So yeah,
Just take your time to arrive and maybe just find this place where you're comfortable.
And you're allowing yourself to really kind of like sink and rest into the support of your chair or whatever you're sitting on or laying on if you're laying down.
If you're not dressing comfortably and if you're at home and you have the opportunity maybe you know loosen up your clothing or you know change your clothing uh to be really really comfortable it's really important especially when you do breath work that your chest and your belly in particular.
Are not feeling,
You know,
Kind of like too contained.
We're only going to be doing different breathing techniques.
And also you get to do what you want to do so you're going to feel into what works for you.
And I'm going to be teaching you different practices for different nervous system states,
Both to shift nervous system states,
And also if there's a specific state that you want to get into,
I'll be helping you with that.
I want to take this time maybe to get something to drink.
I have some water here.
Maybe light a candle.
I like to have a nice candle next to me.
And anything in your space that's going to be resourcing you,
Giving you this sense of being supported and feeling open and relaxed.
By the way,
That period where we're actually reflecting back on the effects of the breath is when we're developing new neural pathways for self-regulation.
So it's actually as important as the practice itself.
So pause,
Rest,
And notice.
And what that does is that gives you time to settle.
And for you to actually in your brain to really relate to the practice and to the benefits.
In a way that's going to then help you when you're in a,
You know,
Whatever state you're in,
To remember,
Oh,
This really helped me.
And then that will be available to you because you practiced it outside of a dysregulated nervous system state.
So that's the benefit of that.
And then it's going to deepen the grooves in your brain of the self-regulation pathways and also the self-soothing and self-nurturing pathways which exist in your brain.
And,
You know,
The purpose of the practices today is to reinforce those neural pathways.
Just a couple of things about the breath and why the breath is so useful.
So.
.
.
The autonomic nervous system is a part of our nervous system that has two branches,
The sympathetic,
Which is the fight or flight for the most part,
And then the parasympathetic,
Which is the rest and digest.
And again,
I'm simplifying.
And so the autonomic nervous system is not a nervous system that we can actually access.
Directly because it's how it's autonomic.
It's automatic.
It's actually directed by the brainstem.
That's where actually the vagus nerve originates.
And it's not something that we can control except through the breath.
And that's why breath work is so helpful because when you're using breath work,
You're able to actually directly regulate your nervous system in a way that doesn't require you to do a lot of thinking about it,
Doesn't require you to do a lot of movement if you can do movement,
Although some of the breathing techniques that we'll practice today can also include movements.
And that can be helpful because that also is going to integrate the motor cortex,
And so that's like that brings about more integration in the brain by involving that cortex.
And in addition.
When we have open stress loops,
Which means that we have something that has activated us into fight or flight,
And we haven't actually released the stored energy in our nervous system and in our bodies.
It just remains activated.
So our physiology remains one of stress.
And fight or flight.
Adding some movement with the breath can actually really help just like when animals in nature they have a stressful situation they shake after the stressful situation so that's one way that they get to release all of the hormones and the activation in their nervous system of the fight or flight.
So we'll be doing a little bit of that.
And I wanted to tell you that because it's relevant when you are activated and you're going to do a breath work that down regulates you,
You might first need to do something active with your body.
Thank you for all the hearts.
And that's going to help you to then settle down so that you're not suppressing the stress.
And then it does,
Stress loops don't get to.
So we're going to start with a a little practice to begin with just to settle and to get into this state of interoception,
Which is a state where we're actually turning inwards and becoming aware of the more subtle cues and signals from our nervous system as to what's going on inside of us.
And it's going to be different for everyone here,
Of course,
Because we're all having a different experience.
We're coming from,
You know,
A different day,
A different,
Some of you,
For you it's night time.
Of others,
Maybe it's the beginning of the day.
And so we're in a different state,
We're facing different things in our lives.
And so the more we go inward,
And we start to attune to what's going on inside of ourselves,
The more we can actually respond to what's happening inside of us with our breath,
And then come back to a state that is more desirable.
And by the way,
Nervous system regulation is not always about calming down.
It can be actually,
There are some people who can be more in like a freeze or shutdown,
Collapse,
Or even a burnout state.
And so nervous system regulation can be to actually bring them out of that freeze or that collapse or that burnout.
And so today we're going to be again,
Working with different aspects of the nervous system and nervous system states and as a result of that to be able to help different people in different situations.
So if you'll start,
If you're sitting or lying down,
Just get comfortable.
So that might mean,
You know,
Moving around.
Maybe if your shoulders are a bit raised,
You just notice and you drop them.
And you really just like.
.
.
Allowing yourself to yield into the support of your chair or of the bed,
Or if you're standing up,
You can stand up too if you'd like to do that.
You can just yield into,
You know,
Your feet on the ground and feeling connected to the earth and grounded and supported.
And then just look like,
What are your eyes doing?
Are they settled?
Are there still?
If they are not,
Try to see if you can have a soft open gaze.
So I may have told you before,
If you've participated in my prior lives,
That actually when we have like the the eyes are very focused And especially if we use,
You know,
Like.
.
.
Devices small devices and we're always like this we're in a focused kind of like fight-or-flight state actually when we're doing that it's you know it's just like this very focused attention and our eyes are going to send certain signals to the brain about basically what state to be in and to continue to be in.
So we want to cultivate that open gaze,
That soft gaze,
Where we are aware of everything around us.
So this is a good time to do that or to close your eyes.
And that's going to send signals to the nervous system that it's time to relax.
Now begin to sense how you're feeling right now.
And you're not trying to change your state,
You're simply,
Again,
Intercepting what's going on inside of me right now.
And just noticing and that's going to be helpful at the end of the practice so that you can notice the difference between when we started and the end of the practice.
And as you notice,
And you are with yourself just as you are,
You're also cultivating self-acceptance.
Accepting that your state of mind,
The state of your nervous system and your physiology is just the way it is in this moment.
And by doing that you're actually lowering Sympathetic activation because you're by accepting you're saying everything is okay,
Even if you're feeling elevated Now if you'll place your attention on your breath.
And again,
You're not trying to chant your breath,
You're simply noticing.
What's happening?
With your breath,
Right now.
So you might also notice,
Where do you feel your breath?
Is it in your chest?
Is it even like higher?
It's like maybe your chest is constricted so you're breathing more up here,
Not really utilizing your whole lungs to breathe.
Or maybe your breath is relaxed and it's in your belly.
Maybe it's salt.
And slow,
Maybe it's faster.
And more shallow,
Just notice without again trying to change it.
And just by virtue of noticing.
You're actually Taking the attention away from the amygdala,
The threat center,
You're going to the insula,
You're now developing interoception,
Interoceptive awareness.
And that in itself is calming.
Now you may also notice what we call somatic markers of stress inactivation or somatic markers of shutdown or collapse.
And activation could be maybe you sense that your jaw is tight.
So you can just notice that.
You sense that your shoulders are raised or your neck is tense.
Maybe your chest feels a little bit constricted or your abdomen or your pelvic floor.
Just notice that.
So whatever you're experiencing right now is completely okay.
And you're just being with yourself.
With your breath,
With your body.
Just as it is.
Now we're going to take her.
Slow,
Not forced,
Inhale through the nose and then when we exhale we're going to exhale through the mouth and we're going to make the sound Hmm.
Which is going to actually activate our parasympathetic nervous system.
So inhale.
Hmm.
And then return to your natural breath as it is right now and just sun.
If just taking that one breath and that one exhale has actually shifted your state.
Pause,
Rest,
Notice.
What feels different in your body now?
And remember that in that pause,
In that rest period is when you are building and reinforcing new neural pathways for self-regulation.
So this is a really important time.
So I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to hear what your experience was like,
If you noticed anything.
What were your observations,
If you have any questions.
And then I've put together,
Like I did for the last live,
Some of the studies and the science that explains what happens with each practice,
Because I think that that also further deepens the grooves in the brain of that new neural pathway.
Because when we have the prefrontal cortex online,
Accessing the information about why this is helpful,
How this is helpful,
How that works,
It only reinforces our capacity and our commitment to practicing these things.
So haiti i hope i'm saying your name right saying i'm going through a lot i feel so much pressure on my chest and throat okay thank you haiti for sharing and i'll be helping you with that um one of the practices which is very similar to the physiological side by the way would be very helpful for you so for instance if you do my nervous system resets I think it's just called reset meditation.
Inside timer you'll see that that's exactly for that.
That's the most accessible,
Easy way of actually clearing the imbalance in CO2.
And the contraction in the chest opening up,
You know,
The alveoli by doing the physiological side.
So we'll be practicing that.
Another thing also you may want to do,
Place one hand on your throat,
Very gentle.
And one hand on your heart,
On your chest.
And just take a few moments to breathe there.
And just feel the rising and falling of your chest as you breathe.
Feel the passage.
Of the breath through your throat.
And just be with yourself,
Sending love to yourself.
Maybe smiling at those areas.
If that would be helpful.
So you already know now that the sign is one way that we actually,
We lengthen,
And that's gonna be our next practice.
We lengthen the Excel.
And when we lengthen the exhale,
What happens is we actually stimulate our vagus nerve.
And we lower our heart rate and then we get into parasympathetic nervous system functioning and we're more relaxed and we're clearing also the excess CO2 that may have built up if we're like shallow breathing,
You know,
Which most of us do,
You know,
A lot of the time.
Just by function of modern life and the stresses that come with modern life.
So the stomach,
The vagus nerve,
Innervates 80% of the gut.
So when we are doing lengthen XL,
We're actually activating the vagus nerve and the vagus nerve is now sending signals into those organs because it innervates all those organs and then that's going to help.
So,
And one thing I can say is the recommendation was the SSP,
Which is the Safe Sound Protocol,
By one of my teachers,
Who is Stephen Porges.
So I studied polyvagal theory with the Polyvagal Institute,
And Stephen Porges has developed a sound program that helps with tinnitus or tinnitus,
Okay,
So I'm gonna share the science so we can get to the next practice Awesome,
Oana.
Okay,
So what's happening in your brain and body when you're just sighing,
Basically?
So,
Exhaling and lengthening the exhale activates the parasympathetic branch of our autonomic nervous system by stimulating the vagus nerve,
Which is the longest nerve in your body and the primary pathway of the parasympathetic nervous system.
80% of it happens to be in our gut.
So Don,
That's why I was telling you that that's going to have an effect on the stomach.
When you lengthen your Excel,
You increase what researchers call vagal tone.
And your vagal tone is the vagus nerve's capacity to quickly bring the heart rate down and signal safety to the brainstem.
So it's a way to say everything is okay.
A single slow exhale activates the mechanism by which we begin to calm down.
Our breath is unique among autonomic functions because it's governed by both the automatic brainstem and the voluntary motor cortex simultaneously.
That overlap between these two regions.
Of your brain is the access point to your autonomic nervous system.
There's no other organ in the body that offers this bi-directional pathway.
And it allows the conscious mind to reach directly into the nervous system and begin to change its state.
So when through the breath,
Right,
We with our prefrontal cortex say,
I'm going to do this breathing technique.
We're now through the breath accessing the autonomic nervous system.
Sometimes the sympathetic when we're actually focusing on an activating breath,
Especially when we focus and lengthen the inhale or do certain types of inhale or the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system through the vagus nerve when we lengthen our exhale and do different practices that integrate the lengthening of the exhale.
So one of the things that's most important to understand about breathwork when it comes to calming down is that what we're accessing when we're doing this type of breath work is we're allowing ourselves to go into a state of what's called ventral vagal energy.
And if you've been there for my co-regulation or my self-regulation lives,
I talked about that and how that's our social engagement system.
That's the system that allows us to be online,
To be here,
To feel,
To be connected to our ourselves and to others.
Okay,
So we started with,
You know,
Like basically grounding in our bodies and then really,
You know,
Starting to focus on the breath a little bit to see its effects.
And now what we're going to do,
We're going to be kind of building up.
So we're going to start with an extended Excel to teach us how to calm down.
And like I was saying before,
Sometimes you might need to first complete a stress loop before you do a calming breath because you don't want to suppress or repress incomplete,
You know,
Stress responses in your body by doing something that that basically downregulates your nervous system.
So that's a really important thing.
Sometimes again,
That's what I was explaining earlier on,
People will try to calm themselves down.
And their stress response has not been completed.
So then it's just going to keep coming back because the nervous system is saying there's a threat and you have not addressed it and I don't feel safe.
So it's really important that In nature,
We go into action when there's a threat.
The stress response is to have an action.
We fight,
We flight.
Sometimes we freeze.
That's also a threat response,
Like an animal in nature that doesn't have a way to fight or to flee is going to freeze.
And then,
You know,
Predators are not interested usually in something that's not moving because they've learned that evolutionarily,
It's not healthy to eat something that's dead.
So they think it's dead.
Therefore they're not interested.
And it also doesn't bring that instinct of chasing and hunting that they have.
After the extended exhale,
We're going to do box breathing,
Which is to cultivate focus,
Inner steadiness,
And emotional regulation.
And it's interesting because box breathing actually because of.
The counting and the the fact that we're also holding the breath after the inhale and after the exhale,
It's teaching our nervous system that we can be okay while being uncomfortable because we're not used to holding the breath.
And so that actually increases our vagal tone and our capacity to self-regulate because we realize,
Oh,
We can be a little bit uncomfortable and we're okay.
So the nervous system then settles.
Um.
.
.
So after that,
We'll do coherent breathing,
Which has become one of my favorite types of breath.
And that type of breathing actually brings the brain and the heart into coherence.
And it helps to.
.
.
It actually brings your heart rate variability,
Which is like the durations between heartbeats.
To its peak.
So it's really like it's It's going to increase your vagal tone,
It's going to increase your nervous system flexibility.
It's a really good breath to practice and it's very simple.
Then we'll do the gentle active breath work and actually based on I think it was Haiti,
Haiti's experience,
We're going to do the physiological side.
And,
Um.
.
.
And then we'll just do integration and rest.
And then I'll answer any of your questions.
And also,
If you.
Feel that there's any type of breath that you'd like to learn more about or that you want to know more about.
I studied pranayama,
So the control,
The management of the prana,
The life force,
Through breathwork with in Satyananda Yoga when I first started my journey into the spiritual world with Swami from India.
So I have a lot of practices with breathwork and I also have the,
You know,
Through the Polyvagal Institute and all the studies that I've done,
I've learned a lot of different types of breathwork.
So I'm very happy to help you with,
You know,
Something.
So we're going to start with the extended exhale.
If you remember what I said earlier on,
It's really important that whatever you do,
You're really tuning into your own nervous system.
And you're staying very self-aware of what's going on inside of you so that you're not forcing anything because if you remember what I said if you force anything.
You're going to actually activate your sympathetic nervous system.
And so that's going to undermine or neutralize the effect of the extended Excel,
Which is all about being able to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and come to a state of calm.
So if you're finding that right now you're not really settled And so you're not ready to do that.
Maybe shake your body,
You know,
Like,
Like get something going,
Like in terms of movements so that you can shake some of that energy.
And then you can settle.
You can even stand up,
You know,
And do some movements.
For those of you who did my qigong,
You can,
You know,
Just move your body,
Do a few rotations,
Move the spine,
Lengthen through your head.
And just allow yourself to to release some of the stress that may have built up.
For your day.
Or the night if you're waking up.
And then when you feel like you can settle.
And if you don't feel settled,
Keep moving.
And you can do the breath while moving,
It's fine too.
And if you feel settled,
You can either sit.
.
.
Or lie down.
And just allow yourself for a moment to connect to your space.
So maybe doing a little bit of orienting,
Looking around at the structures from the ceiling.
To the floor but whatever pace you're at meeting your nervous system so it could be fast if you're in a fast state because it would not be helpful for you to slow down too fast that would basically be not respecting where your nervous system is at,
Which is going to actually fervor send queues of danger.
So you want to meet this nervous system where it's at.
So looking around.
And if you've been on prior lives with me,
Maybe find an object of delight.
As you're looking around and orienting to your space.
So I'm looking back at the yard here with a beautiful tree.
The beautiful blue sky and the green all around.
Of spring.
So just find something that for you.
Is resourcing.
And that should help you to settle more.
As you find cues of safety and comfort in your space.
It helps you too.
Relax.
And settle.
And now you can either cultivate the soft eyes,
The soft gaze,
Or close your eyes gently.
And bring your awareness inward.
To the sensation.
What's happening inside your body.
If it's uncomfortable,
Just notice it.
With love,
With care,
Turn towards it.
And now we're going to start.
By exhaling all the air out of the lungs.
By the way,
In all breathing practices,
I always invite you,
That's something that I learned earlier on,
First empty your lungs.
So when you empty your lungs you're making space you're kind of resetting sometimes people start with the inhale and in my personal experience it's always better to just even with a sigh.
Hmm.
.
.
Just let everything go.
And notice if that softens something in you.
As you let all the air out.
Now I'm going to invite you into a count of four.
To six or eight,
So four on the inhale,
Six or eight on the exhale.
Now,
The count is not even important.
We're not really focusing on the count.
That's just for reference.
And again,
Like I said before,
Do not.
.
.
Force the breath.
So if four is too much as an inhale,
Go to three.
If 3 is too much,
Go to 2.
And don't even try in this practice to lengthen the inhale or the exhale.
Focus on comfort.
So maybe you do 4,
6 ratio or 4,
8.
Which is one to two.
Or one to one and a half So inhaling through your nose if you can.
And exhaling through your nose or through your mouth.
And you can count,
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three.
3 4 Exhale.
5 4 3 2 1 and follow your own rhythm.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Six.
Bye.
For three two,
One.
And keep going at your own rhythm,
Focusing on ease and comfort.
Now I'm going to offer one more additional and this time it's a little movement that I've learned in Feldenkrais therapy,
And it actually further activates the relaxation response.
And it's so simple.
So you inhale with your head in neutral position.
So 1,
2,
3,
4.
And then as you exhale,
Very gently,
Six,
You bring your head down,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Two,
One,
Looking towards your belly.
And then as you inhale,
You bring your head up.
One,
Two,
Three.
Three,
Four,
You get to neutral.
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Four,
Three,
Two.
Keep going,
Following your own rhythm.
And allowing yourself to slow down.
In the way that matches your own nervous system and the state that you're in.
You're not forcing anything.
You're welcoming everything that's here.
Exactly as it is.
And you're both the one breathing and the one receiving the breath.
So,
By the way,
That engages different parts of the brain when you're the one doing the breathing and the one receiving the act of the breathing and observing.
Now take a moment.
Just see how your jaw softens.
How are your shoulders?
Maybe you can sense that the muscles are more relaxed there and they've dropped down.
How's your neck?
How's your chest?
How's your belly?
And take a moment to pause,
Rest.
And Norris.
And feel what feels different in your body now.
So remember that period of rest.
Is a period of integration.
Your creating,
And further strengthening new neural pathways of self-regulation when you're doing that.
By the way,
The neck and the face,
There's a lot of access points to the vagus nerve.
There so when you're noticing that that's relaxing that's your vagus nerve relaxing so you're getting you're toning your vagus nerve so that you can more easily access that relaxed state What's happening in your brain and body?
Is governed by the parasympathetic branch of our autonomic nervous system.
When you extend your exhale,
You're increasing the duration of parasympathetic activation in each breath cycle.
This is measured by heart rate variability,
So the slight variation in time between your heartbeats,
Which reflects how responsive your autonomic nervous system is.
A longer exhale produces a drop in your heart rate during that exhale and over several cycles that begins to downregulate the sympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system.
Your vagus nerve which is it means wandering nerve,
Because there's so much of it in so many places in our bodies,
Runs from the brainstem through your heart and into your abdomen where it innervates all your abdominal organs.
Slow extended exhales stimulate the vagal fibers around your lungs,
Your heart,
And your entire gut,
Sending a parasympathetic,
Calming signal upward to the brainstem,
Telling your brain everything's good.
Researchers Stephen Porges,
One of my teachers,
Describes how this increases vagal tone,
Your nervous system baseline capacity for self-regulation.
Each extended exhale practice is a deposit towards increasing that capacity.
Karen is saying it's unlocking some tension in my neck.
Very nice.
So good.
And by the way,
If you remember,
I think you've been to a lot of my lives,
Karen,
This is really good if you have tension in your neck.
It's a really good way to access your vagus nerve.
So there's more on this side,
On the right side,
Than the left side,
But you can massage both.
And that's going to help.
Anita is saying the left side of my neck is constantly painful.
I'm certain it's connected to my vagus nerve.
Are there any techniques that target this area specifically?
Not necessarily breathing techniques per se,
But what I was just showing will do that.
You can focus on the left side and then the humming breath for instance so just and then bring your attention to the left side of your neck.
That could also,
If you practice it several times,
That could be helpful.
And Karen says she remembered to do that massage every day.
I do it every morning too.
So we're going to start with box breathing.
So I was saying earlier on,
And I'm going to go into the science at the end of the practice.
I was saying that the,
Uh,
Box breathing is mostly for focus.
So if you're going to be sitting down on a,
Working on a project or reading something,
Or you need to really have this kind of like,
Uh,
Uh,
Kind of one pointed focus for a while,
That's a good breath to do.
It's also a really good breath for panic attacks Although there's other types of breathing that are in my opinion even more effective that said it can be used for that It's good for emotional regulation and developing emotional intelligence actually,
And also internal steadiness.
So really having a sense of being steady and present.
Bugs breathing.
It's been pretty popular lately.
I've noticed a lot of people talking about it.
It's very simple.
For some people.
Who are not finding that the breath holds.
Are easy to do it can be activating so you want to be aware of that so that you navigate that if you find that it's activating you the breath holds just don't do instead of doing like a box right a box is like four sides that are the same length So that's what box breathing is.
The inhale,
The hold after the inhale,
The exhale,
The hold after the exhale are all equal.
So you want to choose,
First of all,
A length,
A duration that works for you.
And if you find that the holds are just bringing up too much sympathetic activation,
You want to stop holding.
And just build that up over time so that you're not undermining the effects of the practice.
Now,
When you do do the holds,
It's what I was telling you earlier on.
It teaches your nervous system that you can be with something that's challenging.
We don't like,
We're not holding the breath.
During the day on purpose,
Except when we're stressed.
So that hold is going to physiologically create some stress in our nervous system and in our body.
We're gonna brace around that hold.
So it's teaching your nervous system that you can be in challenging physiological states and still be okay.
You developed the capacity to to do this type of breathing So I'm gonna invite you to start again by settling So again,
If you feel activated you may want to do some movements some shaking some spinal twisting Anything that you know,
Even some push-ups against a desk or a wall That's one way to complete stress loops by the way by just moving that energy out of your muscles so that it's not just keeping you in this tense state right so wherever you are right now do something that's going to help you to come to this moment.
And be able to sit and do this practice with.
And then just settle again,
Soft gaze.
You can orient to the space if that's helpful.
You can find an object of delight that resources you.
And if you want and can,
Close your eyes.
Or keep your eyes again with a soft gaze because I'm going to actually trace the box,
Which actually brings another element in the box breathing that also helps to rewire the brain through the movement.
And tracing the box and that's really helpful actually for people who have ADHD because it helps them stay focused with something that helps their fast brain.
Be focused on something as they're doing something that's a little more,
You know,
Slow than they might be at in that moment.
So soft gaze or close your eyes.
You don't need to see me to trace a box and you don't need to trace the box.
If you don't want to trace the box,
You can just be with the breath.
Yielding to the support.
And we're going to start.
So again,
I'm going to invite you to use the duration that works for you.
Could be just 2,
2,
2,
2.
Could be just,
Or it could be 3,
3,
3,
3,
Or 4.
I'm going to guide you into 4,
4,
4,
4.
And again,
Remember,
You want to reduce sympathetic activation,
So you want to really Find that duration that works for your nervous system.
So we're going to start.
I'm going to not draw the box yet.
I'm going to just start with breathing.
So breathing one.
2,
3,
4,
Hold.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Hold the breath out.
1,
2,
3,
4.
And again,
Again to your own rhythm.
It could be one,
Two,
Three.
One,
Two,
Three.
1 2 3 One,
Two,
Three.
Just again,
Listen to your inner guidance.
Listen to what works for you,
What keeps you present,
Comfortable,
At ease.
And if holding the breath is something that activates you,
Just notice that and just maybe shorten the hold or completely let go of any hold.
So holding the breath after the inhale is what brings and builds more tolerance for more breath,
For you to have a fuller breath.
And holding after the exhale helps you to build tolerance towards greater stillness and emptiness.
And that can be really helpful when there's a sense of urgency.
Bracing activation in our nervous system.
So now let's trace.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4,
Hold in 1,
2,
3,
4,
Exhale and then hold 1,
2,
3,
4 and again you can draw the box as you inhale home.
Exhale.
Hole.
Following your own rhythm and drawing,
Especially if you have ADHD,
That can really help.
By the way,
That's really good for children.
They like that.
That helps them to actually like practicing breathwork.
And just keep going.
And notice as you're doing box breathing the quality of your attention.
What's happening inside of you,
The cues.
That you're getting.
The physical cues that are a reflection of what's happening in your nervous system.
So maybe silently counting like I am to yourself as you inhale.
Home.
Exhale.
Hold.
And pause,
Rest,
Notice.
What has changed?
In your physiology.
In your body,
What is your state right now?
And remember,
The rest period is when you're deepening those new neural pathways,
Strengthening them in your brain,
The pathways of self-regulation,
Self-nurturing.
And I'd love to hear how this practice was for you before I share about the science of box breathing.
Yeah,
And the safe and sound protocol is offered by UNITE,
And again,
Developed by Dr.
Steven Porges.
You can even look it up.
There's different books that have been written on it.
I do it myself,
So I find it to be extremely helpful for nervous system regulation.
So what's happening in your brain and body when you're doing box breathing?
So box breathing is engaging your prefrontal cortex in a way that a lot of other breathing techniques don't.
So the counting,
The sequencing,
The holding,
And then I added also the tracing,
Which is known in the world of ADHD.
It requires deliberate attention and that activates your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,
Which is the region of your prefrontal cortex responsible for focused attention and executive functioning.
So that's going to increase those capacities for focused attention and executive functioning.
It has a direct inhibitory effect on the amygdala,
Which is the threat center.
In your brain.
When your prefrontal cortex is online and engaged,
The threat detection system is less able to dominate the space.
The breath holds also build what researchers call interoceptive tolerance.
So I was talking about that earlier on,
The capacity to be with internal sensations that feel uncomfortable,
Like the holds,
Without reacting to them as if they were threats to our survival.
Systems that have learned to interpret physical discomfort,
So especially people with chronic conditions.
So when they have learned to interpret physical discomfort as danger,
This is a form of gentle re-education of your nervous system.
Your body gets the opportunity to learn that stillness and a momentary empty pause are survivable and then eventually settling rather than alarming.
It's activating,
Just start with breathing through your mouth.
One thing that I taught when we did the Qigong the polyvagal informed Qigong practice.
So this is an access point to your vagus nerve and it also helps to clear the nasal pathways.
So if you massage here like this,
And then open your nostrils.
By the way,
Whenever anyone has their nostrils kind of closed,
Just do that.
That's going to open the airways there.
And you just do that for a while.
Until you feel like your breath is easier and then you may also learn You can also do alternate nostril breathing.
And the switch,
So by the way,
That also is one way to balance the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system.
The right nostril is activating,
The left nostril is calming and relaxing.
We're going to go into coherent breathing,
Something that's very helpful.
It's good because it exercises the eyes,
But it also involves the motor cortex in the process.
And then you coordinate it,
Yes,
With the breath.
And then.
.
.
It's going to be really helpful for someone who has ADHD,
For instance,
Because it keeps them focused.
So it's a really good one I was saying around for children.
Okay,
So coherent breathing or resonance breathing is a type of breath that actually helps you sync the brain.
So it's like heart-brain coherence in many ways.
And it also is going to bring into synchronization what's called the mayor wave which is Let me tell you exactly how they say it.
It's the oscillation in blood pressure that cycles.
Like like five to six times during one minute.
And so when we're doing coherent breathing,
Which is basically equal inhale and exhale with about five to six breaths per minute,
We're actually syncing those together And that brings about the highest,
Like the peak of your heart rate variability,
Which is going to mean that you have more vagal tone,
More capacity actually to be in different nervous system states and to shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic and to have that flexibility in your nervous system when something comes up.
You can easily shift,
Right?
If you need to be in action,
You can be in action without being dysregulated.
If you need to slow down and calm down,
You can do that without it being also,
You know,
Kind of like jarring to your system.
Okay,
So let's start.
So if you'll remember maybe the state of calm that you got into maybe after you did the first practice of sighing and maybe just sigh.
Hmm.
And let yourself arrive.
And begin to cultivate soft eyes.
Or close your eyes.
And just yielding to the support.
If you need a little extra support right now,
Maybe look for an object of delight,
Like I have a candle lit here.
And just let yourself be just as you are right now.
And so we're going to start.
And we'll inhale for about a count of five and exhale for a count of five.
Which means we'll be doing about.
.
.
Six breaths.
In one minute.
So if that's two,
Too long for you,
Just shift it.
It's okay.
Even if you're not syncing exactly with the mayor's wave,
You're still going to get this coherence between your brain and your heart.
And your breath rhythm.
We're gonna start,
We inhale.
And exhale through your nose or through your mouth.
And inhale,
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Exhale.
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One or whatever rhythm works for you that doesn't activate you.
1 2 3 4 5 five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
And no pause between the inhale and the exhale,
Just inhaling and exhaling.
To the same count.
Being aware of the internal sensations as you inhale.
And you exhale.
And if you want,
If you're exhaling through your mouth because it's still not comfortable to exhale through your nose,
You can purse your lips or make your lips like a straw,
As if you had a straw.
Which is very relaxing in itself.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
5 4 3 2 1 and just keep going without hold,
Inhaling to five,
Exhaling to five,
Or to four,
Or to three,
Whatever is working for you right now.
Let this practice be gentle and easeful.
And let yourself.
.
.
Start to connect to like the equal inhale and exhale and the simplicity The ease.
Of the breath,
And that in itself is nurturing,
Soothing.
Regulating.
And when you're doing this breath,
By the way,
We talked about that earlier on,
You're going into the ventral vagal system,
Right?
Your system of social engagement,
Of safe connection.
So let yourself feel that.
If anything,
You're connecting with yourself right now.
And with your breath.
And the gentleness.
The ease.
No effort.
And now pause rest notice Notice what's happening in your body,
If anything has changed.
And remember,
This rest period is the time where you're laying down new neural pathways,
You're strengthening them.
So that you can more easily access self-regulation.
And then we're going to do one more practice which is going to be the physiological sigh.
Which is to complete a stress cycle.
How was this experience?
What did you notice?
So I practice this breath from the moment I wake up.
And I find it extremely like calming and also it allows me to be extremely focused.
In a way that is not,
Where there's no strain,
It's just this ease and this presence.
So the more,
By the way,
So throughout the day,
Of course,
You can forget,
Right?
You have a thought and you might go into a different breathing rhythm as a result of whatever you're thinking about.
And whatever it's getting activated that said,
The more you do.
You know,
These types of breathing exercises throughout the day.
The more you're strengthening the neural pathways of self-regulation.
Because it's through repetition.
The ratio of CO2 and oxygen is going to shift based on the different breathing patterns that we practice.
So that's normal.
Is everyone ready for the,
Oh,
Actually,
First,
The science.
Research by cardiologist Stephen Elliott and others has shown that breathing at 5 to 6 breaths per minute synchronizes with the body's major wave,
A natural oscillation in blood pressure that cycles at roughly the same frequency,
Meaning 5 to 6.
Cycles per minute.
When the breath and the mayor's wave align.
The heart rate variability reaches its highest amplitude,
Meaning the autonomic nervous system is oscillating maximally between sympathetic and parasympathetic states with each breath cycle.
So remember,
The inhale is going to activate the sympathetic nervous system,
The exhale,
The parasympathetic nervous system.
Both branches of the autonomic nervous system are active and balanced rather than one dominating the other,
Which is kind of what I told you also with the alternate nostril breathing.
This is why coherent breathing is considered one of the most efficient ways to build vagal tone over time.
Remember,
Vagal tone means you're able to meet Um.
.
.
The challenges of life and having the flexibility to move fluidly through states.
Sometimes we want to play and we want to have this,
You know,
A little bit of sympathetic activation while staying also socially engaged and available.
Sometimes we want to rest.
And rest and digest,
Right?
And just let ourselves recover from activity.
Sometimes we want to be focused and engaged and maybe like,
You know,
It requires like being more settled and more still.
And so the vagal tone is gonna,
You know,
Build and allow us to do that through this breathing.
The research of Richard Gervitz at Alliant International University and Paul Lehrer at Ruger.
Rutgers shows that consistent practice of resonance frequency breathing produces durable increases in HRV.
We all want higher HRV for the reasons that I've just described.
Improved emotional regulation and reduced anxiety and depression symptoms.
I've noticed it.
I feel so much more calm and positive when I do this breathing.
Not just during the session,
But as a baseline shift in nervous system function.
Okay,
Any questions?
On that,
How to increase our breathing out from Kiran.
Well,
I don't know if you were there,
Kiran,
In the first So,
Coherent breathing is not about extending the exhale or the breath out,
It's about equal And one of the things I said today is we don't want to stretch ourselves and try to do more in the,
At least in this live,
Because we're trying to notice the effects of the breath and to learn from that.
So when we're trying to do something,
We're going to get more sympathetically activated and that's going to actually shut down some of the prefrontal cortex capacities to actually,
You know,
Connect with the practices and anchor them.
And develop those new neural pathways.
But the first practice,
Kieran,
Once I'm able to put this recording on inside timer,
You can go back to the extended Excel and just practice extending your Excel.
And just do it gently and slowly and be present with yourself and then it will happen naturally.
Let's go to the last practice.
Well,
We'll do a closing practice also.
And we're going to do the physiological side.
So the physiological side is one of the most And if you know about.
.
.
Uberman Andrew Uberman who is from Stanford University is a researcher and he has this podcast with you know,
So much in scientific information Not saying I resonate or don't resonate with him.
That's not even the the point.
I'm just saying that he actually has a great podcast on the physiological side and You'll see also in my meditations I use the physiological side to actually bring about the completion of a stress loop that then brings brings about a natural relaxation response as a result.
Because when we're bracing,
Or we're shallow breathing,
Or we haven't completed a stress loop,
What happens is that We're going to have an imbalance,
We're going to have an excess of CO2 in our blood,
And we're also going to be in a sympathetic state where we are basically hyper-aroused,
Hyper-vigilant.
That's,
You know,
We need to basically let that out.
And one of the easiest way to let that out is with the physiological side.
And the physiological side can also be used for panic attacks when you do many of them.
So you keep doing them until,
And Randy,
You would have to check if that would work for you.
Maybe ask,
You know,
One of the AIs.
I would ask maybe Gemini or Claude.
ChatGPT sometimes is inaccurate with those things.
To.
That said I have just found that sometimes the information is just like basically appeasement and it's not really research,
So do a little bit of that.
Of that research and then find out if that would work for you.
And so the physiological sigh is something that can,
Like I said a moment ago,
It's gonna help you to complete a stress loop.
So the way that it works is we're going to inhale.
Through the nose if you can and then another inhale through the nose and then exhale through the mouth like sighing and a longer exhale.
So it would go like this.
The inhales are a little bit sharper than the exhale and the second inhale is slightly sharper than the first inhale.
So you're activating.
And then you're releasing.
So that's the completion of the stress loop.
You're building up.
And whatever is in your system is getting access,
Basically,
As you do this inhalation and as you exhale.
You're letting it all go.
So.
.
.
Start by,
Again,
Yielding into support.
Maybe orient yourself again to your space.
Find an object of delight so that you resource yourself.
You can open your eyes and have a soft gaze,
Open gaze,
As if you were looking out at the beauty of nature,
Looking over the horizon and just taking everything in.
Or you can close your eyes and just go inside.
Allow yourself to be with yourself in this moment.
And feel yourself kind of melting.
When I think about melting,
If you know about the work of Salvador Dali,
He has all this melting,
You know.
Objects in his paintings.
And.
.
.
When you,
If you have a reference point for that,
When you think about that,
You can feel your body in the same state,
Like,
Okay,
I'm just gonna.
Relax and soften.
Let everything be soft.
And then when you're ready we're going to start with the physiological sign.
And you do as many cycles as you want.
So it can be just one.
It can be two,
It can be three.
And it'll be great.
If you get a yawn or a burp.
Or some other kind of movement that tells you that your nervous system,
Your vagus nerve,
Has released the stored stress in the body.
Let's go so Mmm.
Hmm.
Yeah.
And keep going or don't And for me.
.
.
It just immediately,
Three,
And I just yawn.
So I'm going to continue in a moment to look at the chat,
But just keep doing this.
Remember you're completing the stress loops that are as of yet.
Incomplete in your nervous system when you're doing that and you're learning also to let go.
Again,
You're letting go of the excess CO2.
And let your body lead the way here instead of your mind.
Just like really be connected.
What does your body need?
Maybe you have a lot of stored,
You know,
Open stress loops.
Maybe there's a lot of things that feel unresolved in your life.
So you need to cycle through more of that and that's okay.
And then come back to natural breathing.
And notice what is happening inside of you so pause rest now it is Be with yourself,
Be with your body.
Remember,
You're rewiring your brain right now for self-regulation.
I'm going to give you the explanation in a moment for the physiological side.
Again,
Very easy.
I think I have it.
If you look up my,
You know,
Different,
There's like the reset one and,
And another nervous system reset,
Like a 15 minute one on inside timer has the physiological side in it.
So you can practice that or you can look someone up that does the physiological side.
Okay,
I'm going to read some of the comments and then I'd love to hear how that was for you,
What you noticed.
So Kiran says,
Sorry as I am first time over here,
Is there any breathing technique night time before sleep?
Um.
.
.
Yeah,
I saw that you know the pranayama language,
Yogic language,
I think,
Kiran,
If I'm not mistaken.
You can do Ujjayi breathing.
Or ocean breathing.
That is super soothing.
So just like for those of you who have practiced yoga.
And then relax your exhale and slowly lengthen the exhale.
Over time not forcing it again.
Remember when you're forcing the breath you're going to sympathetically activate yourself So that would be helpful.
And then there's mantras also for sleep.
Har Har Mukhande for instance so you can inhale and say Har Har Mukhande.
Har,
Har u kande.
That's one of the mantras that helps with sleep.
Yawn.
And yours?
And getting to this place where you're telling yourself you're gonna yawn,
And that is amazingly relaxing.
I adore it.
Summer star.
Har,
Har mukande.
Om,
Om is also awesome,
Yes.
And um.
.
.
What did I want to say about the yawning?
Yeah,
So if you were.
.
.
At my live on neuromodulation,
I explained that if you want also a vagal response,
And that can be helpful for the person.
Sorry,
I can't remember all the names at this time.
We have so much participation,
Which is awesome.
I'm so happy for that.
So you stay with your head neutral and you look to the left.
With your eyes.
I'll tell you when I know.
For me that's immediate,
It doesn't take a minute,
Usually it can take up to a minute.
And then you look to the right and you wait for the yawn.
It takes me more time to yawn on the right than on the left,
Interestingly.
And yeah,
So that's it.
Also very helpful.
Physiological sigh or the serial yawning is super effective or the eye movement because it triggers the vagus nerve to release what it's holding.
Okay,
So what's happening in your brain and body when you're doing the physiological side?
The stress response is designed to complete the physiology of fight or flight.
Includes muscular activation,
Hormonal release of cortisol and adrenaline,
Amongst others,
It's not the only ones,
And accelerated breathing and heart rate,
All of which are meant to resolve through action.
So like what we see in animals in the wild who shake.
After a stressful event.
When we can't act because the threat is social,
Internal,
Imagined,
Or ongoing,
Or is coming from memory,
Which you could say is imagined,
The stress cycle gets interrupted and the activation and the hormones,
So the physiology,
Stay in the body as toward physiological tension and bracing.
Researchers Emily and Amelia Nagoski described this as an incomplete stress cycle or response.
The danger has passed,
But the body has not received the signal that it's over.
So it keeps sending signals to the brain,
Something's wrong,
Something's wrong,
Something's wrong,
Something wrong,
Wrong.
And then the brain,
Okay,
Something's wrong,
Let me look for the threat.
So it stays in hypervigilance.
Active connected breathing works by completing the stress cycle.
The two-part inhale activates the diaphragm and intercostal muscles more fully than normal breathing,
Which temporarily increases sympathetic arousal.
Which is again it brings up what's already activated in us,
Helps us get in touch with that activation,
And then this resolves through the extended exhale.
This mimics the physiological completion of a stress cycle a stress response and gives the body the signal it's been waiting for.
Okay,
You can let go.
It's finished.
We're done.
There's no more threat here.
The emotional release that sometimes accompanies this is not a side effect.
So if you're feeling sad or angry or whatever it is,
That's part of the stress response that got forwarded,
You know,
Where you froze and you didn't do it.
And so it's the stress cycle completing.
So that's it for the science.
For those of you who can't stay,
I'm gonna do five more minutes with just an integration practice.
Very simple.
And if there's any comments on the physiological side or any questions,
This is a good time before I do the integration,
And then we'll close this live.
I hope you enjoyed and that this was helpful to you.
So let's do our integration practice together.
Okay.
So,
Again,
Come back to this space that you're in,
Maybe look around.
Orienting to the space,
The pace that feels are in sync with where you are right now.
Maybe you've slowed down since the beginning of this live.
Or maybe not.
Wherever you are is where you're supposed to be because that's where your nervous system is.
It's what your nervous system is telling your body and your brain.
So the more you can be with that,
The more you can settle and be connected to what's inside of you.
So maybe look again for an object of delight around you.
Right now I'm looking at a beautiful suncatcher that one of my friends made for me.
And it's bringing memories of safe connection and caring and nurturing.
And so I'm just allowing that to come in and to sink in.
And then you can either close your eyes or let your gaze be soft.
Settle into the support of the chair or the bed that you're sitting or lying on.
It's really yielding to the support.
Let yourself receive this support.
You've come here,
You've been here for almost an hour and 40 minutes now.
It's time to really just nurture yourself if you haven't already been doing that.
Just really receive right now.
Receive yourself.
Receive your commitment.
Receive your capacity to make space for yourself.
Appreciating yourself,
Congratulating yourself for.
For making time in your day or in your evening or in your night.
Or self-care.
And if you'd like,
You can place a hand on your belly,
A hand on your heart.
When you're doing that,
By the way,
You're sending signals to the brain.
Place attention there.
And to bring calming,
Relaxing energy in your heart and in your gut.
Feel the rising and the falling of your belly and of your chest.
Maybe smiling to your heart and smiling.
To your gut,
To your belly.
Smiling to yourself.
Honoring yourself.
Appreciating yourself.
Loving yourself.
And as you smile down at your heart and your gut,
Maybe they smile back at you.
You feel them relaxing.
You feel yourself more present,
More grounded,
More comfortable in your body.
And take a moment to rest.
In this nurturing moment.
With yourself.
Pause,
Rest,
Notice what is different from the beginning of the life.
How do you feel?
Thank your brain,
Thank your nervous system,
Thank your heart,
Your gut,
Your whole body,
All your cells.
And know that with each breath practice.
With each breath.
With your attention,
Your commitment,
Your focus,
You are rewiring your brain.
And you're changing.
And integrating maybe neural pathways that have been dysregulated.
Due to whatever experiences of stress,
Incomplete.
Stress cycles.
And your learning.
To integrate that so that you can be more present.
More calm.
More playful,
More engaged,
More available.
So that you can rest better,
Digest better,
Recover better.
Engage in life,
Be creative.
Have fun!
So the breath supports all of that.
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
So what I shared earlier on may with the breath would be helpful.
I have a sleep meditation that's 8 hours,
You might try that.
And I would say.
With bipolar,
I would work with.
.
.
You know,
This.
A lot of new science on bipolar disorder and a lot of supplements that can help with that.
For instance,
EPA,
1000 milligrams of EPA a day is very helpful.
It's actually,
There's been research,
It's as effective as,
And I know that's not bipolar,
That said,
It's as effective as Prozac.
In helping,
You know with with depression and and different things in the brain,
And when they are mental.
Conditions like bipolar disorder.
Parts work can be really helpful.
And again,
The brain has inflammation when there's something happening in the mind or in the brain.
So you want to help with this inflammation and the EPA,
High quality EPA oils help with that.
And then the nadisodana,
Right,
Because that's balancing both hemispheres of the brain and both sides of the body.
Oh,
EPA,
Yes.
EPA,
1,
000 milligrams minimum.
Is,
You can look up again,
Uberman,
He talks about it,
The study that showed that Prozac and EPA at 1,
000 milligram had the same results on mental health.
For you know to lower brain inflammation our brain is 60% fat.
It needs good fat And when we don't have that,
Then the brain has a bunch of different disorders and inflammation,
You know,
Also is in the brain.
And then there's the microglia goes and clean out our neural pathways,
But not necessarily neural pathways that we want cleaned out.
So.
That's also part of that.
Okay.
