ready,
Begin to invite in the sound of so hum.
With your inhale,
So.
The exhale,
Hum.
Inhale for so.
And exhale,
Hum.
At first it might be more of an intellectual awareness of the sounds and the breath commingling.
Use these two syllables to follow that rhythm of your breath like waves.
Now gradually,
Just one breath at a time.
You might sense the sound of so hum become more and more like a sound that arrives to you.
Perhaps akin to hearing the ocean in the distance.
In fact,
It can be described as the same sound.
This quiet,
Distant,
So hum.
The waves of breath in the shores of your lungs.
And eventually,
The sound becomes so effortless.
It almost feels like it dissolves with each breath.
Allow your mind to be absorbed in this quiet flow.
Are there any other sounds or thoughts that come and go with these waves?
Every inhale,
Inspiration and divinity filling you.
Every exhale,
Releasing limitations,
Distractions.
Just take a couple more rounds of your own pace.
And with that same quietness,
Begin to become more aware of your body.
The breath arriving,
Maybe a little deeper.
You may like to reach the palms up towards the sky,
Find a stretched hole.
And as you exhale,
Descend the palms through heart centre,
All the way back to your sternum,
Connecting the palms in Anjali Mudra.
In gratitude for the breaths that offer us energy and inspiration,
Rejuvenation to receive what is needed and release what is not.
Take a slow deep inhale,
The filling,
And a full complete exhale,
Releasing.
Soft bowels ahead.
And as you're ready,
Gently blink open the eyes and come back to life.
This is Where You Are.
