Powerful, Soothing And Calming Breath Practice

This is one of my favourite breathing techniques, and in this teaching I share a powerful breath combination from the yogic tradition: the 4-6 breathing ratio and the Ujjayi ocean breath. You'll learn each technique separately before practicing them together.
Try doing 3-4 rounds any time you need to calm your nervous system, reconnect to your breath, or wind down before bedtime. It only takes a few minutes and makes a real difference.

Transcript

I am Jasmine and I'm here today to guide you and to share with you some some breathing techniques or actually one breathing technique made up out of two breathing techniques. And this is quite powerful. It's very simple and also quite powerful. And it calms your nervous system almost instantly. And I swear by it as of a long time now. So what we're going to do is we're going to combine two techniques that both came from the yogic tradition. We're going to work on the four to six breathing ratio, Which I learned from the wonderful David Gee, My teacher. And we're going to work with the Ujjayi breath, Also known as the ocean breath. I think I was introduced to the Ujjayi breath by Adrian. From Yoga with Adrienne. She's awesome. And I'm sure you know, If you know her, You know, She's awesome. And together, These two breathing techniques make a really powerful combination. So first, Let's learn them one at a time, And then we'll put them together and we'll work on it in that way. And it might sound complicated, But it's really not once you once you have it, You won't forget. It's like writing a book. So why does breathing out longer matter? Okay, So this is how it goes. When you inhale, Your heart rate actually speeds up slightly. And as you've noticed, If you're startled by something or something is happening to you that you're not feeling so good about, You do this kind of short inhaling breath, Right? And that is your alert mode activating. So that kind of happens when we breathe in. And when you exhale, Something completely different happens. Your vagus nerve is stimulated and your heart rate goes down and your body shifts into rest and digest mode. So the longer your exhale is compared to your inhale, The more you signal to your body that you are safe. This is exactly why the four to six ratio works so beautifully because we get to work in just a little bit, Work in, Breathe in just a little bit shorter. And exhale a little bit longer. And this does not mean, Of course, That whenever you're just breathing, Doing four by four, For instance, A four to four, That is going to stress you out in any kind of way, But it just gives you a little bit more of the benefit while exhaling a little bit longer. So let's practice the four to six breath. Let's try it. So first, Let's just ground together by taking a long, Slow, Deep breath in together and exhale. Let's relax and if you want to close your eyes you can and let's take a long, Slow, Deep breath. And now we're going to begin count to four while we're taking a breath in through our nose. So in through our nose and exhale out through our mouth. So let's count to four and inhale through our nose first. And exhale for six. Inhale to four. Two, Three, Four, And exhale to six. Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. Inhale to four. Two, Three, Four. Exhale to six. 234. And once again. Inhale to four. 2, 3, 4. And exhale through your mouth to six, Two, Three, Four, Five. And now just allow your breath to flow naturally and notice what happened in your body. Let's introduce the Ujjayi breath. So we can put the other one to the side for just a moment. This is an ancient yogic breath and it's also known as the ocean breath. Some call it the Darth Vader breath as well. Because it has a similar sound to what he's making. Your choice. So let's practice this by pretending that your hand is a mirror. Pick a hand and it is your mirror. So we're going to put your hand in front of your mouth. And you're going to pretend that you're fogging up the mirror. So let's do that. There's no need to count here, Just breathe into the mirror. Now you're going to do the same thing, But you're going to also do it on the inhale. So you're going to take a similar breath on the inhale. That's a sound breath. So go the same way you just did, But. Also add the inhale being a sound. And now to the fun part. Take your hand down, Unless you want to keep it up and keep pretending. That's totally fine as well. Now we're going to do the same thing, But we're going to close our mouth. So it sounds and looks like this. Now let that settle for a moment. How does that feel? For me, It makes me really sleepy. And it just reminds me of the ocean. Allow those vibrations to kind of just. . . Travel in your body. And now let's try and put them together. Let's take a long, Slow, Deep breath in and count to four through our nose, Mouth closed. And then we exhale, Mouth closed, Make the sound in the back of your throat. Counting to six. So let's go again. Inhale to four, Exhale to six. Two, Three, Four, And exhale to six. Two, Three. Four, Five. Inhale to four. Two. Exhale to cease. Four. Go two more rounds. Inhale. And exhale. Last round, Inhale to four. And exhale to six. And now return to your natural breath. Perhaps you'd like to sigh. Let it all out. This is really great for when you're. . . Going to bed at the same time as you can use it in between things. I tend to use it between tasks sometimes. As an entrepreneur and a freelancer, I have this long list to do every day. In between them, I tend to take these breaths just to kind of get a reset. Or if you have a difficult conversation to have with someone, It's a good thing to do before. As you wake up in the morning to just connect with yourself. Anytime really, This is a great breath to return to, To calm everything down. So I hope this helps and I am so grateful that you took some breaths with me and take care and I'll see you on the next one.