Hello and welcome.
This video is to help those who may be suffering stress or anxiety in their workplace and wanting to come back into a place of calm and balance.
This exercise that I'm giving you now is one that I used myself as a business executive for many years.
And at the same time I was also a regular meditator.
This is a highly effective,
A very easy treatment.
Way to relax and come back to a place of centered awareness and clarity.
And returning the body to a place of calmness.
Which lowers that sense of frustration or disappointment or tension or stress.
You feel in the body.
And you'll notice this because the body begins to tense up.
You develop that sense of heat in the stomach,
The muscles become tighter in the body,
The heart rate goes up.
The blood pressure can increase and that's all happening because the cortisol levels in your body.
Are responding.
This exercise will bring everything back into a place of balance.
And ease.
It only takes a couple of minutes to do and you can do it while you're sitting at your desk.
No one will know you're doing this exercise.
Because you're just sitting there and you're breathing in a different way than you have been at the moment.
So let me share this with you.
So the exercise basically means that.
.
.
You'll be sitting with a straight neck and back at your desk if that's comfortable for you.
Just close your eyes quietly and close your mouth,
And you're going to be breathing in and out through your nose.
So we can do this together So now the important thing to remember here is that you are focusing exclusively on the movement of your breath as it comes in and out of the body.
Now this requires a little bit of discipline,
But if you stick with it,
You'll be able to do this quite easily.
And by maintaining the focus on your breathing,
You're not engaging with the thoughts that are running through your head at the moment.
You're going to be moving your awareness away from thinking.
Back into simply following the path of your breath.
Now You may use an exercise of visualisation with this if it helps you.
You can imagine your incoming breath being a lovely rolling gentle ocean wave as it just gently travels towards the shore.
Your incoming breath and then as your outgoing breath that same wave is now leaving the body.
And it's moving back out and into the calm.
And the beautiful stillness of the vast ocean.
So we can begin together now.
As you breathe,
You will develop your own rhythm.
Alright,
So maintain this rhythm.
And it will be unique to you.
It doesn't necessarily have to be in the same tempo as my breath.
But the main thing to remember is that your breathing is to be relaxed.
Calm.
And still,
A gradual movement of air into your body.
And then a gradual movement of air out of your body.
Now,
The main thing to remember with your breathing is that your exhalation,
The air moving out of your body,
Is a longer period of time than the length of your incoming breath.
So think of it as the incoming breath counting to the number four.
And then the outgoing breath counting to the number of six.
All right,
So let's do this together.
So I will lead and then follow.
Please follow along.
Now remember,
Your focus,
Your concentration is following the movement,
The flow of air,
Of your breath as it comes into your body.
Then as it leaves your body.
So this is the 110% focus.
Only on following the path of truth.
Of your breathing.
So let's do this together.
Breathing in quietly,
Calmly and peacefully.
Breath moves into your body.
Breathing in.
Now there's a point at which you would normally then start to breathe out.
But keep breathing in,
And this is why it's important to sit with a straight back.
You will feel that extra volume,
That extra capacity to keep breathing in.
You will feel that directly in the body as the ribcage starts to expand.
So keep breathing in,
Keep breathing in.
Until you come to the top of your breath.
Then pause.
And slowly,
Gradually,
Gently,
Peacefully start to breathe out.
Keep breathing out,
Keep breathing out.
Until you reach the bottom of your breath.
Then pause again.
Then commence the cycle again.
Nothing rushed,
Nothing forced.
Give yourself three to four minutes to do this exercise and all shall return back to a place of ease and balance.
Breathing in again.
Quietly,
Calmly.
Peacefully.
Start to feel the region in your chest as you start to come to the top of your breath.
Keep breathing in,
Keep breathing in.
Pause.
And then exhale.
Now,
What is happening in your body?
As you breathe in,
Quietly,
Calmly and peacefully,
It's the exhalation,
The longer exhalation,
Which has the power.
Because as you breathe out,
What you're actually doing is activating the vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
This in turn releases the feel-good hormones into the body.
And as this happens,
The body itself begins to relax more.
And this has a direct impact of your central nervous system because it is an integral part of your body?
Everything starts to become and feel.
More relaxed.
Send it.
And calm.
And that's all that is happening.
It's the power of the lengthened exhalation.
Which activates the vagus nerve.
Which activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
Which then in turn releases the feel-good hormones into the body.
And then the body responds.
By quietly relaxing.
And coming back into a more peaceful awareness.
This occurs because,
By focusing on your breath,
You're leaving the concentration of thinking,
Which is the sympathetic nervous system.
It's the thinking process that causes the nervous system to become activated.
So we're leaving that alone.
We're focusing exclusively on following the path of your breath.
And this activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
This is what activates the vagus nerve.
It activates the feel-good hormones that just automatically flood into your body.
And the body begins to relax.
Bringing with it deepening,
Calm,
The body will relax,
The shoulders will loosen.
That tightness in the stomach will loosen.
And all happens.
Effortlessly.
And because we're taking that extra long,
Deep breath,
We're also bringing into the body extra amounts of oxygen.
And oxygen in its own way then helps to relax the body.
So shallow breathing is one of very rapid,
And it doesn't actually bring increasing levels of oxygen.
It's the deep,
Long,
Slow,
Relaxed,
Incoming breath.
That activates the extra amount of oxygen in your body,
And it in its own way then increases that sense of relaxation in the body.
And it's as we exhale that the vagus nerve is activated.
The parasympathetic nervous system comes into play.
The feel-good hole lines are released.
And the body just naturally begins to relax.
This is just the very nature of the movement of energy,
Of the releasing of hormones,
Of the activity of the vagus nerve that brings this deeper,
Quiet sense of balance.
So any time that you may have a sense.
In your working life of tension or stress or anxiety or frustration disappointment whatever it might be.
If you feel this tension and you feel it in the pit of your stomach,
You feel all of a sudden the heart rate begins to increase.
Then all you have to do is come back to this exercise.
And I did this many,
Many,
Many times.
And it's effective and it's simple.
And it just takes a couple of minutes.
Just where the body would want to respond with some sort of reaction,
Egoic reaction,
Then just keep it all quiet.
Keep it centered.
Come back,
Sit down.
Don't react.
Come back to your body.
Sit,
Relax,
Keep a straight back and neck,
And come back to this system they call somatic breathing.
You feel it in the body.
The body just begins to automatic relax,
Come back into a sense of calm,
Of clarity,
Of ease.
Then when you come back into this place of balance and ease,
Then you're able to be more discerning in the way that you should respond,
If there is a need to respond.
To the situation which is called the anxiety or stress.
All right.
And that's as easy and as simple as this.
And it is highly effective.
Give it a go.
You won't believe how simple and powerful it is until you try it.
Now this is just one exercise.
I have many other exercises which give you other methods to also enable you to feel a deeper sense of relaxation in the body and the mind.
Through some other practices that you can incorporate at the same time.
And these are in the teachings and the videos that I have on my page.
But this one,
If you're at work and you're in some situation where you feel this rise,
Then this is the simplest and the most effective way to do it,
Is just sit for a few moments and give yourself a chance,
Through your breath,
Through the focus of your concentration in following the path of your breath.
As it enters into and then leaves your body,
Remember the outgoing breath is longer than the length of your incoming breath.
And that is the secret to activating the vagus nerve.
It then in turn empowers the relaxation mode within the body.
And the body just begins to feel more calm.
And more relaxed.
And at the same time as this is happening,
The increased levels of cortisol,
Which have been activated because you're starting to feel tense or anxious,
That just comes back to its normal balance,
And the body and the nervous system just return to calm and clarity.
I do hope this has been a benefit to you,
And it's a simple exercise that takes just a few minutes.
