engaging with your breathing: an introductory series

The practices are here! I've been sharing a lot of concept and theory and now am ready to begin sharing a series of breathing practices that might help put some of the ideas of becoming more engaged with your breathing into practice.

In case you're stumbling on to this for the first time or just want a refresher on the intention of this practice series, I recorded an introduction that you can listen to here:
 
Listen to "Breathing Series Introduction"
 

ready to practice?

Below is the first in the breathing series practices. It's an observation and awareness-building practice. It's about 10 minutes long.

If you'd like to give this practice a try, please do as you need to feel prepared, whether that's in setting up your space or finding a quiet moment to yourself or pre-listening to make sure you want to go through the practice at all.
 
Listen to "Breathing Practice 1"
 

practice notes

If you found this practice useful, I encourage you to consider repeating it --perhaps in another week or as often as every day-- in between now and the next practice in the series, which I'll release on Dec 12.

And as ever, if you have questions or feedback on how this practice works for you, I welcome hearing them!
 
Be moving, be true, be you,

 
 

photo credit jesse martini, found on unsplash

defining your "better"

Some of us have a general sense that we want to breathe "better" --but what does that mean? Because of the way breathing works, it is going to mean different things for different people. It involves both where you want to end up and where you are now. I share more about that in the video below, enjoy!
 

 

A full-bodied approach to breathing

Last week and at the end of the above video, I mentioned an approach to breathing that I've referred to as "ribcage breathing," "directional breathing," and "core-connected breathing" --and all of these names are clunky and limiting. Sometimes words just aren't the best means of communication!

And because this is an approach that brings in a few layers of awareness and skill, drawing on any one element for the name is selling it short. Perhaps it should remain nameless?

In the next series of recordings, I'll guide you through a process of becoming aware of the way you breathe now, exercise some conscious breathing, and some controlled breathing. I hope you'll take from it what is useful to you and let the rest fall by the wayside.

And instead of naming the breathing, I'll just give this series a label: An introduction to engaging with your breathing. Below is an overview of my plan for what that introduction will include!

 

Engaging with your breathing

An introductory series
 

1. what you do now

I'll begin by guiding you to become aware of some aspects of your current breathing patterns. I say some because there's a lot there to notice -- you might uncover a little or a lot. You could repeat this practice daily and discover new things each time!
 

2. getting used to effort

In the second practice, I'll invite you breathe in and out through your nose and/or lengthen your breathing and notice your response to any accompanying effort.
 

3. where is the effort?

We'll revisit the practices from video two with a new focus, noticing where in your torso you feel any effort that comes along with nose and/or lengthened breathing.
 

4. belly, sides, chest, back

Building on the previous practice, I'll guide you to direct your lengthened breathing into the major areas of your torso.
 

5. positioning your torso

In this practice, I invite you to repeat breathing into one major area of your torso at a time with the addition of limiting movement into other areas at the same time. This practice pulls together awareness, effort, lengthened breathing, and directed breathing to create a manner of breathing that can take a lot of work!
 

6. ribcage quadrants

In this video, I'll guide you to breathe into different quadrants/sections of your ribcage.
 

7. flexible ribcage

Once you've practice breathing into sections of your ribcage, I'll invite you make use of the flexibility of your ribcage to reshape the expand and compress action that goes along with breathing.
 

8. ribcage and pelvis connection

This video will be part anatomy lesson! We'll look at the core abdominal muscles that connect ribcage and pelvis, support the spine, and can move in concert with the diaphragm when you breathe.
 

9. positioning your ribcage

In this video, I'll invite you to practice exercising the abdominal-diaphragm connection to encourage your ribcage to move into a "postural neutral" position.
 

10. bringing awareness into all shapes

In this final practice of the series, I'll guide you through some familiar yoga / exercise movements while referring to some of the breathing principles covered in the series, taking your new knowledge and skill into form and movement!

That's the plan anyway... we'll see how it turns out in practice!
 
Be moving, be healing, be you

 
 

photo credit kensuke saito surf photography, found on unsplash

what should we call this?

I'll be the first to admit "ribcage breathing" is a terrible name for what I want to share with you --at best it's vague shorthand (that's how I landed on it) and at worst it's alienating jargon. I apologize! I do not have a better term today, but as I invite you to watch me talk about this thing, I'm making a promise to find a more welcoming term...
 

 

that's all for today

Tune in next time for a term update and more detailed information about how intentionally engaging with your breathing (whether it's about your ribcage or not!) can be a powerful tool for a handful of different objectives.

Along with that, I plan to share a series of practice videos that will build on one another, potentially serving as a loose guide for developing an intentional breathing practice.
 
Be moving, be healing, be you

 
 

photo credit the blow up copy, found on unsplash

In a previous post, I shared how your breathing and body/mind state relate to one another through the autonomic system, as well as how trauma and triggers should be considered when breathing to regulate your physical and mental state. You can read that here.

In this post, I’m going to outline two breathing practices that I like for everyday or as-desired use. I’ll point out what they might be useful for and when and how you can enter into them with compassion and consideration for yourself and your story.

 

Breathing can be a stand-alone practice

You’ve likely encountered breathing practices as meditation and in yoga or other somatic forms. You can also adopt a stand-alone breathing practice.

Why might you want to do that?

• If/when they feel good
• If they create an effect of influence on your mood and regulation that you like
• To improve health in any number of ways – there’s some research on effects of various breathing approaches, but not everything you’ll hear is proven or has evidence to back it up.

I’ll address breathing and general health in a future post, so let’s move on to examples of “feel good” and “mood shifting” breathing practices.

What “feels good” will be individual, so I’m offering a “relaxing breathing” practice along with some suggestions for how you might explore and acknowledge what feels good to you when you’re hoping to rest and relax. I encourage you to leave aside expectations or assumptions and trust how you feel in a given moment, even if it takes a while to figure out how that is. You’ll see it took me years to frame my own experiences within conscious choice.

 

Practice #1 – Relaxing Breathing

The objective of this practice is to relax and feel good doing so. I encourage you to consider environment, body, relationship, and time – all can affect your experience.

Environment

• Where do you feel comfortable? In a certain room in your home? Outdoors? In a public space? In a private space?
• What makes the space feel even better? Nothing? Candles? Music?
• I suggest you follow your instinct and go to as much or as little trouble as makes you feel good.
• For me, a hardwood floor, dim or natural-only lighting, and music create the perfect environment –all features of the dance studios that were my happy place growing up.

Body

• What’s a comfortable form to set your body in? Do you want to lie down or stay seated? Lying down could be on your back, on your belly, or on your side. You could use pillows and blankets and eye pillows. Or sitting on a park bench just as you are.
• For me, lying on the floor is ideal (a practice borrowed from years of dance training), knees bent, blanket over belly make it sublime (additions learned through my restorative yoga practice!).

Relationship

• Will it be more comfortable for you to do this practice alone or with someone you trust?
• Will you enjoy having both experiences or is another person or being alone a requirement?
• For me, being in a group class with a teacher I trust adds a layer of comfort that I don’t get on my own. And practicing this solo, I sometimes get to a place of open reflection with myself that I don’t usually experience in a class. So, I like both.

Time

• How much time will you give yourself? Is it bounded by external obligations? Or by your desire to stay with the practice?
• If you want to set a time boundary, are you using it to encourage yourself to stay with the practice for a certain length of time, or to make sure you get up in time for the next thing?
• If you don’t set a time boundary, will you take note afterwards of how long your practice was?
• For me, the length of time always makes a difference. 1 minute can be useful if I’m trying to clear my head quickly, but if I really want to relax, I’d say 10 minutes is my minimum and 30 minutes my maximum (unless I fall asleep!). I don’t use a timer unless I know I have to get up for an appointment. I don’t “make” myself to stay for a certain length of time when I’m just trying to relax (though I will do that when I’m sitting for meditation).

So those are the non-breathing factors that I think all make a difference. Whether they make a big difference or just a background difference for you only you can determine.

 

A breathing practice for rest (with 3 options)

• I encourage you to begin by just noticing your breathing.
• If you like, you can continue simply observing your breathing. (Option 1)
• If you prefer, you can eventually begin to consciously deepen or slow your breathing. (Option 2)
• Alternatively, you can consciously attempt to lengthen your exhales. The thought of slowing your exhale can be enough for this or, if you prefer, you can count your inhale and exhale and then use that count to gradually slow your breath until your exhale is longer than your inhale, and maybe 1-2 counts longer than it was before. (Option 3)

That’s it.

In sum: make yourself comfortable in any way you like and observe or slow your breathing. Doing such a “simple” practice may take more intention and be more challenging than you anticipate, which is why I gave you the examples of my own preferences – preferences that have always been with me and took years of observation and reflection to recognize.

 

Practice #2 – Mood Shifting

The objective of this practice is to shift your mood from either sluggish/depressed or frenetic/anxious to relatively centered/grounded. So, it can liven up low energy or emotions, and calm down high energy or emotions. You might have different words to describe the shift or how you feel, and I encourage you to use the words that make sense to you.

For this practice, I invite you to consider environment, body, relationship, and time just as you may have done above. I’ve added some thoughts specific to this practice. And just a heads up, since it will give context to some of my comments, the practice is alternate nostril breathing, in which you use your right hand to alternately block one nostril at a time.

Environment

• Where do you feel comfortable or safe to try shifting your mood? In a certain room in your home? Outdoors? In a public space? In a private space?
• What makes the space you choose support your ease even more? Nothing in particular? Candles? Music?
• I suggest you follow your instinct and go to as much or as little trouble as makes you feel prepared.
• For me, in truth location doesn’t matter as much in this practice as it does when I want to relax – just so long as no one’s watching who wouldn’t understand what I was doing. That makes me self-conscious.

Body

• Sitting is probably the most advantage form for this breathing practice, but you might find you prefer standing or reclining in some cases.
• If you choose to sit, is there one way you prefer sitting over another? Do you want to sit in a chair? On the floor? With or without cushions, blankets, or other supports?
• If you choose to stand, is there one way you prefer standing over another? Shoes on or off?
• If you choose to recline, is there one way you prefer reclining over another? Do you want to prop your upper body up? With or without cushions, blankets, or other supports?
• For me, sitting in a chair so that my feet can be planted evenly on the floor feels best. It’s worth noting that I usually use this practice to calm down 😉

Relationship

• Will it be more comfortable for you to do this practice alone or with someone you trust?
• Will you enjoy having both experiences or is another person or being alone a requirement?
• For me, I’m happy with or without others for this practice, with a slight preference to be alone. It’s one of my favorite ones to get lost in.

Time

• How much time will you give yourself? Is it bounded by external obligations? Or by your desire to stay with the practice?
• If you want to set a time boundary, are you using it to encourage yourself to stay with the practice for a certain length of time, or to make sure you get up in time for the next thing?
• If you don’t set a time boundary, will you take note afterwards of how long your practice was? I.e., is how long you practiced important to you?
• For me, my arm always tires before I’m ready to stop, so that’s my boundary! I prefer doing the practice when I have at least 10 minutes for it, but even 1 minute can be useful. My arm probably gives out around the 5 minute mark, which is when I stop doing the technique, and then I sit and breathe normally for several more minutes.

So those are the non-breathing factors that I think all make a difference. If you read all the options and my examples, you may note that while all the factors still matter, they don’t have as strong an effect on me, so the breathing practice ends up being the most important element (that’s just me, one case – your story will be your own, and I encourage you to explore as you like!).

 

A mood-shifting breathing practice with 2 options

Below are two versions of the alternate nostril breathing practice to read through and try if you like.

Alternate Nostril Breathing (aka Nadi Shodhana)
To alternate breathing in or out of one nostril at a time, you can block one nostril. The classical technique instructs using the right thumb to block right nostril, and right ring finger to block left nostril. The middle and pointer fingers can rest on the forehead or curl in toward the palm.

Below are the steps for one full round of alternate nostril breath. Classic teachings advise completing full rounds only – so if you do 5 rounds and you started by breathing in the left nostril, you’ll finish by breathing out the left nostril

• First inhale: Gently block the right nostril with your right thumb while breathing in through the left nostril
• At the end of your inhale, gently block both nostrils
• First exhale: When you’re ready, open the right nostril and breathe out the right (keep the left nostril blocked)
• Second inhale: At the end of your exhale, keep the left nostril blocked while breathing in through the right nostril
• At the end of your inhale, gently block both nostrils
• Second exhale: When you’re ready, open the left nostril and breathe out the left nostril (keeping the right nostril blocked)

It’s not nearly as complicated as it sounds written out. I think of the pattern like tossing a volleyball back and forth over the net: the idea is to breathe in or out “where the ball is” in the process of tossing back and forth. The bridge of the nose (or blocking both nostrils) is like the net: the space where you transition from breathing in one side to breathing out the other side. In one side, block both, out the other. In the same side, block both, out the other. And repeat.

The next version I’m sharing includes no blocking and some may find it more comfortable or easier to do.

Alternate Nostril Breathing without physically blocking the nostrils
This version is less precise in terms of directing air flow in and out one nostril at a time (which is fine!) and may feel more comfortable. It’s also the version I prefer if I want to be lying down.

Below are the steps for “prepping” the cycle and one full round. As with the regular version, I recommend completing a number of full rounds, rather than stopping in the middle of one cycle, largely just because it feels better to me, which may be a result of education rather than actual experience, so you know, grain of salt there.

Prepping the cycle

• Become aware of air flow in and out your nostrils.
• Then direct attention to your hands. I recommend placing the hands palms face up so that you can easily open and close them. Curl your fingers gently in towards their palms.
• The next time you breathe in, direct attention to your left nostril, imagining you’re breathing in only through that nostril (but air may still enter the right nostril and that’s ok).
• When you’re ready, breathe out while: opening your right fingers and directing attention to your right nostril, again imagining you’re breathing out only through the right nostril (but it’s still ok if air flows out the left nostril as well).
• When you’re ready, breathe in through your right nostril while curling your right fingers gently in.
• When you’re ready, breathe out through your left nostril while opening your left fingers gently.

One full cycle

• When you’re ready, breathe in through your left nostril while curling your left fingers gently in.
• When you’re ready, breathe out through your right nostril while opening your right fingers gently.
• When you’re ready, breathe in through your right nostril while curling your right fingers gently in.
• When you’re ready, breathe out through your left nostril while opening your left fingers gently.

It’s not uncommon to keep going longer than you anticipated with this one – or to stop because you’ve shifted into deep rest. Both are ok!

 

Next steps

I hope reading through these has been helpful and that you’re ready to try them out. If you’d like to try them with some guidance or in the company of others, I encourage you to join one of my yoga classes, as we always start with a breathing practice, and I often teach alternate nostril breathing.
Or check out the Everyday Meditation podcast (for nadi shodhana) and the Moved to Heal podcast (for gentle breath observation).

As always, if you have questions or experiences you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you – you can use the comment box below anytime.

 
Be moving, be true, be you,

 
 

photo credit mitchell luo, found on unsplash

Let’s all take a deep breath…

Have you heard that deep breathing is a good way to calm down and relax? Well, I’m here to say it’s true! …except when it’s not. Like the day I left meditation class with my heart racing because I’d overdone it on a breathing exercise. I was surprised because this wasn’t my usual experience in meditation class. What had happened and why?

 

Your breathing is linked to your nervous system

The explanation for my odd reaction is simple. I had, through breathing (and probably a lot of attitude), revved up my heart and charged up my nervous system for a confrontation –when I had no need of fighting anyone. Our breathing and physiological state (and therefore our emotional state) are causally linked. Breathing is part of a network of systems with many moving and interrelating parts. It ebbs and flows with the risings and fallings of your autonomic nervous system and is a key player in autonomic regulation – when you can access it.

Before I get into that, it’ll be helpful to review the fancy terms and some basic facts about your nervous system.

 

Your nervous system in brief

The human nervous system has two main parts: the Central Nervous System and the Autonomic Nervous System. The CNS is made up of your brain and spinal cord. The ANS is made up of everything else – all the nerves running from the spinal cord out into your body. Nerve signals travel between CNS and ANS, between your body and your brain, and that two-way communication is essential. The rest of what I’m going to share sounds like it’s all about the ANS –and it is, but I just want to make to point out that the ANS is sending and receiving signals to the brain throughout it all!

Your Autonomic Nervous System
Within the ANS there are subsystems that are in constant interplay for each of us throughout the day, regulating our response to our environment (both external and internal) so that we can stay alive. These subsystems are useful to know by name, because I’ll refer to them a bunch:

• Sympathetic nervous system – responsible for preparing the body/brain to respond to danger. A sympathetic response charges up our muscles and brain for a physical fight or flight. This process diverts resources away from slow thinking, digestion, reproduction, and immune system function.
• Dorsal vagal system (part of the parasympathetic nervous system) – responsible for shutting down the body/brain as a last attempt to survive a threat. A dorsal vagal response freezes the body and/or mind, essentially “playing dead.” This can explain fainting, and also depressive moods and behaviors.
• Ventral vagal system (part of the parasympathetic nervous system) – responsible for restoring or continuing the body/brain in a state of safety, healing, and life maintenance. A ventral vagal response puts the brake on any sympathetic or dorsal activity and resources are re-routed to all those systems necessary for not just surviving, but also thriving.

 

How do these responses affect your breathing?

Changes in nervous system activity can change your breathing (and vice versa).

When your sympathetic response charges up, your breathing rate speeds up as part of the need to power up your muscles with more circulating blood and oxygen. Rapid or sharp or irregular breathing is a sign of an SNS response.

When you start to move back into a ventral vagal response, your breathing returns to normal and can be steady or deep and slow.

 

It goes both ways

You can also use breathing to shift your nervous system activity. We use breathing to move into a ventral vagal response all the time with practices like calm deep breathing and lengthening your exhales in a comfortable way. There are simple breathing practices you can learn and use when needed or daily, and I’ll share two of my favorites next time.

For the other side of the ANS, you might also use breathing to stir up the sympathetic response to prepare for a physical challenge. This is how I got stuck with my heart racing –except that it wasn’t intentional! The primary breathing practice we use in ISHTA meditation uses a challenging breath ratio, and I was working on lengthening my breath retention. Normally this would be ok with the long exhales and shorter inhales. But I was pushing my body further than it was comfortable going. Without realizing it, I had entered into a competition with myself, waking up my sympathetic response. My body was ready for a fight!

After that, I wasn’t really in a state to use “deep breathing” to calm myself down, at least not without help. Luckily, my next appointment was a teaching swap with a colleague and friend who immediately understood the state I was in and suggested I teach rather than be put through exercises. Seeing a friendly face, hearing a reassuring voice, and getting to teach (which usually grounds and centers me) all helped me gradually shift back into a ventral vagal state.

My meditation episode came about by taking a conscious practice too far. It was quickly brought on, but also pretty quickly resolved. Had I been alone, I’m confident I could have calmed myself down one way or another because I know my body well, know what calms me, and am used to doing practices to encourage a certain body/mind state. I’ve learned how to regulate my nervous system responses using various practices.

 

What happens when you don’t know how to regulate?

We all have the same ANS, the same capacity for engaging with it – either to take conscious control of our body/mind state and to be shifted “automatically” in response to an event, a thought, or a trigger.

Triggers awaken a stress response that was once useful for survival. These are sympathetic or dorsal vagal responses that were stored in your body/mind for quick retrieval in future – in case your life is threatened again in a similar way. And while our nervous system is really good at protecting us, it’s not always so good at splitting hairs when it comes to things that may or may not be life threatening. A loud sound is a loud sound. A rejection is a rejection. Whatever your body or mind links with a past experience is likely to be broad enough that there are other examples in the world. Your nervous system still calls on protective action before your mind has a chance to assess what kind of threat you’re experiencing – a manageable one or a life threatening one. This makes what might otherwise be a manageable experience into a trigger for a strong response.

As we’ve seen, your nervous system state and your breathing are intertwined, and how you breathe may trigger or come about with a triggered stress response. More importantly, you might breath the way you do to keep you in a protected state. Changing it, even if it would eventually be useful, might in any given moment be frightening and feel impossible. And so if “take a deep breath” initiates a sympathetic response, whether it’s to avoid a direct threat or to avoid lowering your shield, the calming effect of lengthening and slowing your breathing will be inaccessible in that moment. Thankfully, you can learn how to gain access again. (Movement practices on Moved to Heal are all created with this learning in mind.)

 

Breathing is universal and personal

Breathing is very personal. In my teaching, I avoid instructing the breath, offering instead options, suggestions, and rhythms you can choose to follow or ignore. I encourage you to find your own way in, over time. Once you can feel comfortable tapping into your breath as a resource, you can use it to help regulate your ANS (we call that autonomic regulation). When you start working with breathing as a practice, there may be some experiences along the way that are unsettling or uncomfortable or even scary, which is why it is helpful to start breath work with a teacher who can help you regulate in the moment through other means (more on that in a future post). If you’re a survivor of trauma, you might consider seeking out a therapist with some kind of body-based modality in their methodology (such as trauma-sensitive yoga, somatic experiencing, NARM, and many others). Of course, if you’re already seeing someone you like who doesn’t have that experience, consider trying a separate body-based practice, which might be as simple as joining a yoga class, either one that is expressly trauma-informed or taught by a teacher with trauma-informed training (such as my Sunday classes!).

In a follow up post, I’ll share some breathing practices and suggestions for how to find a comfortable way in whenever you’re ready to try them.

Be moving, be true, be you,

photo credit mahdis mousavi, found on unsplash

Everything has a beginning + an ending

Most beginnings and endings get a lot of our attention. Whether in a good way or a dreaded way, they tend to be exciting. Some beginnings + endings, however, don't always rise up to our notice because we experience them more like middles. Like with breathing or meditating. Each breath, each moment of shifting awareness, has a beginning moment, a continuing, and an ending. It wouldn't be useful to always be aware of these, and yet as a meditation practice, turning your attention to one breath or moment beginning and ending and becoming the next breath or moment could be transformative.

I invite you to let that idea be part of your practice today, or you can ignore and just practice in the way that suits you best! Enjoy!
 
Listen to "Ep 501 - Beginnings + Endings + Swaying to Stillness Meditation" on Spreaker.
 

What’s in this episode of Everyday Meditation?

• Welcome + getting situated, with a few thoughts on beginnings + endings
• A little lead-in movement: Seated side stretch
• Breathing practice: 4-part Breathing
• Meditation technique (awareness kriya): Sway to Stillness
• A little re-grounding movement: Reclining knock knees

As always, I encourage you to make yourself at home in this practice: substitute, modify, do as you need to feel safe and present, including taking breaks!

 

Integration suggestion

After listening to the episode, perhaps check in: did you notice something that you want to carry with you? If yes, maybe jot it down in a notebook or record a voice memo to help you remember!

 

You can give it a try when you're ready

Listen to "Ep 501 - Beginnings + Endings + Swaying to Stillness Meditation" on Spreaker.

 
Be moving, be true, be you

 
 

photo credit halacious, found on unsplash

Inhales, exhales -- is there more to our breathing than just these two sides of the breath? Yes! I like to notice the four "parts" of your breathing: inhale, transition, exhale, transition.
 

What’s in this episode of moved to heal?

I introduce the "four parts" of breathing in two ways.

The first way is to notice what's already happening:

• there's an inhale
• then there's a moment of transition between inhale and exhale
• then there's an exhale
• and then another moment of transition between exhale and inhale

The second way is to try engaging with these four parts where you choose. Here are a few options:

• allowing fuller or longer inhales and exhales
• allowing more pause in the transition
• creating an even rhythm between inhale and exhale

I guide you through this practice step by step, and you can choose to skip or stay with any area you like. You can do this Moved to Heal practice while reclining, seated, standing, or moving.

 

Integration suggestion

After listening to the episode, perhaps take a moment to check in: did you notice something that you want to remember or follow up on? If yes, maybe jot it down in a notebook or record a voice memo to help you remember.

 

You can give it a try when you're ready

Listen to "4 part breathing" on Spreaker.

Be moving, be true, be you

 
 

photo credit ashim d silva on unsplash

Breathing happens with and without our conscious input. For example, most of the time we can consciously take a "deep" or "full" breath when we desire. This is just one way of engaging with our breathing. This practice is about tapping into that conscious engagement.

 

What’s in this episode of moved to heal?/h6>
In this practice, I'm inviting you to engage with your breathing by directing your breath attention to four different areas of your torso. When put all together, these four areas comprise what I'm calling a 360 degree breath. You can do or not do any of the practices, and in whatever manner or degree you choose.

The idea behind the 360 breath is to help guide your breathing to expand into areas its not used to going. I think of this as a follow up to bringing awareness to where your breathing *is* comfortable. If you're not sure about what is and isn't comfortable for you, I suggest you use this practice as a sort of "check in" --or start with the "observing your breathing" episode.
 

The 4 areas of 360 breathing

• belly / abdomen
• upper chest + back
• lower ribs / middle torso
• back (from waist to shoulders)

I guide you through this practice step by step, and you can choose to skip or stay with any area you like. You can do this Moved to Heal practice while reclining, seated, standing, or moving.

 

Integration suggestion

After listening to the episode, perhaps take a moment to check in: did you notice something that you want to remember or follow up on? If yes, maybe jot it down in a notebook or record a voice memo to help you remember.

 

You can give it a try when you're ready

Listen to "360 degree breathing" on Spreaker.

Be moving, be true, be you

 
 

photo credit aynaz shahtale on unsplash

Where breathing sometimes overwhelms my practice of Hum Sa kriya, I find the opposite to be true with Sat Yam kriya: breathing always leads me in to the kriya technique in an effortless way. But that's just me! Your experience may be different, similar, or not really even in the same ballpark!
 

What’s in this episode?

Before teaching Sat Yam kriya, I share my experience with breathing and Sat Yam kriya (in the How To episode) -- and what I mean by "being led by breathing."

 

How can you use this practice?

You might try this practice to bring attention to how your breathing does or doesn't play a role in your meditation practice (and if you tuned in last week, perhaps compare with your experience in Hum Sa kriya).

I also love Sat Yam kriya for feeling connected to something bigger than me -- even just the literal space around me, wherever I am.

Give it a try when you're ready

Listen to "Ep 498 - Breathing into Sat Yam Kriya Meditation" on Spreaker.

 
Be moving, be true,

 
 

photo credit anthony rampersad on unsplash

When you're moving, there's lots to pay attention to -- what's going through your head, the moves you're doing, the sensations you feel -- which makes noticing your breathing just one of a long list of things you can that we can be aware of while moving. This week, I invite you to try choosing the breath.

 

What’s in this episode of moved to heal?

I invite you to observe your breathing while moving. You can move through "cat/cow" or in any way you choose.

You can do this Moved to Heal practice while seated or on hands and knees (for cat/cow) or from any starting place you choose.

"Cat/cow" is a movement of the spine or trunk. Cat rounds the spine, cow arches/backbends the spine.

 

Integration suggestion

After listening to the episode, perhaps take a moment to check in: did you notice something that you want to remember or follow up on? If yes, maybe jot it down in a notebook or record a voice memo to help you remember.

 

You can give it a try when you're ready

Listen to "observing breathing while moving" on Spreaker.

Be moving, be true, be you

 
 

photo credit dave hoefler on unsplash

If you've been with me for a while, you've probably heard me go on and on about the magic of our breathing. I'm fascinated by how it works anatomically, and how it transforms our moment to moment experience in feeling. When it comes to meditation, breathing is a tremendous aid and, sometimes, a bit overpowering...
 

What’s in this episode?

We're returning to the practice of Hum Sa kriya this week, and in the How To, I talk about what happens when your breathing becomes the primary focus -- instead of the kriya (the "focusing mind action"). Fair warning, for some of you, hearing about this possibility may create it where it was not an issue before! So feel free to skip if you're not particularly curious.

 

After practicing

If you are curious, you might check in after your practice: how did breathing participate? What held your focus most easily: the kriya or breathing? Neither is right or wrong (despite my framing breathing as getting in the way), just different practices. Which do you prefer?

Give it a try when you're ready

Listen to "Ep 496 - Breathing Choice + Hum Sa Kriya Meditation" on Spreaker.

 
Be moving, be true,

 
 

photo credit daniil silantev on unsplash

What’s in this episode of moved to heal?

Observing breathing is simple in concept and can be a whole variety of things in practice, including simple, difficult, complicated, emotional, and more.

In this episode, I invite you to observe your breathing in any way you choose, and offer 3 different options you can try. For each, I describe the option and then give you about a minute of quiet in which to practice. You can do or not do any of the practices, and in whatever manner or degree you choose.

 

The 3 breath observation options I offer

• to notice the length of your inhale and exhale
• to notice the movement of your breathing
• to notice the sound of your breathing

You can do this Moved to Heal practice while reclining, seated, standing, or moving.

 

Integration suggestion

After listening to the episode, perhaps take a moment to check in: did you notice something that you want to remember or follow up on? If yes, maybe jot it down in a notebook or record a voice memo to help you remember.

 

You can give it a try when you're ready

Listen to "observing breathing" on Spreaker.

Be moving, be true, be you

 
 

photo credit aleksander solberg on unsplash