Hello, everyone! Tutu Mora here again with The Y offering you virtual tools to
help you feel well in your body, mind and spirit. So, today, we're going to be
working kind of on the level of the stress emotional tension that you might
be feeling with everything that's going on and we're going to be doing some
breath work. So, when you consciously focus on your breath and hold it in this
pattern that we're going to be doing, it can be really helpful at moving some
stuck emotional tension and energy out of your body, and leave you feeling a
little bit more peaceful, more relaxed, more present and ready to show up for
your day and your loved ones. So, we're going to do a little bit of that here
just for a few minutes. And let me just tell you a little bit about how to do
this breath work pattern. So, we're gonna be breathing deeply into the low belly,
breathing deeply into the high chest and then exhaling to release. We're gonna be
doing this breath all through the mouth. And so I'll just show you what it will
look like and then you'll go ahead and just lay down wherever you are—whether
that's on the bed, the couch, the floor— and we'll breathe for a few minutes with
that breath work pattern and then we'll rest and allow that to integrate for a
minute or two. So, let me just demonstrate that breath for you
you're gonna, again breathe into the low belly, heart space, exhale to release. So,
I'll stand up so you can just see my body here and you'll be able to see the
lovely YMCA 175 t-shirt I'm wearing. Okay, so, low belly. Heart space. Exhale to
release. Low belly. Heart space. Exhale release. Again, all through the mouth. Low
belly. Heart space. Exhale to release. And so, when you're breathing, I want you
to bring that breath in really deep, as if you're spreading your hip bones
through the back of your body with your breath. And when you breathe into your
high chest, taking that again to the back of your body so you're spreading those
shoulder blades a little bit as you inhale and then letting all of that go.
So, let's go ahead and lay down. I'll stay sitting up. But, go ahead and lay down
here. Find your feet. Long legs stretched out however you're most comfortable.
Take a couple just deep breaths here. Get settled onto the mat.
And we're gonna be breathing like this for five minutes. So, just five minutes. It's not that long and
you can just listen to my voice as you continue to follow that pattern.
So, once you're lying down, I'll get you started off with that pattern and then you can
find your own rhythm. So, let's get started here. Let's take that first
inhale all through the mouth again. Low belly. Heart space. Exhale to release.
Low belly. High chest. Exhale all through the mouth.
Letting that breath come in nice and full and deep.
Filling those two spaces. Exhaling fully.
And as you start to take in all that fresh oxygen into your body,
you might notice that you start to feel a little light-headed—which is normal
—just as you would if you start to jog or run or exercise. So, just staying with
that breath. Staying with that rhythm.
And if your mind is feeling really grippy at the moment, its distracted, it
wants to think about other things, just see if you can soften that a little bit.
Let your mind know it can turn off for the next three minutes. And just let
yourself be in your body. Let yourself feel any of those physical sensations
that start to come up and just observe them. Staying with that breath.
Staying with that pattern
And if some of those physical sensations feel a little foreign to you, maybe it's
because you've been so in your head. You know so much has been going on. We're all
distracted. We're all in our thoughts. So, taking this time just to let ourselves
be in the body can be so important and so restorative. So, you guys are halfway
there. Let's just take this for two and a half more minutes. Staying with that breath.
Low belly. High chest. Exhale. All through the mouth. Continuing to let it
come in nice and full, nice and deep. Let it swirl into all of those places and
spaces in your body where you might be holding tension or tightness. Let it
sweep some of that away with your exhale.
And again, just allowing your mind stay soft.
You might notice that you start to yawn a little bit. See if you can bring that
breath even a little bit deeper—even a little bit fuller. You just have 90
seconds left to breathe. So, stay with that breath, and then you'll get the payoff
when we let that go and relax.
You've got one more minute left. You're feeling kind of antsy. You forgot to do something.
Your mind is staying really active. See if you can send about 10% more breath into that
low belly. 10% more into that heart space. Make that exhale a little bit bigger.
A little bit deeper. Thirty seconds left to go.
Low belly. High chest. Exhale to release.
You will have 10 more seconds left to breathe. So, let's finish strong. Send even
more breath into that low belly. Even more into that high chest. Exhaling to
release. And you can go ahead and let go of that active breath pattern and just
start to take a deep inhale. In through the mouth. Big exhale. Out through the mouth.
Deep inhale and exhale.
Let's take that one more time. Super big, filling your whole torso and exhaling as if you could
exhale all the air out of your lungs. One more just like that.
And then exhaling. letting all of that air come out. And then you can just start to breathe
normally in through the nose. However feels natural to you.
And we'll just stay here in this rest space.
Letting yourself just feel the little hum of your body. If you're feeling a little bit vibrate-y, if you are feeling really in your body.
So, that is normal
And just let yourself rest here. Be in this space of relaxation.
Letting all the tension from your muscles just relax.
And then taking a second also just to thank yourself for taking this time to
tend to your body. To let go of some of the stress of your mind.
So you can put your hands over your heart. Just inhale a little thank you to yourself.
And rest. Thank you so much and I'll see you next time!