Pillar one ยท Relaxing
Cleansing breath
A meditation as much as a breath. You fill up with golden light and empty the day out as smoke. Use it when you are wound up, worked up, or carrying tension you want gone.
01 · The technique
02 · Guided meditation
The pattern
- 01Sitting or lying down. Breathe in through the nose: belly, chest, head, filling all the way up.
- 02As you fill, picture a golden light coming in with the air, like water filling a jar. Take it down to the tips of your toes and fingers and up to the crown of your head, until you are full of it. Feel it cleanse and nourish every cell on the way.
- 03Hold it at the top. It helps.
- 04Ujjayi exhale through the nose, and let the tension out with it as a dark purple cloud of smoke. It goes out into the air and disperses. It does not come back.
- 05The heavy part sits in a cauldron low in your belly, like a pouch. Every exhale takes a little more of it. Five to ten minutes, until the cauldron is empty.
- 06Once it is empty, breathe the golden light down into the cauldron itself and wash it clean.
This is neuro-linguistic programming, and the picture is the technique rather than decoration. You are showing the subconscious mind what you want, and it takes the instruction.
If the picture will not come, do not force it. Run the breath on its own and let the image turn up or not.
How it lands
Slower to arrive than the counted techniques. The change tends to show up around the point the cauldron feels empty, and it keeps going after you stop.
What it does
- Cleanses and nourishes every cell on the way through
- Settles the fight-or-flight response
- Closes out a hard day, or a hard session
- Gives your attention somewhere to be
- Lowers blood pressure and brings inflammation down
The rest of this pillar
- 3-10 minutes Foundational breath The fastest way down. Base for everything else.
- 3-10 minutes Box breathing Quiets the mind. Used under pressure.
- 5-10+ minutes Turtle breath Deep relaxation and sleep.
- 3-10 minutes Nadi Shodhana Evens out both sides. Settles without sedating.
- 3-10 minutes Full-fill Stacked breaths and a hold. Goes deeper than one round.
- 5-10+ minutes 4·3·6 Longer exhale than inhale. When box isn't enough.
- 1-5 minutes Qi Gong breathing Standing, slow, with a travelling picture.