Breathe Into Balance: Alternate Nostril Breath & Stillness

Hello. Hello there, Cadre fam. This is Faith Hunter, and I am so delighted to support you. Today we are going to be doing a short breathing practice and just a moment of stillness. So for those of you in the Kage sphere that do not know me, again, the name is Faith Hunter. I am a wellness expert. My focus is in the meditation breath work. I also do somatic healing inside of the app, so some people are coming on. Hello. Hello. Just so you guys know, this is actually my first time doing a live here in Cadre, so welcome again.

For those of you that are popping in, what we are going to do today is a breathing practice. We are also just going to take a moment of stillness. Now, before we dive into the breathing practice, I do want you to get comfortable. So I'm seated on, like, a meditation pillow, but you can do this practice on the sofa in a chair, whatever feels most comfortable for you. And, yeah, I'm so excited. Greetings, everybody. Greetings. Yeah, so let's go ahead and get started. Let's center ourselves a little bit here.

And you can keep your eyes opened or closed, whatever feels most comfortable for you. And I want you to bring your palms together and just give them a nice little rub. And I always like to say that our hands have that beautiful healing power, right? It holds energy and energetics. And so as you rub your palms together, you're just kind of stimulating those nerve endings, but also you're kind of activating a little energy in your body. So before we move into the breath work, I want you to place your left hand over the center of your chest.

Now that your hands feel a little warm and tan tingly. And I want you to place the right hand right around your belly. And again, eyes opened or closed. And I just want you to take about three to five long, deep breaths in and out of your nose. So let's do those together. How about we take 5? Breathing in through your nose. Exhale out of your nose. Inhale through the nose. Exhale nice and slow and easy. Three more. Filling up your belly, expanding your rib cage. And then as you exhale, you're emptying out, relaxing the shoulders.

We have about two more breathing in, nice and slow. Exhale. Now, on this last one, I want you to take a deep breath in with me. And then we're going to hold and retain the breath just for a few seconds. And then as you exhale, I want you to exhale out a big sigh. And then rest your hands on your legs for a moment, palms facing up or down, whatever feels most comfortable for you. And in this moment, I just want you to observe and notice any sensations that you're feeling. You're probably definitely feeling a little bit more relaxed after a long day, a long week like that we've collectively had in this world.

Taking this moment to pause. And the theme here in the Kagis sphere this month is balance. And so the breathing practice that I'm going to share is alternate nostril breathing. So basically, you're going to breathe in and out from the left nostril to the right, the right to the left. I'll explain it in detail, and then I'll ask you to join me. What you're going to do is take your right hand and you can take your index finger or your middle finger and place them right there in your palm so that your thumb, your ring finger, and your pinky finger are kind of sticking up.

Now that ring finger is like, no, I don't want to cooperate. I want to go down. It's okay. Let it go down. So then you have, like, a little hang tip. So either position works. The third option is to take your index and middle finger and place them right between your brow, which is like your first eye there. Because what's going to happen, happen? You're going to take your thumb when we start the breathing, and you're going to inhale. You're going to close off your right nostril with your right thumb.

You're going to inhale through the left nostril, nice and slow. Then you're going to take that other finger, ring finger, or pinky, close off your left nostril, and then exhale out of your right. Then you're going to inhale through the right, close the right with your thumb, and then exhale out of your left. Then that's considered one round. So again, I'll explain that one more time. You're going to inhale through the right, inhale through the left nostril, close it off, exhale out of the right, then inhale through the right nostril, close it off, exhale through the left.

So this breathing practice again is called alternate nostril breath, and it is perfect for balancing the right and left sides of the brain, again, creating that sense of balance. Balance, but also balancing the energetics of our body. We all hold both masculine and feminine energy within us, so it creates a little balance in that as well. And just overall, this is a perfect meditation or a perfect breathing practice to help you calm down and actually move into a meditation. So we're Going to do this for probably about two minutes together.

So go on and join me. Take your right thumb, close off your right nostril. And I want you to move at your own pace and inhale through your left. Close it all. Exhale out of your right. Inhale through your right. Close out the right nostril. Exhale through your left. Make sure your spine stays long. Breathing in through your left. Close off the left nostril. Exhale out of the right. Inhale through the right. Close it off. Exhale through the left. Now continue to move at your own pace. As you do this, make sure that your shoulders are relaxed, your spine is elongated, and know that your eyes, again, can be opened or closed.

It's totally up to you. The left hand can rest wherever it feels most comfortable. And you're just moving from right nostril to left, breathing in and breathing out it. We have about one more minute, and I want you to take one more final round. And once you exhale out of the left nostril, go on and lower your right hand. Place it wherever it feels most comfortable for you. I'm opting to place my palms facing down on my legs. Just helps me feel a little more grounded. Know that you can also use the backs of the hand, so now the palms are facing up.

Or if you want to come back to that sweet position where your left hand was over your heart and the right hand was over your belly. Whatever works for you, whatever feels most balancing for you in this moment. And all I want you to do now is to simply breathe deeply in and out of both nostrils and bring your awareness to the soles of your feet and your legs. Notice if there are any sensations, any tingling. Be a witness to that. Bring your awareness to your hips where you're seated. From the hips to the soles of your feet, I want you to notice that you're definitely feeling a little bit more steady, a little bit more grounded in this moment.

But if you are feeling still a little tension in the lower half of your body, I'm going to invite you to focus on that space. But focus on it with breath and love, love of self. Just allowing yourself to feel grounded and rooted, safe and stable, balanced and at ease. Take one more minute in silence, just breathing, and then take a deep breath in. Hold and retain your breath for a few seconds. And remember that sigh that we took earlier. Go on and take an exhale with a nice big sigh. I'm gonna do that two more times.

Deep breath in through your nose. Hold and retain the breath. Exhale a big sigh. And last and final one, deep breath in through your nose. Hold and retain your breath. We're going to hold it a little bit longer this time. Just a little. Feel all of those amazing sensations moving through your body and exhale a big sigh as you start to blink your eyes open. Just saying thank you to yourself for taking this moment in time to breathe and be present with your mind, with your body, and most definitely with your soul.

Thank you so much, Cadre Sphere. And check me out next week. I'll be back. I already have another breath work scheduled. And yeah, so excited to join you guys here live. Take care, stay spiritually, fly it.