Observe your natural breath by placing your hands on your abdomen to cultivate presence and relaxation.

English

Nalu, in the Hawaiian language, means wave. It can also mean mindful observation. In this 28-part series, we follow our protagonist, Nalu, as they observe and notice how the waves and flows happening around them can be observed as waves and flows within. 

During the series, Nalu progresses through mindfulness, body awareness, relationship, and gratitude practices. Day one focuses on the breath. 

Crystalphone music was created by and licensed by Mika Mimura Erickson.

Nalu | Mind The Flow, Day 1 Of 28 - Observing Breathing

Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you for being here today. Today is the first day of the 28-day Nalu Mind the Flow journey. For today, Nalu is exploring the essence of their breath. And so Nalu realizes that the breath is sort of the most consistent waveform that they have experienced in their life. And they start to realize that they want to notice the breath and discover the breath and think more deeply about it. So for the first day, Nalu decides to take one hand over another and place it on the belly just below the ribcage area where the breath comes in and rises and falls on the abdomen. So Nalu is placing one hand over the other on the abdomen area just above the navel and noticing how the breath moves the air into and out of the body. And so by placing one hand over another, there's sort of a comforting feeling and Nalu notices that their breathing seems to respond naturally to these hands being there. And as they notice the rise and fall of the breath, it starts to appear to them that this is just a natural process that is happening right inside the body. It's happening right inside themselves. And so just placing the hands right there above the navel and below the ribcage is how Nalu is going to start their journey and how we'll start our journey today. You're welcome to have your eyes opened or closed during this time and the objective here is just to notice the breathing as it goes into the body and notice the breathing as it leaves the body and let the breath occur naturally. So just notice the rising and falling as it happens all by itself. Noticing and observing and watching as that happens. And as you notice the breath is happening, it might be the body might, the mind might start to try to take control of the breath and that's totally fine too if it's a time for you to be doing deep breathing or taking control of the breath that works just as well. Or another opportunity might be to just let the breath flow naturally all by itself and let the body decide the cadence and the depth and just observe that with your hand there over the abdomen. Just observe how that happens as the breath goes in and as the breath goes out. And if the mind is sort of wandering or telling stories, this is totally fine too. This is what the mind is designed to do. Even as that happens, you might like to bring your attention back to your hands on your abdomen there and notice just how they're feeling, how they're rising and falling and how the breath seems to be coming in all by itself and going out all by itself. And just noticing and observing that happening as it happens. And there may also be other times when you notice that sensations, other sensations or feelings on the body start to draw your attention and this is great too because the body's there to do that, produce sensation. And you can always gently bring the attention back to the rise and fall of your abdomen as the breath goes in and out and using the hands there on the belly area is a great way to notice the breathing coming in and the breathing going out. And as we reach the end of our first day of our Nalu Mind the Flow journey, your mind starts to come back to the sounds of the room and your surroundings and noticing how it feels to be you and feeling energized and relaxed as we move into the rest of the day. So thank you for joining today and I look forward to seeing you on the next day of Nalu Mind the Flow.