A restorative breath or three

Give me just a few seconds…..
Where does your breath sit? Where does it move to? Where in your body is tight, feels uncomfortable or restricted?

Does the moving air feel warm or cool? Does it judder or flow erratically? Are there pauses – during the breath, at the end of the in breath, in the moment between one breath and the next?

How does your mind respond to looking at your breath – does it make you feel anxious or curious or bored or surprised?

Does the air enter calmly, sliding in through nose or mouth without effort? Is it moving through both nostrils? Does it tickle as it hits our upper airway? Is it light or heavy in our lower airways?
Does the top of the chest rise? If there’s any effort, where from? Your shoulders, your neck, your throat? Does your rib-cage feel tight, or constricted?
Can you feel your lower ribs moving, forwards, sideways, upwards? Can you feel your diaphragm active expanding your ribcage?
Does your belly rise gently with the in breath? Or is it holding steady, tummy muscles engaged and ready for action?


Now let the air flow with the least effort & resistance. The breath can be as short or long as your body wants. Let your nostrils ease & open, gently part the lips if needed, relax the jaw.
Let the air be drawn in effortlessly by the ribcage naturally enlarging – tummy rejaxed, ribs expanding with the gentle downward movement of the diaphragm. The air delightfully flows by path of least resistance in.

A whisper of a pause, then belly, diaphragm, ribs let go of any effort, the air we hold flows beautifully back out giving its bounty to the world around us.

A cycle of gentle ease and flow.

If our breathing is tight, ragged, messy. Forget the breath in, let that happen as it wishes.
Focus on the slowing of the blowing out – as if we were blowing a kiss, or pursing our lips for a kiss. Imagine blowing at a candle but only to make it waver & it’s light dance, not to extinguish it.