Hold Your Breath, Not Your Grudges

GUIDED MEDITATION: A simple way to evict negativity and invite blessings

This is a transcript of a guided meditation.

You are welcome to simply read it or kindly ask a loved one to read it to you while you sit in meditation.

However you interact with it, I hope it has a lasting effect on you. I love you!

Thanks for opening this email and including yoga in your day! This is where I share quick yoga tips to easily heal your body and mind!

If you missed last week’s tip, you can read it here!

If anything I’ve written resonates with you, please reply to this email. I’d love to hear how our experiences align.

It would mean a lot if you forwarded this email to three friends who might appreciate these words. Your sharing would make me so happy.

If you received this email from a friend, you can subscribe to future entries and catch up on past ones here.

Lastly, please “star” this email or mark it as “important” so future entries go to the top of your inbox instead of your spam folder.

Enjoy!

Breathe Like You Mean It

Begin by sitting up straight, allowing your back to come off whatever it is currently resting on. Feel your two sit bones gently grounding you into the floor as your spine becomes perpendicular to the floor. Imagine a string pulling the top of your head up towards the ceiling, elongating your posture. Feel another string pulling your chest forward, opening your heart, and sending your shoulder blades back and down. Tuck your chin slightly to lengthen the back of your neck, and gently close your eyes. 

Bring your awareness to the cool air entering your nostrils and the warm air leaving your nostrils. Imagine that your breath is a dolphin; with every inhale, that dolphin comes up over the surface of the water for a bit of oxygen. With every exhale, it takes a plunging dive back down into the deep blue. Let every inhale and exhale have a beginning, middle, and end. Feel your inhale originate at the base of your spine, reach its climax in your chest, and conclude at the top of your head. Let your exhale originate in your nostrils, peak in your chest, and conclude at the bottom of your belly. 

Now, identify in one word an energy, whether tangible or intangible, that you would like to attract—a positive force that you would like to invite into your body. Start inhaling with more strength. Let your exhale remain passive, but inhale all the way from your diaphragm into your intercostal muscles and up into your clavicle. Be greedy with your oxygen. With every inhale, imagine that you are inviting the sacred energy you have chosen to welcome into your vessel. Do not hesitate to be selfish and hoard this oxygen, taking as much as you can, as if you are voraciously tearing through an all-you-can-eat buffet. Be greedy and lustful over this air, knowing that you are inviting the energy that you desire. 

Continue this cultivation for a few more rounds of breath, taking your deepest breaths yet. The next time you inhale fully, hold your breath at full lungs and feel this new high vibration, by the name you chose, circulating through your body. Feel it tingle in the tips of your fingers, spread to the top of your head, the bottoms of your feet, and everywhere in between. Now, release your breath, allowing it to return to its natural state. Notice how you may breathe a little more easily and effortlessly now that you have invited this energy. 

We will now do the same exercise, but this time with exhales. Choose one word to name an energy that you would like to banish, evict, or get rid of—something that is no longer serving your body. Whether tangible or intangible, pick what you would like to let go of. Once you have chosen that, start emphasizing your exhales more. Let your inhales go passive, but exhale forcefully through your mouth, like the big bad wolf, puffing and blowing this negativity out. 

If difficult feelings like anger or resentment arise when you think about this energy you have held in your body for so long, that is okay. Let those feelings fuel the force of your exhales and the intensity with which you are evicting this negative energy that is no longer serving you. It is acceptable if this feels like a workout. These breaths should feel so forceful that it feels like work. They call it breath work for a reason. You are somatically healing yourself by expelling all the negative energies from your body. 

Keep going, taking your most forceful, strongest exhales yet, feeling every particle of this negative energy leaving your body. Take a few more breaths here for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Now exhale to empty lungs and hold your breath here, feeling that you are empty, feeling that you are a blank slate ready to invite blessings, feeling that you are clean and rid of the negative energy that was not serving you. 

Gently release your breath with such ease that you can feel blessings entering your lungs. You have now created enough room for blessings to enter passively. This hard work we have just done, both inhaling and exhaling, has primed you to be a magnet for positivity. Now you know what you want in your body and what you want to keep out of your body. 

Just breathe calmly, knowing that with every breath, no matter how strong or passive it is, you are inviting positivity with every inhale and expelling negativity with every exhale. Thank yourself for doing the work to improve your auric fields and raise the vibration of your energy. You can return to this exercise whenever your actions do not align with what you know is best for you or whenever you want to redirect the course of your day. 

On your next inhale, bring your palms together in prayer at the center of your chest. Exhale and bow down to yourself. Inhale and open your palms like a book. Exhale and look into your palms, trying to see something you have never seen before. Whenever you are ready, lift your eyes back up and reenter the world. Thank you for doing this practice with me. I hope it has left you filled with blessings.

I’d love for you to reply to this email and tell me what you thought of it!

I hope the rest of your day brings presence and gratitude. 

See you soon!