Breathe to Meditate

Welcome. This is a breathing practice, a pranayama practice, and some of you might say, but I'm breathing all the time, right? When you're breathing, though, how much of the time are you paying attention to your breath? So just as meditation is mind training, this practice is dedicated to how we breathe, and there'll be two very specific techniques that you will learn, and one might resonate with you more than the other, and I certainly invite you to practice it as often as you like. The better you breathe, the better your moving yoga practice, the better your seated meditation practice, and really the quality of your life is enhanced. So that's the motivation for me when I sit with my pranayama practice. So the first thing you're just going to do is tune into your breath before we even begin anything, right? You're in a comfortable seat, you could be on a chair, you could be leaning against a wall, whatever it's going to allow you comfort, and I just want you to close your eyes and tune into your breath, and so this is a practice, right? So you close your eyes, you're sharpening that focus on breathing, and really what you're honing in on is, am I breathing through both nostrils? Is there ease of my breath? Do I feel comfort in breathing? So just two more rounds where you're really looking into your breath, and some of you may find one breath is clearly shorter than the other, so just notice. So now you will do nadi shona, right? And as you do this with me, you can just call it breathing with my hand if that works better for you, okay? And you will take your index and your middle finger on your dominant hand and bend them in. Some people like to put the index and the middle finger right in between the eyebrows, okay? That's up to you. You can fold it in. Your thumb will cover the same side, a nostril, okay? So if you're right-handed, it'll be your right nostril with your right thumb. If you're left-handed, it'll be your left nostril. So I'm just gonna cue you to close a nostril, not a finger, because if you're left-handed, I'm doing my right side, all right? So just note the first breath in, and then out, and then I would like you to cover your right nostril. Take an inhale through your left nostril. Cover your left nostril. The breath is being held. Release the exhale through the right nostril. Take the inhale in through the right nostril. Cover the right nostril. Both nostrils are held for a moment. Release the left nostril and exhale. Inhale through the left nostril. So you'll continue. It's hard for me to talk and cover both of them. Cover both nostrils, thumb and ring finger, and then release the right nostril and exhale through the right side. Inhale when there's no more, and then cover the right nostril. Exhale through the left side. That's two complete rounds. I think you have seven more rounds in you, okay? Inhale through the left nostril. Cover it. Breath is held. Exhale through the right nostril.

Inhale through the right nostril. You got this. You cover and there's some retention of breath, and then you exhale through the left nostril. Sitting up tall. Inhale through the left nostril. Cover. Both nostrils are covered for a moment. Exhale through the right nostril. Inhale right nostril only.

Both nostrils are covered. Release whatever finger is covering the left nostril. Possibly it's your thumb. Exhale out. Inhale through the left nostril. Cover. That's the moment where you're sealed in, and then release the right nostril and exhale. Be focused. It takes concentration. Inhale up through the right nostril. Cover. Both nostrils. Exhale through the left. So you release the hold there. And then inhale up through the left nostril. Cover. Both sides sealed.

Exhale through the right nostril. Inhaling right nostril. Cover. Exhale left nostril. Release. Inhale left nostril. Cover. Exhale right nostril. Inhale through the right nostril. Both are covered. A moment of hold. Exhale left nostril.

Inhale up through the left nostril. Cover. Exhale through the right nostril. Inhale. Cover both. Exhale. Let's do three more rounds. Inhale through the left nostril. Cover. Exhale right nostril. Inhale. Both nostrils covered. Exhale release left nostril to let that breath go.

Inhale through the left nostril. Cover it up. Exhale right nostril. Inhale same side. That's the right one. Cover the right. Exhale release and let go of that left nostril. This is your final round here. Inhale up through the left nostril. That's how you started. Cover it. Retain. Release right nostril and exhale.

Inhale up through the right. Cover. Exhale through the left. Right arm or left arm down, whatever side you did. And now note the way you're breathing. Hopefully there's a more balanced sense in the rhythm of the breath, of the body, and of the mind. So now you'll lay down. Okay, you'll lay down on your back. I'll guide you through this. This is Veloma breathing. It's a three-part breath. It's training abdominal breathing, rib breathing, and then the top of the collarbones, the top of the lung tissue for breathing.

So lay down. Put your hands on your belly. Close your eyes. When you take a deep inhale, I want you to feel the breath funnel all the way to the lowest part of your belly and allow your belly to pooch up. And when you exhale, I want you to allow your belly to retain back in. Just two more with belly focus. Inhale. Feel the belly pooch up. Exhale. Feel it draw right back in. Your breath might be longer or shorter than I'm cueing. Stay true to that. Inhale. Let it rise. And then exhale. Let it release. Now bring your attention to your ribs. And I like to touch my ribs, the width of my ribs, so that I'm like coaching my ribs. Here's the feedback point of my fingers. When you inhale, expand the width of the ribs really wide. And when you exhale, feel the ribs narrow and they funnel down. So right now, really sharp focus on the ribs only. Two more. Inhale. Expansive width in the rib cage. The inner costals feel a stretch. Those are the muscles. Exhale. Drawing them down. Last one. Inhale. Super expansive, right? Like the barrel of the chest is getting super wide. And then exhale and it narrows.

And now you'll bring your hands up to your collar bones, right at the collar bones. You can rest your palms there. And when you inhale, you're imagining that the collar bones, if they were your eyes, they're rolling up and they're allowing the tissue of your lungs to come all the way up to like elevate up on the inhale. And then when you exhale, they depress down just a little bit. So two more training that area of the body, the upper part of the trunk. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. Like a balloon or a jellyfish. It's going up, up, up. And then as you exhale, descending slowly down, down, down. Final one. In. It's rising, rising, rising. Out. Releasing. And now just let your arms rest down by your side. One breath where you don't focus on any area. You just breathe in and out.

And now I want you to visualize your breath like water in a cup. And when you inhale, your belly is going to pooch for the first third. Then your ribs are going to widen for the second third. And then if you have any breath left, you'll see about lifting the collar bones. And when you exhale, you're looking for precision. It might not happen yet. This is training, right? When you go to run a marathon, you don't just run the 26.2 miles you train. That's what we're doing with your breath. So you're moving in the direction of releasing from the upper tissue of the lungs, through the width of the rib cage, through the pooching of the abs. And all you're doing is the best that you can, right? Especially if this is the first time you're doing it, okay? All right. Inhale. Third of the inhale. Feel the belly rise. A second third as you partially in the breath, the ribs widen. The third third, the collar bones rise. And then you reverse everything. Depress, release, upper, middle, funnel, and then scoop a navel.

And there's no more breath. And it's so exciting. You're going to do two more rounds. Three is totally feasible. You're capable. Inhale. Belly, ribs, collar bones. And one area might be really difficult. Not a big deal. And then in reverse, ribs. Up. First collar bone. Ribs wide. Belly, no more ribs. Final round, okay? If you need the hands, hands on belly, inhaling. Hands on ribs, inhaling. Hands on collar bones, right? You're really stretching the breath. And then exhaling. Collar bones, ribs, navel.

And now you just stay there. You can continue to lay down. Turn it into shavasana. If you feel like you're ready to sit, you can sit, right? So you have a whole buffet of offerings for meditation for you. You can continue resting on your back or find your way up to seated. Thanks so much for paying attention to your breath with me. And the breath in me bows to the breath in you. Namaste.