Breathing Practice

Hello and welcome back. We're going to do a breathing practice and I want you to be comfortable and the three positions I'm going to offer you are sitting tall, kneeling tall or just lying down. Okay so if you're sitting tall to get comfy just maybe get out a few the creases. You can lengthen up, do a little twist, lengthen up, do a little twist. Just get yourself, get all the knots that the creases are so you can be still. The next thing I wanted to do is imagine your spine is like a tent pole and as you lift up and lengthen you want that length, that openness where there is ease and space inside the tent. So you're looking for freedom and you're noticing that freedom through the breath. So take a deep breath in, see how it feels and slowly let it go. And if you feel a little crumpled in one area just try and soften, make a bit more space. You move your body till you're comfortable, till you're a bit more free, more spacious. Second point, once you find your stillness and you can take as long as you like to do that, notice where you like to breathe towards. Maybe it's your belly, maybe it's your rib cage or your chest. Notice what's familiar to you when you breathe. So if your breath is like a river flowing down, where does it settle, that lake? Inhale and let it go. Now once you start to recognize where you feel your breath more dominant, more aware. See if you can imagine the other areas we talked about like little dry lake beds. For me I like to breathe deep down in my belly. I need to feel it more here. This is where I would like to feel it more and the side ribs. So take a deep breath in and imagine it spilling over and letting it go. Now I imagine it more like a canal and the canal has locks. Take one more breath, deep breath in and see if you can soften those locks. Give them permission to open. Inhale and let it go. Now the next thing we're going to do to give it a little bit more relevance is slow it down. It's kind of like somebody rushing up, driving as fast as they can, up to a red light, pulling the handbrake on and waiting for the next cue. When's the light going to change? When's the light going to change? So since your body is a vehicle I want you to really work on the cushioning, slow and smooth it out. Just ride it up, we'll get there but we want it to be a comfortable journey. So you notice more when things are slow let's continue the breathing with a little bit bringing it down a notch. And just practicing that one aspect and letting it go. So as these layers happen we have deep and we have slow. Now think of both of those as volume controls and we want to turn up the volume just enough on those deep and slow to notice the quality of the action, the smoothness. And you can use your breath and the sound of your breath more like a brush stroke. So you can tell there's a little bit of dirt in the road. And then after a while you clean that dirt away with the brush. Here we go, a couple of breaths. We're starting to move a little bit away from autopilot. Now we've done two things that I'd like you to notice. It's the precision of your breath, where you're guiding it and the fluidity of your breath, the quality of your breath. And these are that aspects like I mentioned before in another class. It's like the calligraphy of a Japanese swordsman can be identified how good he is with his movement so they can recognize this guy's got some action. So your signature right now with those three are your breath and we're going to move now into part four. The smoothness because he can hit it hard. But there should be not just the smoothness but the softness. So I want you to feel like we're taking it down a little bit. High intensity, taking it down so it's a whisper. Take a deep breath in. Now you can continue breathing but every couple of breaths I'm going to add another layer. So the next is feeling like you've noticed the edges of the breath and instead of thinking point A to point B, we're going to now move and almost like a pendulum or like a figure eight, you're going to round the edges. So there really is no point of stopping and starting. Think of yourself like you're on a swing. You're swinging out in the playground or over a lake, on a rope.

There's that suspension at the end. There is no stopping point. It just suspends and changes direction. So I want you to notice how you soften or feather the endings. Smooth and soft. And now we're going to act on something else. Because our emotional state can cause a fluctuation in the breath. And as someone has mentioned before, the breath and the emotional state in the mind are like two wheels. So we're going to set this idea of we're going to lock something in here. We're going to set a rhythm or cadence. Try to have the breath equal in length on both sides and try not to fluctuate from that. So here we go. I'm going to hold it for four breaths this time as you work on your rhythm. And now we're going to play a little bit. We're going to play with what happens at the end of each breath. How we can try and maybe open and extend that part of the breath. So when you invite something into the body, I want you to imagine on your next inhale that it's something that tastes or smells delicious. And that desire, that idea of I am taking something lovely into the body, it has an effect on the body. That invitation. And just let it, let it stay, let the taste, let them linger for a little bit longer. Except we're just going to do it with the breath and we're going to let the breath linger a little bit longer like it's something that we desire to have within us, to nourish us. Take a deep breath in and linger at the end of the inhale. Just one more inhale. And now when I ask you to do, we're going to linger now at the end of the exhale. But where I find a little bit of a problem, they call it champagne breath, where we tighten the glottis and then it pops. So there's this kind of balancing of what happens inside the body as we hold the space inside the body, but not the throat. We don't want it to pop out. So at the end of the exhale, I want you to think that you have everything you need. You don't need any more and you're just letting go, whatever it is. And at the end of the exhale, hit the pause button just for a moment. It's almost like you dive into the water like a pearl diver and you just see what the underwater world is like without interfering with it with your breath. So deep inhale and we still have that expansion, that resonating hold, the suspension. And then the exhale will try the same thing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Now, take it a little further because we're going to put all these pieces together and I hope you can remember them. Deep, slow, smooth, soft. The rhythm is even. And then we work a little bit on the end of the breath. When we go into it now, we're actually going to set up a pattern and see this word we used before for how long we're doing the practice, but also to see if we can do hold for four on the inhale. Suspend, retain for four. Exhale, four. And then suspend for four. And we'll only do it for four breaths. So if you're confused at any point, go, count it, four, four. We get there, okay? We get there together.

I'm going to go with my breath. I'm going to try and make it audible. Maybe I'll make it audible enough so you can hear. If not, go with your own breath and don't try and mimic somebody else unless it works, unless the suit fits you. So here we go. Four breaths. First we just let everything go and let it go. Now, I'll have my hand up to count. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Exhale. Exhale. Exhale. Exhale.

Exhale. Exhale. And when you're ready, take a deep breath in and soften, exhale. Now we're going to take it a little further. That is the breathing practice.

And I'm going to ask you, you're going to work on that instillness. I'm going to ask you to close your eyes without instruction. I'll slip in some notes occasionally. But the intention here is not for you to get stimulated by, hey, there's a guy talking to me over there. I must listen in.

I want you to think of me as a background noise. And if I dispense or throw out a word, it's more like a safety net, something for you to hold onto. But if you're swimming fine, you just, I'm good. You stay with it. You stay with what you have.

And this is this last part of how long, if you make a commitment, how long can we stay with that commitment? Before we let something go, well, I think I should. So I'm going to ask you to stay four or five. Before we get going, I'm going to ask you to check your seat again. And I'm going to do that little stretch, lateral side.

So I turn to one side, lift up, look over the shoulder. Feel that good. Luckily, there's no tension there. Lift up, look over the shoulder. And soft.

And then just maybe let the hand go out, smoothly move around, yawn the hand up. And same thing, other side, inhale up, lengthen up. And so that just helps me, those little two actions of side body stretching and twisting. And then I really get back in here. Here we go.

I'm going to ask you to sit tall, lengthen up, feel what's going on inside the body. Don't worry about my words. Sit tall, base of the skull, lengthen, feeling the weight come through, all the way down through the hips. Be still. And I'm just going to use those key words in your stillness, alignment, depth, depth, flow, slow.

This one supersedes all the others, smooth. Soft. And now we move toward the edges of the breath, rounded, curved, flowing. And now at the edges of the breath we take a taste. We stay a little bit longer on the inhale and a little bit longer released on the exhale.

Standing still, I'm going to ask you to dissolve everything that you're working on while keeping that alertness. You're doing everything we talked about, just less, and maybe even release the sound of the breath if you find that you don't need to think about that anymore. Not experiencing, experience of telling the body the requirements of the gain. You're going to dissolve all those requirements, the gain, dissolve everything. Find that freedom and space inside the body.

The techniques guide us towards a direction. We're getting closer to the destination. We know where it is. Just let it happen. You're caught in the current and you're drifting in the direction.

Let it happen. You're caught in the current and you're drifting in the direction. You're caught in the current and you're drifting in the direction. The thoughts might arise. Let them.

Just let them come, let them go, but don't invest in them. Invest in you for just a little while. Invest in the sensations of the body that are just a reflection of where you are. Start to deepen your inhales. Feel the pulsing of the body and the flow of the breath.

Exaggerate that wave. Every inhale, lift your heart forward, open your throat. Exhale, round just a little, inhale, and then come to a stillness, exhale, let it all sink. Bring your hands together at your heart center. Let the thumbs, the base of the thumbs touch the sternum.

Let there be a sensation there. Let the hands gently press so you'll feel an opening in the shoulder girl, the spaciousness. How does it feel in the space behind the heart center, between your shoulder blades? And then one more deep breath in, exhale, just let your head drop. Now keep your head drop down, but keep your awareness on your heart center.

And as you experience that buoyancy, when you take an inhale and exhale, almost like a wave lifts and supports, and then you sink into that wave. On your next inhale, imagine your heart center glowing and growing, just getting a little bit more. On the exhale, soften. And that ball of energy expanding from heart to shoulders, to abdomen and rib cage. And exhale, coming back and touching the spot, just behind where the knuckles touch your sternum.

Now feel it go down through the shoulder girdle, down through the hips. And soften that wave. Feel it flow to your fingertips, feel it flow to your feet. And soften. Imagine somebody you care about touching your hand, touching your foot.

Exhale beyond your hands, beyond your feet. And soften. Now have this idea that we don't just give love over, but just like this feeling in the heart center, it goes through our body and extends to another. So this love that we can feel passes through our own tissue, passes through our own expression, before it reaches that other. Imagine that you're with a room full of people you care about, breathe into your heart, feel it get brighter, larger, fuller, and share that expression with everyone in the room.

Go big or go home, take a deep breath in. Everybody you care about, exhale, let it go. This is an extra special one. Everybody you don't care about, deep breath in, and let it go. Everybody you see who has hurt, who you hurt, or they may have hurt you, deep breath in.

And let it go. Sit with that idea for just a few moments. Now imagine that light slowly moving back and working its way back to just your heart center. This idea, this root and rebound, you put it out there. They will feel your happiness, and it too should be reciprocated.

Stay soft, stay still, just for another 30 seconds, with your head bound down. With your head bound down, slowly let your eyes open, and slowly lift your head. Thank you for sharing. And as a gesture of gratitude, we just join our hands together.