Tag: breath

Noses are portals, between the inner world and the outer world. The function of breath invites awareness. Each breath allows contact with the environment and points attention to our body.
Breathing wintertime air can be an experience of breathing air from over baked interior environments, to cool wet/cold dry outside environments. Wintertime is an opportunity time to tend to your nose, and tend to your awareness.
A simple practice of breath awareness is Alternative Nasal Breathing.
Place the thumb of the right hand over the right nostril, middle finger of the same hand over the left nostril. Cover one nostril and close it, exhale through the open nostril. Then inhale through the same nostril. At the end of the inhale, close that nostril and open the opposite nostril. Exhale then inhale through the same nostril. Do this cycle three times each nostril. Notice your breath, and the inhale/exhale.
I am breathing the moist air of maritime pacific northwest. What is your air like?
Alex

Diaphragmatic breathing is a foundational breath practice to support resilience and potency. Our theme this month is potency and basic to potency is the breath-it’s nourishment, focalizes attention, creates resilience and is a passage into various states of consciousness. Diaphragmatic Breathing is among one of the essential breath practices of tantra.
How to do this breath:
-Notice your posture.
Sit, stand or lay down so that your spine is stacked on itself.
-Place your hands on the side on your torso, touching the lower ribs.
-Breath deeply, focusing on the place where your hands are touching your ribs.
-Notice the pace of your breath, and if you are holding it at the end of inhalation or exhalation. Iron out your breath, so that it is a cycle without pause.
-Expand your breath, following your diaphragm
to all points of contact it makes with your front, side and back ribs.
*You are now breathing with diaphragmatic fullness!
This breath practice can be used for body awareness, with a meditation practice and to shift anxiety. Play with it and see how it shifts the way you understand your breath.
Love,
Alex