Metal Element II: Breath & Letting Go For The Autumn

So we want to start by making sure we have a firm and stable posture.

So with the lower body,

Whether if you're sitting on the floor,

Creating a triangle with your two knees and in your sitting bones,

We know that a triangle is a very strong and stable shape.

If you're sitting on a chair then you know the two knees are straight above the feet and again we've got the two knees sitting bones making a triangle.

Ideally the knees are lower than your hips and allows a nice comfortable tilt to the pelvis so that you can sit up nice and effortlessly extending up to the very crown of the head.

And then imagining you're holding a ball in towards your chest underneath your chin,

So this little tuck down and in in your chin will really lengthen the back of the neck and it'll allow your eyes to soften to lower looking downwards.

So you could have your eyes a little bit open or you can have your eyes closed as you wish.

So then we can ask the question,

Can we let go of anything in the body that doesn't need to be holding?

So we have our uprightness,

Our alignment,

Our balance and then the rest of the body we can let go of any leftover tension in the face,

In the jaw,

In the shoulders,

In the hands,

The fingers,

In the belly,

In the hips.

So as the attention really focuses on the inside,

The internal environment,

Just being curious as to how that is for you,

Whether you're after lunch.

Now we feel,

Do we feel heavy,

Do we feel light?

What's the effect of your day so far in your body?

So beginning to focus your awareness on your breath and there's that skill of observing the breath without controlling it.

So just watching how the body moves with the breath.

Expansion and release.

So in the old Buddhist texts they called breath awareness meditation anapanasati.

Sati means awareness or mindfulness and ana and apana are the upwards and downwards moving energies in the body.

So it's not just a breath but it's energy moving in and out,

Moving up,

Moving down.

So we're going to do some alternate nostril breathing together and if you're not so familiar with this you can open your eyes.

We're going to make a shape with your hand where we've got the thumb and the little fingers available.

So the first two fingers curl down out of the way.

We're going to use these thumb and little fingers to close the different sides of our nose,

Our two nostrils.

Okay so let's just start by using your thumb to close the nostril on that side and just take a few normal breaths on the other side,

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Just getting a sense of how that nostril,

How that side of your breathing feels.

Now again we'll switch it over closing with your little fingers and just taking a few normal breaths sensing into how this side feels.

Okay so we can let the hand come down but keeping the shape of your fingers.

So we're going to breathe to a particular count of the breath which means at some level controlling the breath.

We bring in a level of control in order to create a certain kind of effect and we'll just see what kind of effect that brings today.

So we're going to breathe into the count of four and out to the count of six alternating the nostrils.

So bring up your hand,

We're going to start with the thumb side but before you close your thumb we're going to breathe all the way out.

Okay closing with your thumb and then breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switching over close your little fingers breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch over breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch breathing out Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Breathing ingroup two,

Three,

Four.

Switch breathing out to three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Breathing in two,

Three,

For switch,

Breathing out,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

Okay,

Letting your hand come down,

Just taking a few totally relaxed breaths,

Letting the body breathe for itself.

So relinquishing control.

So we're going to increase the length of the out breath,

So breathing into four,

Breathing out to eight,

Bringing your hand up,

First of all breathing all the way out,

Closing with your thumb,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch over,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Switch,

Breathing out to three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

In two three four switch breathing out two three four five six seven eight last one breathing in two three four switch breathing out two three four five six seven eight letting your hand come down and again just relinquishing conscious control of the breath letting your body breathe as it needs to noticing how you feel We talked how our practice can be one of like harmonizing of evening out the flow of energy of balancing the different energies in the body and we spoke about just a minute ago about the up energy and the down energy but also we have the left and the right and our lungs are very much symmetrical we have a left and a right and a nostril left and right so that kind of practice really helps us to come into the center to find that evenness balancing out the energy of the lungs left and right so just maintaining awareness of your breathing of this quiet relaxed comfortable uncontrolled breathing you can visualize the kinds of armor plating that we develop as a human the kinds of self-protective mechanisms that we adopt the patterns around your body this kind of metal armor plating and appreciating that some of us have more than others but it develops for a reason it is the body trying to protect itself the mind the body and the mind and it's very understandable why we'd want to protect ourselves no one wants to feel pain no one wants to be in discomfort certain experiences certain people maybe stretching back to a very early age cause the body to create these kinds of boundaries these walls but we can ask so just right now as we're sitting as we're breathing how would it be for these walls this armor plating to kind of just dissolve a little bit to let go of the need to protect our inner fragile little self from a place of fear and worry very understandably we feel separate maybe there's an outside force which feels overpowering or dangerous but as our practice continues and we start to look deeper and deeper we start to realize that actually that's just one perspective we're not really that's just one perspective we're not really separate we are part of this continuum so the sense of being distinct and separate is actually somewhat of an illusion and then from that perspective we say well what am i trying to protect why are these walls really here and this in no way is saying that boundaries asserting our boundaries is not important in fact it's very important but it's the armor that stops people from seeing in and it stops us from seeing out which can become a real limitation so just allow letting go of that need to protect to hide you you every time you breathe out another opportunity to embody the flow of moment to moment to be this flow the more we can let go the more we can let come the more we become like a fountain this dynamic flow of energy that's not stuck and holding it's very free flowing so then if we allow the attention to come to settle in the middle of your belly in the middle of your belly to this spot known as a tendon energy center couple of fingers width below the belly belly button in the middle of your belly and we're going to encourage the energy of the body to begin to gather and accumulate in the middle of your belly in this tandem energy spot so it's kind of helpful sometimes to visualize the energy in the body to be like a flow or maybe it's mist or smoke maybe it's kind of got a color sometimes like sparkling red or white or maybe a changing rainbow of colors and every time you breathe out allowing that energy to begin to accumulate to gather to come to store in the middle of your belly and in the middle of your belly perhaps you can imagine a cup or a container or for you it might be like a barn or a wood store breathing out allowing the energy to gather in the belly so or perhaps for you it feels more like a battery pack and here we're charging it up breathing out gathering energy into the tendon and as it begins to gather and charge perhaps the middle of your belly starts to feel brighter hotter perhaps it's more of a sound like a roaring perhaps it's getting louder so now we're going to do a slightly different kind of breathing where as you breathe in your belly goes in and the breath comes up into the chest and as you breathe out we relax chest and belly known as reverse breathing sometimes daoist breathing so breathing in the belly goes in and the chest expands it doesn't have to be a big breath just a small movement breathing out chest and belly relax so all this energy we've been gathering into the belly now as you breathe in imagining it rising up the torso into the chest breathing out we relax and it circulates around the whole body breathing in energy rises up through the middle of the body breathing out circulating around filling up to the edges into the corners to the extremities breathing in belly goes in just can be a little bit tiny small movement breath rises breathing out relax so feeling like we're spreading all this lovely gathered energy through the whole body nourishing warming preparing our body for the upcoming cooler months a more yin phase of the year and then we can just relax our efforts relax controlling the breath letting things settle back down release you and then we'll bring this practice to a close by bringing a little bit of movement back to the body maybe deepen the breath slightly maybe swaying the body a little bit from side to side and just when you're when you're ready when you feel ready letting your eyes lift