Listen to the unique sounds of your breathing to deepen your presence and observe your natural inner flow.

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 two continues to focus on the breath by listening to the sound. 

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

Nalu | Mind The Flow, Day 2 Of 28 - Sounds Of Breathing

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Nalu Mind the Flow. Welcome to day two, and thank you for coming by. So appreciate you being here. On the first day of Nalu's journey, they observed the breathing through watching the tummy rise and fall with their hands on their belly. And for today, Nalu wanted to explore a little bit more deeply about what their breath was like for them. And so they began to start to think about the sound of the breathing, like how does the breathing sound as it moves into and out from the body. And they may have left their hands on their bellies because that was a really comforting way to observe the breath, or they may have had their hands on, you know, relaxed somewhere else around the body, and that's totally awesome. What Nalu really wanted to do today was to observe the sound of the breathing. What does it sound like as it comes into the body and moves through all the little vessels within the body, and then turns around and leaves again. So sometimes the breathing is coming in through the nose, and sometimes it's coming in through the mouth, or a little bit of both. And so each time the breath comes into and goes out from the body, it can sound a little bit differently. So for today, the direct experience of the breath is how the breathing is sounding as it moves into and goes out from the body. So with their eyes open or their eyes closed, it's very easy to just listen. If there's no sound at all, that's okay too. The breath is still happening naturally and moving into and out of the body. The idea today is to just listen for any sounds that there might be as the breath is happening, and observing those sounds as they happen and noticing if they change over time. Sometimes when you're observing the sound of the breathing, it can be helpful to go ahead and take a deep breath, an intentional breath with a deep inhale and a deep exhale, so that you can hear the sound of your breathing and understand better what it might sound like as it moves into and out from the body. And after a nice deep breath, whether you take it intentionally or the breathing takes it on its own, you can always return back to the normal rhythm and the normal sound of the breathing after that. And even while the sound of the breathing is happening, there may be other sounds in the surroundings that are also being sounds and making noise. And these are not so different from the sound of the breath, they just happen to be coming from outside the body. So it can be useful to acknowledge those sounds and observe them happening and just notice that they're going on and then return the attention back to the own sound of the breath that we notice. That's happening right there in front of us. And as our protagonist Nalu sits with the sound that's happening in their own frame there, they start to realize that it changes slightly over time. And this is very natural occurrence as the quality of the breath changes, as the mood changes, as the environment changes, the sound of the breathing might be different over time. And Nalu learns to observe and watch and notice as that sound changes. And maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't, but they learn to watch the sound and observe the sound as it happens naturally as the breath moves into and out of the body. And today as Nalu minds the flow, they're noticing the sound of the breathing on the body and as they come to the end of their practice period, they begin to notice again the sounds around them and the sounds that are coming from the environment and other sounds that might be coming out from their bodies. And they're coming back into the room and noticing pleasant and relaxed sensation as they end to the second day of minding the flow. So I appreciate everybody coming by today and being here together with Nalu and with me and hope to see you again on another day.