Live Session: Breathwork To Connect With The Deep Self

Hi everybody and welcome to this guided breathwork practice that was recorded live here on Insight Timer on October 6th,

2024.

As always,

The practice is very simple.

You'll simply lie down with your eyes closed and the breathing we'll be doing is in three parts.

All through the mouth,

You'll do an inhale into the belly,

An inhale into the chest,

And then a gentle release.

You'll be doing that for about 16 or 17 minutes and then there are six or seven minutes at the end to relax.

As you'll hear on the recording,

We'll begin with a brief reading of a poem by the ecstatic poet Hafez before moving into the practice.

If you need to take a break at any point,

Feel free to do that.

This is not a practice where we have to go hard or blast out our nervous system.

The invitation,

As always,

Is to center your connection with the breath and trust your body and your intuition to guide you into the right relationship with this practice.

Thank you for being here and I'll send you over to the recording now.

Here it is.

The poem for today is called The Candle Burns Down by Hafez.

The candle burns down.

We melt a little each day.

The candle burns down and it may wonder at times,

It may wonder what will become of me?

What will happen to my precious flame?

Oh,

So much brighter,

My dear,

You will become so much brighter.

For such a short poem,

There's something really beautiful in there for us about what happens when we allow ourselves to melt down,

When we allow our body to fade away,

When we allow all of the kind of wax or stories that we identify with so often to burn away.

And when that happens,

Sometimes we ask,

Well,

Who will I be after this?

What will become of me?

And this poem is such a beautiful reminder that the more we allow that process of burning away to happen,

Then the more brightly our soul can burn,

The more brightly our heart can ignite.

I think that's such a beautiful idea or invitation to bring into our practice.

So I'll invite us all to take a nice,

Slow breath in.

Release it with a sigh.

And as always,

We can just make a gentle reminder to ourselves before we begin,

It is safe for me to be in my body.

It's safe for me to allow my candle to burn.

And there's another one,

Which is,

I give my heart permission to shine.

I give my heart permission to shine.

Nice,

Slow breath in.

And release.

We'll go ahead and start our breathing pattern all through the mouth,

Breathing into the belly,

Into the chest,

And releasing.

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

These first few minutes are just an invitation to find your relationship with the breath for this circle,

This practice,

And this moment.

Especially if we've been doing this for a while,

Sometimes we come into the practice with expectations or a sense that we know how to do it.

And the invitation that's present for us is to remember that we have no idea what will happen from one moment to the next,

One breath to the next.

So see if you can approach this breathing as something new,

Interesting.

Maybe approach it with the curiosity of a child.

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

If your mind is busy,

You can just repeat the words,

Inhale,

Inhale,

Release.

As you breathe,

Just repeating those words in your head,

Giving the mind something to do.

Release.

And I'll just invite you to bring a little bit of awareness to your body as you breathe,

And just any places that are maybe holding tension or not fully connecting with the bed,

The couch,

The floor,

Whatever you're laying down on.

We don't have to do anything with that awareness,

But we're just noticing.

Oh,

My lower back's a little tight,

My shoulders.

And I'll invite you to take in a little more breath,

Just 2 or 3% more oxygen into the belly.

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

See if you can really inflate into that lower belly.

Even breathing a little bit into the sacrum,

So it's almost like instead of just inflating upwards,

There's a beach ball inflating right in your lower belly.

And you bring the breath into the chest,

And then release.

And I'll invite you to see if you can invite the breath a little bit lower into the belly,

Couple inches behind the belly button,

Couple inches below.

So as we move into this and you continue finding your relationship with the breath,

We're just going to welcome in and open doorways to the energies of flow,

Of gratitude,

Of the full spectrum of emotions.

Welcoming in energies of connection,

Welcoming in energies and frequencies of healing.

And at the same time,

We'll just kind of set up a little boundary so that energies of resistance,

Energies of shame,

Energies of feeling less than,

Energies of doubt,

Are simply going to start to gently leave our space as we continue to breathe.

And as you breathe,

We're just going to continue letting the breath move through our body,

Pulsing through every vein and capillary.

Each breath bringing energy,

Bringing oxygen to all of the 700 million,

Million,

Million,

Million cells in your body.

I'll just invite you to bring a little bit of awareness to any space in your life or in your physical body where you feel really aligned.

Maybe it's a job,

A relationship,

Relationship with a more than human being,

A dog,

A tree,

A river,

But wherever it is in your body,

In the world,

That you experience that sense of alignment,

That remembrance of,

Oh,

I remember this.

We'll just breathe with that awareness.

And that alignment has kind of a frequency,

And you can imagine that frequency infusing the breath that you breathe.

So with every breath,

We're actually breathing in the energy of alignment,

Of connection.

Chest.

And release.

And we're going to invite in the energy of your deep self,

Your soul.

Sometimes we think of it as the higher self,

But that part of ourselves that exists beyond the impact of our day-to-day lives.

And you can imagine the energy of that higher self just gently surrounding you.

Maybe the higher self is positioned right at your head with their hands held just on either side of your temples,

Helping your beautiful brain attune to the energy of the soul.

We don't have to do anything with that.

Just keep breathing,

Knowing that we've invited in the higher self to be with us,

Share space with us.

Remind us.

Breathe with us.

Stay with the breath,

Belly,

Chest.

And release.

And as we continue to breathe,

We can bring a little bit of awareness that as you lay down and gravity works on you,

That you're actually laying against the heart of Mother Earth.

That as you breathe,

As your higher self breathes,

As alignment pulses through your body,

You are connected with the beating heart of the earth,

With the lungs of the earth.

So you can imagine roots growing really gently from the bottom of your body,

From your back down into the soil,

Connecting you even more deeply with the earth.

And as we continue to breathe for just about six more minutes,

We're just going to invite a gentle awareness and an invitation to all those parts of ourselves.

From whatever age,

Whatever version of our lives,

We'll make an invitation to all those parts of ourselves who have ever felt a little off,

Misaligned,

Lost,

Hurt.

All those parts of ourselves that have felt alone,

Separate,

Even in despair.

We're going to invite those parts of ourselves to be with us,

To breathe with us.

You can even imagine all those parts,

Even if they only existed for a moment,

A fleeting moment.

You can just kind of imagine them gathered around a fire that's been lit by the soul,

By the higher self,

So that they can warm themselves and remember that they too are loved.

And often if those parts of ourselves that have been feeling lost or alone can experience that light,

That love,

Even for a moment,

They can rejoin the rest of our being and come back into alignment.

And so as we make these invitations,

All you have to do is keep breathing.

Allow the breath to be a helper,

A teacher,

A healer.

We don't need to know what those parts are,

When they are,

What happened to them.

Just know that with each breath,

We're welcoming them home,

Welcoming ourselves all the way home,

Welcoming each other all the way home.

Sometimes we just need the invitation.

Keep breathing,

Belly,

Chest,

And release.

And I'll invite you to allow the breath to soften even more.

And on that second inhale,

Bring a little bit more breath and inflation into the chest,

Into the heart.

If you want to,

You can imagine that the heart has these beautiful wings right on the back of it.

Tonight,

Those wings can open,

Filling with light,

Filling with sparkles,

Shimmers.

And maybe as those wings unfurl,

They can actually curve around you,

Creating a beautiful shelter filled with light and magic.

So those wings that have their origin at the very center of your heart,

As they expand,

Each feather filling with its own energy and light actually create a sanctuary for all the parts of you.

And for any ancestral parts that may have been lingering in your cells,

They are welcome here as well,

So that they can be transformed and set free if they'd like to be.

See if you can just let your exhales be a release,

No pushing,

No control,

Just letting it go.

You can let those wings now open up,

Spreading wide,

Wide,

Wide,

Wide,

So that the whole world can become a sanctuary for all the beautiful hearts in it.

And I'll invite you to transition to a resting breath,

And that's just a single inhale into the belly and a release.

All the work is over,

And these next few minutes are just your chance to receive,

Relax.

If you want to,

You can just imagine a beautiful,

Heavy blanket settling over your body,

Inviting you into deeper connection with Mother Earth.

As the body gets heavier,

The imagination,

The spirit can begin to rise up.

And I'll invite you on a journey,

You can follow along,

Or just allow the words to wash over you like water.

If you want to,

You can just imagine that you're floating in a beautiful sea of stars and clouds.

Light gathering around you,

Attracted to your energy and your heart.

And really slowly,

You begin to feel layers of story and layers of time fall away.

Layers of experience.

All of those things you've been through,

Those things you've accomplished,

Just start to fall away like wax from a broken glass.

Like a burning candle.

And far from being scary,

This actually feels nice.

It's just a relief to let go of all of those stories as years fall away.

Decades fall away.

Soon,

You're five years younger.

Your skin has changed.

Ten years younger as the years fall away,

Stories fall away.

You're five years younger.

You're sitting on your own.

Climbing a tree for the first time.

Feeling the ocean or the water against your feet for the first time.

Laughing for the first time.

Tasting something incredibly delicious for the first time.

And more time falls away really gently.

It's the moment that you first open your eyes and see light.

The moment that you take your first breath and feel oxygen rushing into your lungs for the first time.

And more time falls away.

You're in the womb and more time falls away.

And you can find yourself floating in that space between the world of spirit and this one.

That infinite space of knowing everything and nothing at the same time.

Of feeling all of creation as part of you.

And you as part of it in one vast field of belonging and safety.

Beauty,

Light,

And ease.

And really gradually you can allow yourself staying connected with that space.

Floating in between to allow the layers to come back.

Stories,

Years,

Learnings,

Relationships.

Until you find yourself again floating in that sea of stars and clouds and slowly easing to your breath.

Being aware as you breathe in that this is you breathing in.

And being aware as you breathe out that this is you breathing out.

Just taking a moment to feel your body.

And also to see if you can stay at least a little bit connected to that space before we had bodies.

Maybe take a nice slow breath.

And release it.

There's no rush to come back.

I always like to wiggle my fingers,

My toes at the end of one of those.

But as you come back the invitation is to be really gentle.

Get yourself some water.

Maybe take some notes if anything interesting came to you during that practice.

And thank you so much for being here.

Hope to see you again soon.