The following practice is led by Sonia Lockyer,
Host of the Wellbeing Ritual Club.
Let's start by getting comfortable.
It's the only prerogative really when it comes to the way that you're positioning yourself is that you have your spine as straight as you comfortably can.
So that could be lying down but preferably for our practice today to be sitting up.
And we can always be sitting on a chair,
You don't have to be on the floor.
If you are sitting on the floor,
Try to have your hips higher than your knees if you comfortably can.
So knees are lower than hips,
Hips are higher than knees.
And that might need a stack of cushions to let that happen.
And so our practice today is a proper spring practice today.
We're going to be doing Tummo breath and that's very energizing.
And I just want to reiterate as always that nobody knows how this feels in your body except for you.
And you are incredibly intelligent and if it feels like it's not being helpful in any way,
If there's any kind of discomfort or struggle,
You change what you're doing.
So you can either come to a square breathing practice,
Really harmonizing,
Really balancing or just have a little lie down.
Don't feel there's any failure because there really isn't.
In fact,
The most intelligent response is always to adapt it to what feels supportive for you.
And that can be applied throughout the whole of today,
Not just in practice.
So let's start by feeling the weight of the sitting bones,
The weight of the pelvis.
And letting ourselves arrive.
If you suffer from high or low blood pressure or you have epilepsy,
Then Tummo breath is not great.
It's also not great if you are pregnant.
But what it is great for is our autonomic nervous system sometimes needs a little bit of a poke to get it into sympathetic.
And this practice is,
This and shaking are the two practices that I know of that work the best for poking the nervous system and getting you to move if you're feeling like you're in a state of hopelessness or collapse or victimhood.
Places I know really well.
So I've tried and tested them and they do work.
So noticing the in breath and the out breath for yourself,
In yourself.
And actually just the inhale and the exhale is its own journey through the autonomic nervous system.
As you inhale,
There is a gentle movement towards sympathetic.
And as you exhale,
You come back into parasympathetic.
So that's a rhythm in itself,
The inhale and the exhale,
Moving between action of the inhale and rest of the exhale.
Allow the tongue to press gently up to the roof of the mouth.
Soften the jaw.
Notice how the jaw feels.
Feel how the breath moves in and out through the nostrils.
Ideally,
If not,
You can breathe through your mouth if your nose is blocked,
But if it's possible,
Stick to breathing in and out through the nose.
As we become more present moment to moment,
You might notice a sense of stillness.
Maybe start to circle the head,
Allowing your neck to gently awaken this morning.
Avoiding dropping the head back if you can,
Coming up and over.
So creating length in the vertebrae.
Enhancing a sense of spaciousness in the body and switching directions.
And then when you come back to neutral,
Circling the shoulders this morning,
Moment to moment,
Noticing,
Observing,
Sensing how that movement feels.
Maybe the elbows joining in.
Possibly taking full arm extensions.
Finding the kind of circling that your arms want to do this morning and noticing how that gives you space in your heart.
Diaphragm loves these arm circles.
And coming to rest,
Hands on knees and slow circling of the heart.
Then changing directions.
Sometimes it feels fluid and smooth,
Other times clunkier.
It's just good to know.
We don't need to attach any good or bad polarities to that.
We're just observing and coming back into center.
So the practice of tummo breath,
30 rounds of a very deep inhalation,
A very deep exhalation.
I'll count them for you.
And then the final inhale,
We hold.
Hold with the lungs full for as long as is comfortable.
And stay curious about how long that might be.
It's sometimes extraordinary how long it can be,
And sometimes less so.
And then we take a deep exhale and we hold at the end of the exhale and stay there for as long as can be.
And we'll each have our unique length of time.
So I'll make suggestions,
But you can overrule.
And then we'll see if we have time,
We'll do three rounds of tummo.
Like I say,
If it becomes too much,
Please just lie down and take a rest.
Come into a square breathing practice.
There is effort involved in tummo,
But we're not straining,
We're not going into any feelings of discomfort.
We're staying in a place of nurture and nourishment.
Anything that starts to feel like it's not nurturing,
Not nourishing,
We change tack.
Okay.
So breathing in fully and breathing out fully.
Breathing in fully.
Breathing out fully.
Breathing in fully.
Breathing in fully.
Breathing in fully.
Breathing out fully.
Breathing in fully.
Breathing out fully.
In fully,
Breathing out fully,
Breathing in fully,
Breathing in fully,
Breathing in fully,
Breathing out fully.
Breathing in fully.
Breathing out fully.
Breathing in fully.
Breathing out fully.
You'll feel it down in your Tales Of offing energy.
Breathing out fully,
Breathing in fully,
Breathing out fully.
Whole breath in,
Whole breath out.
Whole breath in,
Whole breath out.
Breath in.
A whole breath out.
Whole breath in,
Whole breath out,
Whole readers Whole breath out.
Whole breath in.
Whole breath out.
Whole breath in.
Whole breath out.
And breathing in.
Breathing out.
Breathing in,
Really going for it.
Breathing out.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Breathing in.
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Full breath in and hold.
Full breath out all the way to the bottom of your lungs and hold.
Come back to your natural breath.
Another round of 30.
Fully breathing in.
Fully breathing out.
Fully breathing in.
Fully breathing in.
Fully breathing out.
Fully breathing in.
Fully breathing out.
Fully breathing in.
Fully breathing out.
Fully breathing out,
Fully breathing in,
Fully breathing out,
Fully breathing in,
Fully breathing out,
Fully breathing in,
Fully breathing out,
Fully breathing in,
Fully breathing out,
Whole breath in,
Whole breath out,
Whole breath in,
Whole breath out,
Whole breath in,
Whole Whoa.
Gave up the workout Kevin.
Breathing out you did it yet?
Whole breath out,
Whole breath in,
Whole breath out.
Last ten of this round breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Full breath in.
With lungs full,
Hold.
Fully breathing out all the way to the bottom of your lungs.
Hold.
Returning to your natural breath.
Final round of 30 full breaths in and full breaths out.
Full breath in.
Full breath out.
Full breath in.
Full breath out.
Really commit.
Full breath in.
Full breath out.
Full breath in.
Full breath out.
Full breath in.
Full breath out.
Full breath in.
Full breath out.
Full breath in.
Full breath out.
Full breath in,
Full breath out,
Full breath in,
Full breath out,
Full breath in,
Full breath out.
Give it your all.
Full breath in,
Whole breath out,
Whole breath in,
Whole breath out,
Whole breath in,
Whole I love it when they are just all equal.
Whole breath in.
Whole breath out.
Whole breath in.
Whole breath out.
Whole breath in.
Whole breath out.
Whole breath in.
Whole breath in.
Whole breath out.
Final ten breathing in.
Then I pull that out and I SH tribunal.
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Full breath in and hold.
Rest in the hold.
Full breath out all the way to the bottom of your lungs and rest in the hold with empty lungs.
And when you feel ready return to a natural breath.
You might want to just lie down on your back,
Stay sitting and watch your breath as it moves in and out through your nose.
Allow yourself the time to observe how it feels in your body,
How it feels within the pelvis,
How it feels within the navel,
In the heart,
In the throat,
And in the space of your third eye.
Allow your lips to soften into a smile.
And listen for any indication of an intention for this day,
This week,
Of what you would like to bring,
How you would like to feel,
What rhythm you would like to experience.
And as ever we offer the fruits of our practice to all beings in the hope and the belief that as we practice our individual well-being tools we do so on the behalf of all beings that we can all remember how it feels to come into alignment with love.
Namaste.
