Diaphragmatic breath.
Find a position that you're comfortable in,
Either Savasana laying or sitting in any other
seated position,
On a chair,
Or cross-legged.
First notice the body,
Let the spine be long.
Through the jaw,
Relax the hips,
The belly,
The shoulders,
Softening the entire body,
And then bringing your attention to your breath,
Letting it be spontaneous and regular and even.
No need to force or control the breath in any way,
Allowing your natural breath.
Can you feel air coming in,
Sharp and cold,
Air coming out,
Soft and warmed by the body?
Bring your attention,
As best you can,
To the diaphragm now.
The best place to focus your awareness is at the bottom of the sternum.
You could visualize the diaphragm as a sheet of muscle beneath the lungs.
As you're breathing,
Visualize this dome-shaped sheet of muscle,
Flattening and pushing downward
on the abdomen.
As the breath is drawn into the lungs,
The diaphragm pushes down.
No forcing,
No tension,
Just watch that area.
Feel yourself drawing breath into the lungs and the abdomen,
Traveling down,
Flattening
on the organs below.
And as you're breathing out,
Notice the diaphragm relax,
Feel it moving upward again to take
on its dome-shaped position beneath the sternum,
Gently pushing air out of the lungs and releasing
the pressure on the abdominal organs.
Do you feel all that space in the abdomen on the exhale?
Can you feel this gentle downward force on your inhale,
Gently pinpointing your awareness
at this interface between the chest and the abdomen,
Feeling the rhythmic motion produced
by this spontaneous abdominal breathing?
No need to force,
No tension in the abdomen or the chest.
If you feel any holding,
Let it melt away.
The movement of the diaphragm is natural and comfortable,
There's no resistance.
It just happens.
You might like to place your hand on the abdomen,
Just above the navel,
And maybe the
other hand on the center of the chest.
With natural abdominal breathing,
Diaphragmatic breathing,
You will feel the hand on the diaphragm
rising and falling with your inhalation and your exhalation.
And there'll be very minimal movement with the hand on the chest.
If you find yourself pushing,
Notice,
Relax,
Back into an openness.
Then simply place your awareness back on the diaphragm and watch as the breath is drawn
in,
Deep into the body,
And then the diaphragm moves up and gently the exhale travels out
through the lungs.
Continue your abdominal breathing,
Diaphragmatic breathing,
For as long as you like,
Keeping
your awareness in that space,
Or letting go of the practice and totally relaxing into
a natural breath,
Feeling the breath move through the entire body,
Aware of the respiration
from nose to throat,
Chest and belly.
And then gently shifting your awareness to the body,
Let yourself move a little or a
lot,
Allowing the body to move in any way,
Waking up,
Taking your time,
And then whenever
you're ready,
Bringing your awareness to the external environment.
