applied practice lab breathing expand cycle

7.4. Applied Practice Lab: Breathing - Expand Cycle — Transcript (English)

Summary:

---

Transcript

We’re finding now a very comfortable way to sit for our Assimilation practice.

So either sitting comfortably cross-legged, you can always stuff something underneath your buttocks there to give yourself a little bit more height if necessary, or you can sit onto the heels as Asia is doing here.

You can even flex the ankles and sit up onto the heels this way if this is more comfortable.

We’re just trying to find the most comfortable way to sit with the upper torso upright and straight for an extended period of time as we go through this practice.

So go ahead and close the eyes.

Bring awareness now up to the very crown of the head.

We’re going to go through the body to see if we can spot any tension anywhere.

Relaxing from the crown of the head through into the forehead, relaxing through the eyebrows, the eyelids and the eyes, right through to the back of the eye socket.

Relax through the jaw, the cheeks, the tongue, the mouth.

Let the shoulders and neck area go completely soft as well.

The chest and particularly the abdominal wall, let that whole area become very supple and soft.

And let any tension go out through the hips and through both legs right through to the tips of the toes.

Breathing now deeply into the chest, expand through the rib cage, feel the chest and collarbone move upward and outward.

And then exhale long out through the mouth here, slow, long, deep exhalation out, emptying the lungs completely.

Another deep long inhalation to the chest.

Kind of upward lift here.

And then slow, long exhalation out through the mouth.

The bottom of the exhalation, you can feel the ribcage slightly contract, pushing the last little bit of air out of the lungs.

A slow, deep inhalation to the chest again.

Slow, long exhalation out through the mouth, hollow sound in the throat here as you exhale all the air out of the lungs.

Another deep inhalation to the chest again, that hollow sound in the throat is still there.

And exhale long out through the mouth, emptying the lungs completely.

Another deep inhalation into the chest.

And exhale once more, long out through the mouth, empty the lungs completely.

Another deep inhalation to the chest, make it a little bit softer this time.

And exhale to relaxed breathing.

We try to maintain stillness here.

You can take a quick check in to see where there might have been some residual tension find its way through as we were going through the breathing practice.

Find that tension and allow for it neutralize to drop it.

And if it doesn’t drop all together, you can use a visualization maybe that it would dissolve or melt.

So the body is relaxed, the breath totally calm, And the mind itself is just neutral.

Trying to maintain stillness here just for the last few seconds.

Taking a slow, long, deep inhalation into the chest.

And as we do so, reaching the arms out to the side and up.

Interlocking the fingers lightly.

Turn the palms to press up.

At the same time, drop your head back to look up toward the palms.

As you’re pressing upward here, moving the palms up and to the sides, stretching through the side ribs of both sides.

So the movement is up and sideways.

And as you get back to center, slowly release the fingertips, reaching the arms up and out with the direction of movement again and down to the side.

As you coordinate the exhalation with that movement, draw the chin to look forward again.

When the arms get to about the mid-level here, we’re going to be extending through one arm, dropping the neck a bit to the side to stretch out through the side of the neck.

And then the opposing arm extends as we drop the head to the opposite side.

You should feel a stretch out to the outside of the neck to the opposing arm extending.

Back to center and again from midway down - the arms continue to extend out and down.

It’s not just dropping the arms but it’s extending them all the time away from the body, away from the midline until they reach the ground beside your hips.

And that concludes our session.