Live Session: Breathwork To Explore Your Deep Essence

Hi and welcome to this breathwork session that was recorded live here on the Insight Timer on July 9th 2023 as Always when we start these sessions the invitation is to take a moment And just take a few slow breaths to create a bit of separation Between the rest of your day and the time that you've set aside to do this practice and And one of the ways that can be really fun and powerful to do that is to take a moment and imagine As you breathe Then you're just gathered around a beautiful inviting campfire With the other people through space and time Who have explored this practice alongside you So even though you might be doing this months or years After we made this recording you're still very much around the campfire with us The practice itself is very simple.

You'll simply lie down with your eyes closed if you feel like sitting up you can do that too,

But you'll get dizzy and The practice is a three-part breath all through the mouth really gently.

The first breath is going to be into your belly So only your belly inflates and the second breath into your chest So the chest inflates and then the third part is simply an exhale a letting go and Then we do that again You can go at your own pace There's no set number of rounds we do this and you'll hear that I'm coaching you all the way through Thanks so much for clicking play on this and hope that you have a beautiful breath work practice I'll send you off to the recording now Like commentary on the Sutras and so the one that came up for us is insight verse number 136 Consider all the pain and all the pleasure you have ever Experienced as waves on a very deep ocean,

Which you are From the depths Witness those waves rolling along so bravely always changing beautiful in their self-sustaining power Marvel that once you identified with only the surface of this ocean Now embrace waves depths undersea mountains out to the farthest shore Marvel that once you identified with only the surface of this ocean Beautiful invitation,

Especially for breath work practice To see how deep we can go into the ocean of our being into that place.

That is perhaps Secretly slash not so secretly connected with the deepest energies of creation That Even if it's just for these next few minutes we have together We can let go of the waves and the challenges and the obligations That form so much of the fabric of many of our lives and See what it is to allow ourselves to sink beneath them and to see what lies beneath Those constantly rising and falling waves of relationship of emotion Joy of grief So I'll invite us just to take a nice slow breath in Release it with a nice sigh Let yourself feel your body against whatever you're laying down on the couch the bed the floor And again,

Just a nice slow breath in Releasing it with a gentle sigh It's always nice before we start to gently remind ourselves it's safe for me to be in my body And it's safe for me To acknowledge my own depths It's safe for me to experience my soul Nice slow breath into that one And release And I'll invite you to Just start the breathing really gently all through the mouth breathing into the belly Into the chest and releasing Belly chest And release These first few minutes As always are your chance to find your relationship with the breath For this moment might be different than it was last week or a year ago So the invitation is to Breathe as if you are discovering the breath discovering this pattern the very first time For some of you you might not be able to get the breath all the way into the belly right at first.

That's alright Just let it go where it's able to get to and trust that it'll open up chest and release You're doing good And for some of you there might be Kind of some lingering stuff from your week or anticipation of the week ahead Almost like static in your mind Sometimes it can help to just allow your mind to focus on the breath and even think the word inhale Inhale Release Inviting breath into the belly Inviting breath into the chest and then exhaling if you want to You can take maybe three or four percent more oxygen In with that first inhale Really Noticing and enjoying that sense of expansion in your belly Seeing if you can get the breath two inches behind the belly button and two inches below Into our energetic core And then allowing that breath to come up into the chest a Lot of times when we get Caught or mesmerized or rolled by the waves of life By the waves of life our breath gets stuck up in the chest on the surface of the ocean So even by just inviting the breath into the belly We're allowing ourselves our awareness to go a little deeper stay with it belly chest and release So right around now and kind of towards the beginning of the practice is often when we experience the most resistance in the body I Like to be really gentle with that resistance.

Just acknowledge it And keep breathing Almost like we're sinking beneath it trusting that it's just a wave And it'll move and transform and change as we breathe If you want to you can maybe let out a gentle sigh and for some of you that may turn into a louder sigh or even a Like a big exhalation As we move a little bit further into the practice there's an invitation to really just notice your body notice your body The miracle that is your body Laying against the beautiful earth Expanding with each breath Maybe parts of ourselves that have been dormant or stuck Starting to wake up starting to move a little bit as we breathe And there's an invitation to allow this to go a little bit deeper really gently Just letting go Of any agenda you may be holding Noticing if your eyes are like a little tight a little knit together and you can release relax the eyes as you breathe Relax the jaw relax the shoulders And we'll just gently ask as we continue to breathe into the belly and the chest and exhaling gently ask Anything that is not our essence anything that is Something we've been holding on to something that might be heavy in our body Something that we might be holding for our ancestors we can just allow that to leave the body The breath can help That's lifting it out of the body with the exhale and gravity can help right Just asking anything heavy or stuck in the body To drop into the earth to be composted and transformed And you can even ask the earth for help ask the air the fire for help I Want to let this go and that help will be there for you Creating a little more space in your cells and in the body for new energy Stay with the breath just be breathing For about six more minutes and as we continue Acknowledging that the breath isn't just oxygen.

It's also energy the energy of life and creation Transformation And so I'll invite you as you breathe Just to allow yourself to connect with a moment that you felt most yourself Most fully alive from any time in your life.

Maybe just a small moment Feeling just so essentially you and Breathe with the energy of that taking The energy of this moment Taking it into your body Allowing it to share its light With your heart Stay with the breath just a few more minutes and we can start to let it take over What if just for now we let go of the illusion of control and allow the breath to breathe us What a relief Thank you breath for reminding us who we are For allowing ourselves to wake up and dance For allowing us to connect with our deepest essence I'll invite you to do the same With our deepest essence And i'll invite you to breathe a little more into the heart As we just kind of invite a gentle opening everywhere in the body in the cells the muscles the digestive system And the heart What if just for these few minutes together We remind each other what it is To breathe with our hearts open courageously to the sky And to the ocean within us and around us You're doing great.

Stay with it And if you want to You can even imagine Your heart is a vast ocean Vast ocean And right now you're holding like a bright light and you can dive into that ocean beneath the waves Or maybe it's a calm surface just explore the depths of your heart Because for all of us there are spaces we've never explored Places of incredible beauty and power and creativity And maybe there's one part of your heart That wants to be discovered in this moment Maybe that part Can help us remember who we are If you want to you can become aware of the 40 or so other people all over the world right now exploring their hearts and maybe We can gather around the campfire and share our treasures with each other Retrieve from the depths of our being Just a few more breaths here Just letting everything soften And see if you can allow your body to start to get a little bit heavier And go ahead And when you're ready just transition to a resting breath And a resting breath is just a nice slow inhale still through the mouth into the belly And then a release In these next few minutes Or just your chance to receive all the work is over So you can allow your body to get a little bit heavier Allow the earth to rise up to hold you And there's an invitation to allow ourselves to slow down If if you want to i'll invite you on The little journey Feel free to follow along or just allow the words to wash over you If you want to you can imagine that you're floating on your back In a beautiful peaceful ocean The waves are gentle beneath your body rocking you The sky In sky's vastness above comforting And if you want to you can allow your body to sink beneath the surface of the ocean And in this space you can breathe underwater Underwater And as you sink beneath the gently rocking waves It feels like being taken into a womb almost A place between The eternal world of spirit And the material world and as you sink deeper Into the depths of the ocean there's different currents running Vibrations And soon The light is dwindling And you continue sinking beneath the surface Until the boundaries of your body may begin To simply dissolve into the ocean And so as you Continue floating down you are energy the boundaries of your body Fall away your bones fall away You are the ocean breathing itself the ocean sinking into itself An ocean within an ocean within an ocean And all around you You may be able to start to feel or perceive the waves of creation at these deeper levels They may appear as lights shapes beings And you are welcome among them As they share their wisdom with you Healing love That there is no separation And gently you can start To allow yourself to float up through the layers of the ocean your body reassembling around you But your experience in the depth staying with you in your cells in your heart your organs Until you find yourself Once again bobbing on the surface of the ocean With about 40 other people Under the beautiful sky gentle waves beneath you As gently bring yourself back to our campfire And there's no rush to come back Sometimes it's nice to just stay where you're at for a few moments before wiggling your fingers and your toes And bringing yourself back if you have a journal nearby it can be nice to write down some reflections have some water Thank you so much for exploring this breathwork practice and I hope to see you again soon be well