Several years ago I went to a “posture, movement and breathing” workshop by Simon Borg-Olivier when he was in Melbourne.
It was a chance event.
I found out about the workshop about a week prior, and jumped in.
When I arrived 10 minutes early, the room was already filled with about 20 yoga teachers and long-term practitioners sitting in full lotus position.
I had my gym hoodie on, and stuck out like a sore thumb. I sat off to the side.
In the end, I was very much in my element.
I really hit it off with Simon and it was a great workshop. Since then, I continued to follow Simon’s work (I’ve interviewed him a couple of times, including once on the podcast here.)
In particular I’ve enjoyed his work around pranayama, or various breath practices.
A breath practice has a lot of benefits, with one being that when we get “into” the breath, we get “out of” our head.
Whether it’s before a workshop, a big meeting or a presentation, this can be really helpful to calm the mind (as well as the rest of our system)
So in today’s post I wanted to share something a little different.
I wanted to outline a really basic breath practice that can be used before one of these events, or, as part of a simple daily practice.
This was a short practice I created back then as an adaptation of topics and concepts that I learned from Simon (his practices were often longer)
The breath comprises of four sections:
- The inhalation
- The natural hold on inhalation
- The exhalation
- The natural hold on exhalation.
In this practice, we’re just going to bring awareness to each stage of the breathing.
Basically, we are “witnessing” the breathing for a period. Maybe it’s the feel, the sound, the changing shape of the body or otherwise.
Wherever we allocate attention, we’ll find it’s not in the mind (sounds great doesn’t it!).
The result can be meditative, down-regulator, or, just bring us back to the present moment.
The Practice
Sit quietly with an upright spine, bring attention to your body, the support of the chair beneath you or the ground under your feet.
Either close the eyes, or, relax your gaze. Breathe through the nose.
Notice there is an element of you that is unmoving, that is still. Notice this for a few moments.
Now, bring some of your attention to your breathing. Notice the flow of the breathing, the feeling of the breathing, the sound of the breathing.
Now, in the next two minutes, we are going to pay particular attention to the inhalation.
2 minute inhalation emphasis – slightly slowing the inhalation, noticing the inhalation, emphasising the inhalation. The rest of the breathing is natural.
Now, we are going to notice the “hold” on inhalation.
2 minutes hold emphasis – slightly emphasising or extending the hold on inhalation (“antara kumbhaka”). Not straining, just an emphasis. The rest of the breathing cycle is natural. Keep the body relaxed.
Now, we are going to notice the exhalation in particular.
2 minutes exhalation emphasis – slightly emphasising or slowing and noticing the exhalation. Not straining, just an emphasis. The rest of the breathing cycle is natural.
In the final stage, we are going to notice the hold on exhalation.
2 minutes hold emphasis – emphasising or slightly extending the hold on exhalation (“bahya kumbhaka”). The rest of the breathing cycle is natural. Keep the body relaxed.
To finish off, sit with your natural breathing for a few minutes with a relaxed body.
The whole practice would take around 12 minutes. This can be well worth the time as it’s common to notice great benefits going forward.
