Hello,
This is Sarah poet from embodied breath.
And this is an embodied breath meditation.
I'll guide you through it.
This is especially good for for times when you're in over identification with the nervous system,
With fear,
With trauma.
And you feel your body contracting,
Maybe related to any of those things,
But you don't need a story about it.
So we're going to come to a comfortable seated position.
Your spine is straight.
You may start to just gently sway side to side or front to back to just remind yourself that you're in a body.
The spine is doing this good work of holding you up.
And then start to bring your mental awareness to your breath.
Watch how the breath flows or doesn't flow.
Just noticing the quality of the breath,
The pathway of the breath.
And when your body accepts the invitation,
Go ahead and begin to elongate the exhales so that your exhales become slightly longer each time and slightly longer than your inhale.
You could still be moving the spine ever so slightly,
Maybe ever so slight shoulder rolls or neck rolls,
Just ever so slightly that it just feels good.
Sometimes when we come to a seat,
We sit ourselves very erect.
And it's just the invitation is here to be in flow.
Good,
And then focusing your attention on your stomach as you exhale.
Go ahead and if it feels good,
You can let out a hum or an audible exhale,
Exhaling down into the belly.
You may hear your stomach make some gurgling noises,
Welcoming your attention to it.
As the parasympathetic comes online.
And if you've been moving,
I want you to go ahead and relax into stillness.
You may still hum a few more times on the exhale.
Notice where your body meets the contact of what you're sitting on.
Notice the visceral feeling of contact and support under you.
You are a being in a body and you are supported.
On your next inhale,
Imagine a graceful elevator ride up the spine from the base of the spine to the top of the head.
And then on the exhale,
Gracefully ride that elevator back down your spine and past your spine to where it touches the surface of what you're sitting on.
And back up.
And back down.
As you do this,
Notice where your breath catches or tightens,
Notice the constriction.
And breathe into it an invitation.
There's no trying here.
There's just noticing.
Just tracking that breath.
A space where your attention meets your breath has potential and power in it.
This presence is a gift.
Now I want you to split your attention.
So half of your attention goes to the top of your head or maybe beyond and half of your attention goes down to the bottom of your spine or just below it.
And now on each inhale and exhale,
Swap your attention.
So half your attention is going low to high.
And the other half of your attention is going high to low.
Right along the spine.
Like there are two elevators now,
One going up and one going down and they pass one another right around the center of the body.
The solar plexus in the heart area.
Maybe you choose where yours swap out.
Is it heart?
Is it solar plexus?
Trusting the intuition of the body.
And then bringing your attention to stillness in that place of the center.
And now breathing with your awareness from this place.
The area becomes more robust.
Like the heart space filling with your awareness.
Going to radiate through the body with each breath,
The awareness of what radiates becomes wider,
Wider,
Going extending the front body and the back body up and down throughout your entire system.
And I really want you to notice the difference between thinking about this happening and feeling it happening.
What you want to be doing is feeling it happening and noticing with the mind.
You're beginning to breathe with an embodied awareness.
And as it spreads,
And you're scanning your body and you're noticing where it hasn't reached yet.
You just invited into that space and then it begins to feel as if your whole body is breathing.
As your lungs expand,
So does every cell.
Even your back,
Even the back of your heart,
Your shoulders that might be so tense.
The space in your forehead where your brows may have been thinking really hard.
Let it all breathe.
Seeing the expansion now.
If your mind tricks you into thinking that you need to quick do something so that you can hold on to this or if me saying expansion caused you to remember the contraction and contract again.
Notice what has happened and come back to the awareness of breathing with every cell.
Maybe even extending that awareness into the three or four inches around your whole body.
As if you're breathing to the edges of that.
And your whole self with awareness.
Great cleansing breath.
Every once in a while so that you don't float away,
Go ahead and notice the surface below you.
More breath and being inside of body.
Ever more presence,
Ever expanding.
Tons of life inside of you.
Stay here for as long as you'd like.
Come back as many times as you'd like.
Thank you for listening.
May you be blessed.
