Bhastrika Breath

As we've experienced in some of our other episodes, the symphony of diaphragms in the body descend to bring inspiration into the body and ascend on the exhale to distribute that which was taken in. And in this exercise, we're going to just emphasize or exaggerate the movements of the diaphragms to help pierce the grantees, to help move, unstick the stuck energy. And this is a technique that my teacher sometimes refers to as the grantee rotor-ruder. So it includes a breathing technique called bastrika breath. And bastrika breath, just as a review, you can place your hands onto your bellies.

And as you inhale, the belly begins to expand. And as you exhale, the belly begins to contract in and up. And so as we emphasize that movement, we're going to do it more percussively. And it might look a little bit like this. Makes you a little bit spacey.

So in this series, we'll do actually three rounds of bastrika, each one centering on a different diaphragm or a different grantee. The first round of bastrika will be focusing on the pelvic floor and the movement of the breath on the pelvic floor. This one will keep the hands down onto the knees, and we'll do a soft retention with our awareness here. The second round of bastrika will focus more on the thoracic diaphragm and to help draw our focus into that region, we'll lift our arms into kind of a high V shape and curl the eight fingers back towards the knuckles, I call it like hitchhiker thumbs. And then our retention will bring the arms overhead, hook the thumbs, other fingers lifting to help focus our energy in this region.

The last series of bastrika breath will focus on Rudra grantee and the brain diaphragm. And in this one, I'm going to ask you to bring your thumbs very softly into your ears, soft enough that you can still hear and then take your fingertips onto the head. This will be a much softer bastrika breath and much more subtle engagement of this region. We'll lower our hands and we'll sit with whatever experience arises. And don't worry, I'll talk you through it so you won't have to remember all the details.

Okay, so let's begin by taking the most comfortable seat that will work for you for a few minutes. It's helpful to sit up on some props to make sure that your crown of the head could arrive over the base of your spine. We'll start by bringing the palms face down onto the knees or thighs. And as you feel ready, we'll close the eyes. And taking just a few moments to note your starting point.

You notice where you feel the breath to begin. And let's just take a deeper breath in and out through the nose, letting the body expand on the inhalation and soften upwards on the exhalation. Start to lower the awareness down into the basin of the pelvis. Region between the pubic bone, tailbone, and two sitting bones. Feel on your inhale, the pelvic floor begin to descend down towards the earth.

The exhale, it domes back in and up towards the crown. Begin to emphasize that movement by taking a round of Bastrika breath with the focus at the pelvic floor. Begin to slow the pumpings down. Exhale completely. Inhale, take a nice, slow, full breath and sip in a little bit more breath.

Go long through the heart, lift your chest a bit higher, bring your chin down and back. Retain the inhalation. Perhaps just feeling a pulse at the base. You need to lift your chin, release the pelvic floor and exhale completely. Just let your breath adjust and feel whatever there is there to feel.

Start to let the awareness rise into the thoracic diaphragm, lower circumference of the ribs. Take a long, slow breath, feeling the thoracic diaphragm descending on the inhale, the belly might expand. Breathing on the exhale, the belly will move in and up. We'll emphasize that action, another round of Bastrika breath with the focus on the thoracic diaphragm. To help, let's bring the arms into a high V shape.

We'll curl the eight fingers back towards your thumbs around the Bastrika here. We're going to slow the pumpings down. Exhale completely. Inhale, let's lift the arms overhead, hook the thumbs, other eight fingers reaching tall. Lift you might even wiggle a little bit through the ribs to lift up a bit taller.

Bring your chin down and back and retain the inhalation, the mind falling in towards the middle of the body. When you need to, you'll keep the eyes closed and just float the hands back down to the knees. Lift your chin and exhale. Let the breath adjust and just feeling whatever there is there to feel, perhaps the density of your presence, maybe a certain tingling, awakening. Let the awareness slide up a little higher still through the soft throat, upper palate, beneath the brain, the region of the brain diaphragm.

Take a slower breath in, feeling movement of that diaphragm descending, the exhale doming back in and up towards the crown. Just emphasize that movement and to help us bring your thumbs very softly in your ears, the other fingers just lightly on your head. Take a very subtle round of bestrika to help us tap into this region. And to slow the pumpings down, exhale completely. Inhale, let's take a deep breath and bring your chin slightly down and back, retain the breath.

You can lift the pelvic floor, you can lift the thoracic diaphragm and the tension gathered in the midbrain. When you need to, you'll lift your chin, release the belly and pelvic floor, float your hands back down over the knees as you exhale. Let the breath adjust. As the breath adjusts, you might just become aware of the very subtle movement of the breath in the nostrils, almost like upside down V in two nostrils converging back in the middle of the brain. And even begin to experience a glow in the midbrain, radiance.

As that light grows more luminous, you can just start to feel as if it washes down through the system and pours down through the soft palate and throat, down through the heart, chest, shoulders, arms, and washes down through the spine, the abdomen, the pools and the pelvis and slides down each leg until you experience each cell glistening and tiny little jewels radiating this light. Once you feel ready to come back, just take a deeper breath in and out, knowing you can hold on to any of the experience that felt true and real. Bring the hands together in front of the heart and just bow the head towards your heart. Allow the eyes to flutter open, taking the gaze hazily at one point on the floor. You can take that experience into each moment of your living.

Namaste.