Breathe to Meditate

Hi Yogis, welcome back. In this shorter practice, we'll be doing some intentional breath work before we sit. So just like in the rest of this show, we've been moving to sort of clear the mind, clear out junk so that we can be more present in our seated practice. We're going to be using some breath techniques, some elongation of the breath and maybe a little bit of even breath pausing to focus the mind and bring us into a place where it's easier to sit. I'm a parent and sometimes I only have a short amount of time and I've found this practice super useful, just in general taking a few deep breaths can totally transform the way that I feel.

So hopefully it's useful for you. We'll be sitting, so I like to elevate my hips and you probably will want to as well. You can use a couple blankets or a bolster pillow and cross legged generally feels fairly good for people. Some people prefer to kneel, so see how it feels in your body. And then aligning your pelvis so that you're not rolling back too much so you want to have that height, belly nice and dropped and choose a position for your hands that's comfortable.

Palms down often allows you to feel more grounded, palms up a little bit more open in the chest or maybe even hands in the lap. I'm going to start with that. Take a few deep breaths just to arrive here and we'll be doing a little bit more mindfulness of breathing in this meditation as we start with a more focused breath practice and then move into really tethering our attention to the breath. So couple deep breaths, expanding your lungs, feeling the rise and fall of your breath. Maybe even closing your eyes and that's simplicity of in and out.

So for this breath practice it might be useful to close the throat just a little bit at the top of the throat, it's like you're turning your voice into a whisper so that you can draw the breath in a little bit slower in and out through the nose. Maybe you can hear the breath and we're going to start off with breathing together. So exhale the breath and then inhale for 3 count, 2, 3 and exhale for 3 count, 2, 3. Again inhale, 1, 2, 3. Inhale, 1, 2, 3, increasing that, inhale, 2, 3, 4 and exhale, 2, 3, 4.

Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, exhale, 2, 3, 4. Try increasing inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5 and exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and again inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5 and exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Stay with it, inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and a short pause of the breath and then exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Again inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and pause. Exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and pause at the bottom of the breath without dropping and slumping in the chest and then inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, pause at the bottom, find the pelvic floor, lift the chest, then inhale, decrease, 1, 2, 3, 4 and exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, again inhale, 2, 3, 4, exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, inhale, 1, 2, big breath all the way to the top, exhale, 1, 2, empty the breath, use the abdominal muscles, inhale fully, open the shoulders and exhale without slumping, keep the heart buoyant, find the bottom of the breath, go in more like that, next inhalation fill it up and exhale, press the breath out, keeping nice and high in the heart and then just let the breath be free here, let your chin tuck a couple of degrees, let your eyes underneath your closed lids or if they're closed at all, just let them drop towards the floor, freeing up the breath, freeing up any tension in the neck and shoulders, noticing how you feel, and just get curious here, where does the inhale start, where does it end and where does the exhale start and where does it end, see if you can stay with the full cycle of breath, the inhale as it turns around into the exhale and the exhale as it turns into the inhale, the ease of breath depends a lot on your posture, so the long spine, a strong back, a soft front so that the belly and the lungs can fill, and just start to, if there's a sound of the breath, really ease that, the constriction in the throat, letting the breath be open and free, and on your inhale ground your sit bones, and on your exhale lift your heart, give your attention to that, inhale ground down, and exhale feel the heart float, and when your mind wanders which it will, just notice and come back to some subtlety of your breath. Nice. And with that soft focus, bring your awareness, your attention to the nostrils, sensing in there the feeling of the breath coming in and out, you might notice that the air is slightly cooler on the way in and slightly warmer as it releases from the body, get interested in that for the next few moments. And there might be thoughts, and there probably are, moving through your field of awareness, and resist hopping onto a large train of thought, allow them to be there, come back to the breath of the nostrils, the buoyancy of the heart, the groundedness of the sitting bones. And there might be thoughts, and there might be thoughts, and there might be thoughts, and there might be thoughts.

Notice which nostril is feeling more open, can you sense and feel which side of the nose is more plugged, which one is more spacious and open? Sensing tensions in the face and the two sides of the neck, and just by noticing, maybe there's a possibility for a transformation to happen, for another layer to let go. Next.