Breath Token June 2020


Credit: Kirill Abdrakhmanov

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.
In 2020 the breath tokens are about connecting breath and sound.

The Breath Tokens from January – May 2020 have been about sounding the vowels “A”, “O”, “E”, “U” and “I”. In this Breath Token, let’s try out combinations of these vowels.

Sounding Vowel Combinations

Let‘s begin with sensing where we have contact: on the chair, or on the floor, for example. We sense the weight of our body, letting it sink towards the ground. Let‘s stroke along the body walls to fully arrive in our body and its boundaries. We can accompany the stroking with gentle humming, moving the mouth.

Vowel combinations could be “UI”, “AE” or “OE“, for example.

As with all the other soundings, we explore imagining, shaping, speaking and sounding the respective vowel combination. We repeat the exploration three times or as often as we like.

Tip: When we rest after the exploration, I find it helpful to always lay the hands in the same position, for example, both hands on the belly, or one hand on the belly and one hand on the back to notice the changes in the breath movement.

If there is little or no sensation, that‘s perfectly alright. We can focus on our hands resting on the torso or whatever it is that we’re experiencing.

When we‘re present and grounded, let‘s imagine sounding a vowel combination. The mouth is closed. We‘re just imagining sounding a vowel combination.
Then we rest, laying our hands on our torso and sense the effect on the body, on the breathing, on the state of mind.

Let‘s now form the shape of the vowel combination with our mouth.
Then we rest, laying our hands on our torso and sense the effect on the body, on the breathing, on my state of mind.

Then we move the arms and speak the vowel combination.
With “UI” the arms would first go straight down for the “U” and then straight up for the “I”.
With “AE”, we would raise the arms up in front of us and move them downwards in a half circle as we shape an “A” and then the arms extend to the sides on the “E”.
With “OE” we would raise the arms upwards to the sides in a half circle as we shape an “O” and then the arms extend to the sides on the “E”.
(We can explore freely and check out the arm movements for the respective vowels in the posts from January to May 2020.)
Then we rest, laying our hands on our torso and sense the effect on the body, on the breathing, on my state of mind.

Finally we move the arms and sound the vowel combination. The exhale becomes the spoken vowel combination.
Then we rest, laying our hands on our torso and sense the effect on the body, on the breathing, on my state of mind.

We can continue the exploration of sounding vowel combinations in any way we like, continuing with the suggested arm movements or finding our own body movement and varying pitch and frequency.
Then we rest, laying our hands on our torso and sense the effect on the body, on the breathing, on my state of mind.
Has sounding the vowel combinations in these different ways created any space for breathing? And if so, where or how?

Benefits I experienced were:

– With UI: energizing, lengthening, strengthening of the torso, verticality of breath movement, confidence
– With AE: broadening of chest, noticing balance/imbalance between right and left side of the body, heaviness. This vowel combination didn’t feel right for me.
– With OE: uplifting, stability, empowering, deepening of the breath,

There are surely other benefits for you to discover. If you have any questions or feedback please contact me.

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