The Heart's Breath

One of the jobs of the anatomical heart is not just to move oxygenated blood systemically through the system, but half of the heart's job, an entire half of the heart's job, is just to return that freshly oxygenated blood back to itself, back home to its own heart muscle. And in this meditation and breathing exercise that we'll do together, we'll explore not just the expansive nature of the heart, but this sweet tending back to where it all began. So please just find the most comfortable position on your back on the floor to begin. You can set yourself in something that looks like shavasana, maybe with a rolled up blanket of under your knees, or place a flat blanket under your head, just something that you can be comfortable and cozy for this next few minutes. And as you adjust on your back, take a moment to fuss and move your heels slightly wider than your hips. Moving the arms a little bit away from the sides of your body, maybe turning the palms to face up, and allow your eyes to close. As you soften here, you can might feel the brow unwrinkle, a little strip of real estate between the eyebrows, smooths out, jaw unhinging, tongue widening in the floor of the mouth, and begin to hug the level of your attention just into the perimeter of your own body. And as it feels reasonable, hug the level of your awareness a little tighter still, deep back behind the breastbone, and have snuggled between your lungs in the four-chambered mansion of your own heart, and begin to recognize or visualize a glow resting there. You might see or experience it as a light and almond shaped flame, perhaps about the size of your thumbnail, deep in the center of your own heart. And begin now to deepen the breath, and it doesn't have to be your largest volume or capacity, maybe just 50% of your deeper breath in and out through the nose. And as you take this next longer stream of breath in, see and feel the light begin to expand side to side. As you exhale, it's not a contraction or a shrinking, quite the opposite, just a tethering back to the very center point in which it emanates. You're experiencing the light growing brighter as it stretches side to side. Exhale, you tether back, magnetized back to the center point in which it emanates. Keep exploring this breath for a few more moments. Your next inhale begin to see or feel the breath now moving top to bottom, bottom to top, as if the light begins to move towards the crown and towards your feet. And as you exhale, again, not a shortening or a shrinking, but a tethering back towards your very center. And deeper inhale, the breath traveling long through the body, the light expanding top to bottom, bottom to top. And the exhale, it tends back to its very center. Continue that breath, that exploration, for a few more moments here. And with your next inhale, begin to explore the light now moving front to back, back to front, expanding up towards the ceiling and down towards the floor below you. And on your exhale, it wafts back towards the very center of your chest. A deeper breath in expanding front to back, back to front, the light growing brighter, more radiant. The exhale, it melts back towards the very center.

And explore the breath like this for a few more moments. Now notice with the next longer inhale, you can feel this light growing three-dimensionally, side to side, top to bottom, front to back, the light radiating out from the center point in all directions. And the exhale, this magnetizing back in towards its very center. The inhale expanding three-dimensionally, the light growing more radiant, more bright, more luminous. The exhale tends back to its own source. Keep moving with that breath for a few more moments. Now relax your breath so no longer having to stretch or shape it or fuss with it in any fashion. Just allow the breath to relax back into its own natural state. You can still feel this pulse and it might even begin to whisper to you the mantra sat yam, sat yam, sat yam. The pulse of the vessels, the pulse and ebb and flow of the breath. That word sat yam meaning truth. When you look at the little words that make it up, the being or consciousness of your own heart whispered to you every beat, every pulse. Knowing you can hold on to anything that felt real here or true and just take a few moments to slide your thumb over each fingertip, the tongue across your teeth. You might feel good to reach your arms overhead and give yourself a moment to stretch your body. With no rush when you do feel ready you can bend your knees and roll over to your right side and just curl up into a fetal position. You can create a little pillow for your head with your right arm. Taking a few moments to honor your practice, to honor your experience, whatever it was here, and keeping your eyes closed just lazily bring yourself back into a comfortable seat. You can place one hand over the other hand over your own heart and just feeling quite literally the visceral participation with where you are which leads us back into that remembrance of who we are. Thank you so much for joining me. Namaste.