 Welcome to my Tantric Winter Meditation Journey. There's an ancient Tantric text called Svarodya, where Lord Shiva teaches the Goddess Parvati all about breath because he says that if you know your breath, you know the secrets of the entire universe. And it is from here that we learn about the technique of first breath. First breath is literally what the name suggests. It's the first set of breathing cycles that you do. First thing in the morning before you do anything else in order to open up your channels of breath. We have 52 Shaktis in our body. Each one is different and each one has to be awakened in a different way. And so people practice lots of different types of breathing cycles, breathing routines. But for any of these meditations to be effective, you have to begin the day with your first breath. The first breath has made up of three different types of breathing cycles and they have to be repeated three times each. First one, breathe in very deeply and very slowly. Exhale long and hard. Hard enough so that you can hear the whooshing of the breath as it comes out. In through one nostril, out through the other. And then in through the other nostril, out through the other. That makes up one cycle. You have to repeat this three times. Second one, breathe in very deeply and very slowly. Exhale short and hard in little tiny spurts. Short and hard till you have emptied your lungs of all the air. Again, breathing in through one nostril, out through the other, then in through this nostril, out through the other. And finally, number three, where you breathe in and out through both nostrils at the same time, deeply and slowly in, deeply and slowly out. Now a couple of important things to remember when you do this exercise. You breathe into your lungs, not your stomach. So breathe in really deeply, fill your lungs with air so that you can feel your chest growing outwards. And when you exhale, push from your lower diaphragm upwards so that you empty your lungs of all the air. And during meditation, you never block the nostril from the outside. It's always blocked from underneath because there are some very fine, very subtle channels of breath on the outside of your nose. And if you push in from the outside, you actually can injure them. So press your thumbs to the base of your third finger. You know, this is where we believe our demonic energy rises from. That's why we press against this part always to inhibit this particular energy. Press your thumb into the base of the third finger, curl your other three fingers over and then use your finger to inhibit your nostril. Practice each of these breaths three times each, first thing in the morning when you wake up. And if you do it correctly, you'll find that any other exercise that you do will become more effective. But I'm going to give you an even better way to measure the benefits that you're going to get from practicing first breath. You'll find, if you do it correctly, that your hands and feet don't get as cold as they did before. And with winter coming on, I think that's definitely something to work towards. Remember to like, comment, subscribe. See you on the next one.