Breath Practice for Opening Your Heart and Center Column
4m 6s
You might want to be able to hold more energy, but it becomes stuck, making it difficult to move, let alone expand.
In this short practice, John teaches a pranayam breath to open and create more space in your heart and the center column of your body. This practice is very active and asks you to stretch yourself open from the inside out.
If you want to learn how to actively open your heart and center column to hold and move more energy, this 4-minute practice will help.
You will begin by taking the Kundalini Wisdom Pose—put your thumb and forefinger together, open your arms out like goalposts, draw your navel in towards your spine, and ground your sacrum. Imagine you have someone on either side of you stretching your arms out to the sides, and opening the deep muscles in your chest and around your heart.
Once in the pose, you will do a strong "O" mouth breath for 2 minutes, inhaling down to your genitals and exhaling fully.
Throughout the practice, work the stretch to the sides, opening your arms out while breathing down. You are clearing the center column of your body, from throat to groin, and stretching open the heart area, in order to create more space in your core. Grab hold of the experience of physically opening from the inside out.
After two minutes of this, inhale and hold the breath. Ground yourself, close your eyes and stretch open. Then exhale and bring your arms to your thighs. Bring your awareness back into that center of your body and notice if you have more space, openness and clarity there now.
Disclaimer: Although anyone may find this practice to be useful, it is made available with the understanding that we are not engaged in presenting specific medical, psychological, emotional, sexual or spiritual advice. Nor is anything in this practice intended to be a diagnosis, prescription, recommendation or cure for any specific kind of medical, psychological, emotional, sexual or spiritual problem. Each individual has unique needs and this practice cannot take these individual differences into account. Each person should engage in a program of treatment, prevention, cure, or general health only in consultation with a licensed, qualified physician, therapist or other competent professional. Any person suffering from a sexually transmitted disease or any local illness of his or her sexual organs should consult a medical doctor and a qualified instructor of sexual yoga before practicing the sexual methods described in this practice.