Since breathing is quite literally required for life, we are investigating more ways to improve this life giving function. We can go without water for about 3 days and without food even longer, but only minutes without breathing.

Let's explore and expand ways to elevate our breathing with a practice of breathwork to include a mantra and meditation.

Adding a Mantra

Mantras are powerful sounds that create positive vibrations. When we chant mantras or even think them, we connect with the higher energy of the universe and focus our minds.

The mantra, “So Hum” (not to be confused with ho hum) means in Sanskrit… I am everything. When you think or say this phrase you are activating “ I am everything” in your own energy system.

Ending with Meditation

If you were at the Goddess Living Member’s meeting in September, you experienced Megan leading us through a breathwork exercise, featured below, which incorporated a mantra and a short meditation at the end.

The practice below will walk you through doing this on your own.

This Week's Practice

BreathWork PLUS

Below is a recipe for getting the benefits of focused breathing exercises, the effects of a mantra and meditation, and the clearing and calming that comes from all of it!

• Sit with a straight spine.
• Your eyes can be closed or open
• Focus on the point between your eyebrows (aka the 3rd eye) as the starting point and your occipital lobe as the ending point. This is known as the Psychic Bridge, a part of various meditation and breathwork traditions.
• Think “So”
• Inhale while imagining you are moving the breath, inside your head, from the front to the back of your head.
• Think “Hum”
• Exhale while imagining your breath going from the back of your head to the place between your eyebrows
• Repeat - 16 times is a great starting point

Then, just sit in silence for at least 8 minutes thinking the mantra, So Hum. If your mind wanders, that’s fine and very normal… just come back to the mantra.

These practices, which are a part of the Goddess Living Community, are for us too busy, over-committed women to ensure we take a moment for ourselves. Practices to renew ourselves and fill our cups so we can embrace life and engage in the things we care about.