Week 4 - Head and Neck

This week's meditation includes a calming breath practice, if you are doing your practice in the morning you might want to experiment with using breath of fire to energize your body and mind.  If you're doing it as an evening practice, it may feel more appropriate to use the natural breathing practice.  Tune into your own body and nervous system to determine what might support you best at any given time.

A note on breathwork:

Breath of Fire:  Energizing
Natural Breathing:  Calming

Notes on the practice:

When you're doing your breath of fire practice, if you're feeling anxious or overwhelmed during or after the breath of fire, shift your breathing to full breaths focusing on pushing all of the air out from your diaphragm.  Do that at least 3 times or more to let your nervous system come back to regulation.  You can also do deeper breathing rather than breath of fire if you're doing your meditations in the evening to wind yourself down rather than energize your system.

Do not do breath of fire if you are pregnant or menstruating, substitute Long Deep Breathing. If you feel dizzy when practicing Breath of Fire, stop and let your breath come back to a natural rhythm. If you suffer from vertigo, go slow and check in with your body the whole time.  Stop if needed.

Not recommended if you have high blood pressure, heart disease or suffer from stroke or epilepsy. Same with acid or heat related gastric issues such as ulcers.