Breath Meditation To Open The Heart Space

Welcome.

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Take a moment to arrive.

Get yourself comfortable.

Welcome.

And you can choose to sit in a chair or you can choose to sit on the floor or you could lie down on your back.

You'll find what's going to suit you.

We're going to take 30 minutes to breathe and come into our heart space.

Open our heart space.

Sometimes when you're sitting cross-legged on the floor it's really good to remember that sitting on a cushion usually means that your hips can be higher than your knees.

Most of us when we sit cross-legged our knees are substantially higher than the hips without the support of a cushion and body's much happier if you can raise your hips up and for me that takes two or three cushions not just the one.

It's worth taking your time to get comfortable and once we do our practice we're going to be in stillness but of course you're not locked into stillness.

You can change position and move if you need to.

And I always like to have my eyelids down but many many people practice with eyes open.

So you can choose you can move between the two if you are keeping your eyes open then maybe just rest your gaze downwards.

Resting your tongue up into the roof of your mouth.

Allow the sweet softness that comes with resting the tongue in the roof of your mouth to move to move across your palate and down into your jaw maybe even into your teeth.

Do we take any hard edges that we find and bringing softness to them?

You might start to notice how it feels breathing through your nose.

That is the air moving in and up as you inhale feel.

How does it feel as you take an exhale?

Bring all your awareness to your nostrils and the sensation that you find there.

So you might start to circle your head avoiding dropping the head back but just taking the air across the shoulder exhaling as your chin travels down towards your chest.

Taking the other ear across to the other shoulder and then very slowly coming up and over.

And then switching directions.

Coming back to your centre how would it feel to circle your shoulders very slowly raising them up towards your ears as you inhale taking them back and down as you exhale.

Noticing all of the sensation.

And then letting the elbows slowly circle.

And just watch as the urge to go fast might kick in and see if you can drop that.

Remembering that we're curious about sensation.

There's no rush to get the job done.

You can just be with what is.

And then if you have space perhaps full arm extensions inhaling as the hands rise.

And exhaling as the arms come back around.

And then next time your arms are up overhead as you inhale pause with your arms extended and then fold your either elbow and hold on to the elbows with each hand and you're going to draw the elbows apart but draw the hands towards one another.

And take some deep breaths as we wake up our diaphragm.

And notice which forearm is on top then extend the arms open to a V and then fold the elbows again switching sides so the other forearm is on top.

And you might start to lean over in one direction trying not to collapse down through either side but just finding height and length through both sides as you stretch come back to center and then lean across to the other side so we get to explore the side body a little bit.

This is all the architecture of breath the rib cage the diaphragm the lungs the heart.

And coming back to center and then gently releasing your hands down rest them onto your knees unless you're lying down if you're lying down just keep your arms overhead folded and breathe if you're sitting up start to take circles with the heart so it's almost as if you were drawing a great big circle around your pelvis.

The key is to move slowly consciously.

We're curious as to what we find as we practice today.

And we don't need to find a certain thing there's no oh I'm getting this right or I'm getting this wrong.

We're staying open to whatever is switching directions.

So and then coming back to center.

Guide your awareness around to all the points of your body that are connecting to the floor the foundation.

Be with them.

And usually the body is in fact holding on to just a little bit of tension.

So there's an air of almost floating or ready to spring into action.

So let's see if we can dissolve that allowing yourself to become heavier particularly through the legs.

So connecting with the earth beneath you.

Perhaps you have a yoga mat or a cushion or something beneath you directly.

You're going to go through that and into the flooring down into the foundations.

Then into the earth soil or the sand.

See if you can get a sense of the the almighty network of mycelium.

It's running through the earth beneath us.

Communication and intelligence and restorative balance comes with mycelium.

And beneath that rock.

Many different textures.

And beneath that heat and fire.

Perhaps we can get a sense of the relationship between our body and the fantastic ball of rock that we're sitting upon.

Bringing your awareness to your pelvis.

You might want to bring in a sense of lift up through the pelvic floor.

It doesn't need to be extreme.

It certainly doesn't need to be forced.

It's a gentle contraction within the pelvic floor.

So that our awareness can be there too.

The spine lifts up out of the pelvis.

And as you breathe a slower,

Deeper breath.

There's movement in the ribs.

It might be subtle,

Not always big.

But there is movement through the ribs.

So as you come up through the spine and you get to the lower ribs.

And the main body of the rib cage.

And the ribs around the collarbones.

Just notice if you can feel movement,

Perhaps it's clothing being brushed against.

The slower,

Deeper your breath,

The more you're likely to be able to sense that movement.

Perhaps you can feel the neck coming out through the collarbones.

Up and through to the place where the skull rests.

On top of the atlas.

The occiput ridge at the back of your head.

Let's take our awareness there and just stay there for a bit as we breathe.

Curious about what we might find.

And you might notice how your scalp feels.

See if you can bring some softness and gentleness there.

And it's not uncommon for the face to accidentally start to become very serious.

It's like we bring our awareness.

It takes effort.

So sometimes that effort translates into a frown.

So bring your awareness to your face and just soften.

This is actually less about the effort of doing.

And more about the remembering what is innate.

We already know how to do this.

You don't have to try so hard.

It's more about just letting go of trying.

And remembering that you're excellent at being present.

And choosing where you place your awareness.

You're excellent at taking an in-breath and an out-breath.

In a way that deeply nourishes.

Let's start to bring a count to the inhale and the exhale.

You're just curious about where we are as we begin.

So you choose your pace.

As you breathe in,

Silently count the length of that breath.

And as you breathe out,

Silently count the length of that.

You may well find that that automatically starts to lengthen the breath,

Just the counting.

Let that happen.

Let the breath lengthen.

So our baseline for the breath is the count of six.

And of course it all depends on the speed of your counting.

You'll have your own cadence.

See if you can stretch the breath to six or maybe even eight.

Maybe ten.

Leveling out between the inhale and the exhale so that the count is equal in both.

So uncovering whatever is there for you as you breathe.

Perhaps your lungs are strong and ten is effortless for you.

Perhaps your lungs are tired and six is enough.

Stay with the rhythm.

Start to visualize breathing that in-breath like a ribbon down into the very center of your heart.

It might be that the heart is represented by a bud of a tightly packed flower,

Maybe a peony or a rose.

The petals are closed and tidy and compact.

And you're drawing your in-breath right into the very center of that exquisite flower.

And then as you exhale,

The petals start to loosen.

The exhale starts to undo the compactness so that the flower can start to open and soften.

So inhaling right into the very heart of this flower.

Exhaling as the petals open and they keep on opening and if it is a rose or a peony,

Then the petals start to get so loose and open you can't believe that the flower is still staying intact.

It just goes way beyond what you thought was possible.

This blousy,

Extraordinarily beautiful flower of your heart.

And with each exhale,

As the petals open,

The scent is released so the impact of this breath extends way beyond the boundaries of your physical body.

With every exhale.

And with every exhale.

And there's no effort required,

There's no force required,

Just the choice to bring awareness and breath to your heart.

And to offer up your out breath from your heart as the most generous gift,

Nothing expected in return.

Just deeply felt here,

Have this,

Let me give you this,

The energy of my heart space.

Maybe the face,

The lips can soften.

As we let go of the practice and just notice what it is that we feel.

Very often it feels warm,

It feels glad,

Thankful.

So let's just sit in the energy of thanks for all that we have to say thank you for.

For all that lives in our heart.

And for all that lives in our heart.

And for all that lives in our heart.

For all that lives in our heart.

Every experience that brought us here to this moment.

Thanking it all.

And then placing your hands to your heart,

Laying one hand on top of the other and dropping your chin towards your chest.

As if to turn the senses of your face towards your heart.

As if to turn the senses of your face towards your heart.

Offering up our thanks to this practice,

To this body,

This soul,

This experience of life.

And our thanks to each other for holding space for this journey.

And thanks for whatever the day ahead holds.

That we might bring our heart,

Our awareness and our breath to whatever unfolds.

Namaste.