So if you were to imagine blowing up a balloon,
Typically when you blow up a balloon,
You take a deep breath in first because you're waiting to blow it in the balloon,
Right?
You need to pull it in and then you push it out.
And so what we're gonna do is using those same kinds of feelings around taking a deep breath in and blowing it out,
We're also gonna visualize at the same time in our chest as if a balloon is expanding and contracting with our breath at the same time,
Okay?
So again,
This is called balloon breath because we are doing a combination of just remembering the intensity of our breath when we take the energy to blow up a balloon.
We really take a deep inhale in and long exhale out.
And so we're going to be doing that and if you want,
You can either visualize in your mind seeing this balloon where your lungs are in your body,
Sort of the expanding and contracting of the balloon.
And if you choose to actually imagine as if that balloon that you're blowing up is in your hands,
Right?
That you're feeling it go expand and contract,
Expand and contract.
This is a choice if you wanna use the hands or not,
But it's pretty neat to be able to make the connection between the physical space of where you see it taking up inside of your body and then creating that space with your hands.
So it's almost like you're dancing with the breath,
Okay?
Okay.
So as always,
We're going to make ourselves comfortable in our seats.
You also might want to lay down if laying down is more comfortable for you.
But if you are seated,
We wanna just make sure that your feet are really nice and comfortable placed on the floor here.
If you want,
You can even take your shoes or socks off and feel their connection to the ground.
It's really powerful.
It's called grounding yourself.
Then let's just start by taking the edges of our feet,
Outside edges,
And start to actually put them into the floor more.
Make your way up through the top of your foot,
All the way over through your toes,
Rolling your feet.
Now the inside of your foot,
Just feeling that closer to the ground,
Back to your heel.
And now just the full foot is now placed gently,
Comfortably on the ground.
And do whatever you need to do to make your body feel comfortable.
If that's a wiggle,
A stretch,
A roll of the neck,
Wherever you might feel some stiffness that you just wanna give a little attention and love to right now.
Go ahead and do that.
And at the sound of the chime,
We're gonna just start,
If you haven't closed your eyes yet,
Go ahead and close them and just start to think about what is it that we are looking to experience today in these mindful minutes together.
Beginning to take long,
Slow breaths and just setting an intention.
Why is it that you showed up today?
What is it that you hope to receive?
And just reminding yourself of that as you begin to take long,
Slow breaths through the sound of the chime.
Continuing with your eyes closed and feeling comfortable,
Safe and secure in your seat,
Or if you're laying down.
Just begin to notice the breath.
Notice how deep or how shallow it might be.
Just really giving your full attention to it coming in and out.
Now that you have some more awareness of the natural breath,
We're gonna begin to start to visualize that balloon.
So imagine when you're inhaling,
You're getting ready to just really be able to put a long breath in to inflate that balloon.
So the inhale is the preparing for the fill and the exhale is the really pushing it out,
Seeing that balloon fill itself up and expand.
And as you inhale,
The balloon contracts and you exhale it expand again.
Just notice in your mind's eye,
If you'd like to make that balloon bigger.
Maybe you wanna take a deeper inhale and a slower,
Longer exhale.
Just notice if you're able to visualize this childlike loving object expanding and contracting.
What color is your balloon?
Are you able to visualize your breath making it go big when you exhale and then seeing it deflate again when you take your inhale?
If you'd like to join me,
You can now take your hand just like mine,
Just in front of my chest and begin to start to feel this imaginary balloon inflating and deflating.
Having your hands actually move with respect to the sky and just feel those internal experience of your body contracting and expanding.
When we take our hands and pretend that we have this imaginary balloon in it,
We begin to develop an even more powerful relationship to what's going on inside,
Inside of us and how powerful it is when we make this connection.
If you've noticed that your breaths have become more shallow just place some awareness on where you're breathing from.
Is it coming from your belly?
Where is it starting?
And if you wanna expand the length,
The depth,
Just put your intention and your attention towards it starting from the belly.
Now slowly,
Let's make our way back to the natural breath.
If you were using your hands,
You can let them make their way down to your legs,
Placing the palms up to receive.
Continuing with your natural breath here,
Just notice if you have any different connection,
Any new awareness,
Perhaps even an ability to see a new opportunity of how you can use this incredible gift that we have of our breath to both visualize and just slow ourselves down.
Giving ourselves that gift of knowing we have this anytime we need it.
Anytime we need to feel centered,
Grounded,
A sense of comfort,
All we need to do is go back to our breath.
And if it's helpful to take a visual,
Slow yourself down,
This balloon is always there for you,
Always available.
A balloon is a wonderful thing.
It represents celebration.
It often represents joy.
So when we can see our breath creating that expression,
Creates other experiences inside our connection with our mind and our body and our emotions.
Hmm.
When you're ready,
You can move your wrists,
Maybe shake your head again,
Roll your neck,
Whatever is gonna feel good and just slowly bring yourself back.
