The Relaxed Breath Guided Meditation

StarLight Breeze Guided Meditations

About the Meditation

Relax your body, calm your mind, and soothe your spirit with this guided meditation lecture. Practicing meditation can help with greater mental clarity, resetting, and rebalancing every system in your body. It has a profound, rich, and calming effect, promoting feelings of peace and a sense of awareness.

This guided meditation lecture for ‘The Relaxed Breath’ will enable you to connect with your body reducing stress and tension, allowing you to reach a calmer state of mind. Every system in the body relies on oxygen. By mindfully breathing slower and more deeply, it increases the supply of oxygen to your brain and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting an overall state of calmness in the body.

We are often under daily stresses in our day-to-day lives, experiencing difficulties at the workplace, being stuck in traffic, or experience relationship problems with those around us. This creates many health problems, such as high blood pressure, which is a major risk for heart disease. Stress further suppresses the immune system, which increases susceptibility to other illnesses, further contributing to anxiety and depression.

We are unable to avoid all stresses in life, however, we can develop healthier ways and habits of responding to them. One of the many ways is to evoke a relaxation response by following a practice of deep breathing, also commonly known by the names of diaphragmatic, abdominal, or paced respiration. Deep abdominal breathing encourages full oxygen flow, slowing down the heartbeat, and stabilising blood pressure. This practice will help you to concentrate on slow, deep breaths, allowing you to disengage from any distracting thoughts and sensations.

Sitting in an upright posture with your spine lengthened and eyes closed, you will learn how to breathe in a way that will teach you how to better respond to stress that is often inevitable. The deep breathing practice also entails counting the breaths which tap into the brain’s emotional control regions. It acts as a strength-building exercise for the mind, gradually increasing your concentration power. Deep breathing can not only provide you with a greater sense of mental clarity, but it can also aid sleep problems, improve digestion, and increase one’s perceptual ability and motor performance.

This meditation practice will guide you into a blissful state of relaxation and rest, slowing down the body and mind. Regular practice can help to reduce everyday anxiety and stress, improve your sleep, energise your body and mood, and ultimately improve your overall health and wellbeing. So breathe in, and may you find stillness within.

The Guided Meditation

Welcome to StarLight Breeze meditations … Today, we will focus on breathing … Find a comfortable position … Sit in an upright posture, with your legs crossed and your palms gently placed on your knees or in your lap … Follow your body here … Whatever feels most comfortable for you … And close your eyes … Make any adjustments here if you wish … Extending the spine … Lengthening the back of the neck by tucking your chin in just a little … Dropping your shoulders … Relaxing your fingers, and your toes … Relaxing your forehead … Your jaw …

Allow every space of your body now to simply find stillness in each moment … To find peace and quiet … Away from any distractions … And taking a moment to realise your own presence … Taking in the things around you … Any particular sounds, or sensations … Perhaps there’s a breeze coming from the window, or a chirping bird … Observe the temperature of your body … Is it cool or warm … Or perhaps it’s neutral … Just being in the now … Observing your body, and your mind … Slowly welcoming the breath into this gentle awareness … Feeling the air flow in through the nose …

Travel down to your lungs … Expanding the belly and chest … And then coming back out through the mouth … Breathing in … And breathing out … Bringing your awareness to the abdomen … Relaxing the muscles here … Your body is breathing itself … Observe the way your breath is today … Is it shallow or deep … Slow or fast … Smooth or rough … Regular or irregular … Do you tend to push the breath or hold it … Be curious about the breath … Explore it’s character with a gentle curiosity …

About seventy percent of our toxins are released from our body through the breath … Breathing deeply helps the body to process this more efficiently … Allowing to activate it’s relaxation response … Reducing stress … Fatigue … Physical and mental tension … Strengthening the immune system … When we experience difficult situations, our breathing becomes shallow … Breathing deeply encourages feelings of calm … Helping you to relax your body and mind …

And now … We will spend some time breathing in for a count of four, holding the breath for seven, and then exhaling for a count of eight … Place the tip of the tongue on the tissue behind the top front teeth … Empty the lungs of all air … Breathe in quietly through the nose for four … Hold the breath for a count of seven … And exhale through the mouth for a count of eight … We will repeat this cycle of deep breathing four times …

I will count along with you … Breathe in … Two … Three … Four … Hold … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … And breathe out … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … Eight … Notice how each breath is slow and consistent … And again … Breathe in … Two … Three … Four … Hold … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … And breathe out … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … Eight … And again … Breathe in … Two … Three … Four … Hold … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … And breathe out … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … Eight … And one last time … Breathe in … Two … Three … Four … Hold … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … And breathe out … Two … Three … Four … Five … Six … Seven … Eight …

Notice how you feel … The way your heart is slowing down … Take comfort in knowing that there is nothing else to do but to listen to my voice and tune into your breath … Letting everything go … Your body emptied, of all concern … Of any tension … Letting go of worry … Doubts … Allowing your breath move with ease now … Effortlessly … Rising and falling … Enjoying this relaxation … Enjoying this time … For yourself … For your body and mind …

Bring attention to any feelings that may stand out to you now … Simply noticing the natural flow of the breath … Creating more space … More freedom to move with clarity and forgiveness … Breathing very gently … Nurturing the infinite breath … Reminding yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for certain … Breathing in the present … Breathing out the past … Providing your body with strength … Purifying the mind … Breathing deeply to bring your mind home to your body …

And now … As this practice comes to an end … Take one last deep breath … And release … Welcoming back your surroundings … Begin to gently stretch your body … Move your head from side to side … Your wrists and your ankles … Move all your fingers and toes … Waking up every part of you back to full alertness … Thanking yourself for finding time to be still today … To be mindful … To simply be with the breath … And when you are ready, gently open your eyes … We hope you enjoyed this meditation practice by Starlight Breeze, and may you have a wonderful day.

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