10-Minute Balancing The Nervous System Through Breath

This is a 10-minute balancing of the nervous system through gentle relaxation and nine rounds of the physiological Sigh.

The Physiological sigh is a wonderful breath to use when you're feeling anxious, worried, or a mix of emotions swirling inside of you.

Join me in a gentle relaxation and nine rounds of physiological Sighs.

Transcript

This is a short breath break. I'm going to go over the physiological sigh and we'll do about nine rounds of breath. So the physiological sigh is a really simple breath and it's one you can do when you feel like your nervous system is out of balance. When the sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive you have that fight-or-flight response, Anxiety, Fears, Panic, All of a sudden that jolt of energy within that maybe is uncomfortable. On the other side of that is the parasympathetic nervous system and that is more of the rest and digest. We can be out of balance there too and that would be more of sluggishness, More of a depressive feel, Always tired or groggy. The nervous system, Which includes both the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system, They work in balance and the physiological sigh is a beautiful breath to gently bring into balance that nervous system. The physiological sigh is very much what a child does when they're calming themselves down from that place of a tantrum or an emotional moment. They tend to suck in air through their nose and sigh it out through their mouth and so the physiological sigh is very similar to this. So it's two gentle sips in through the nose. You can hold it for a second if you'd like but you don't have to and then opening your mouth and sighing it out. And that's it. That's the physiological sigh. You can imagine for a moment a little child who maybe just had a tantrum or maybe had a an emotional moment. You can almost picture them going now they might be doing it faster as a response that they're not even aware of. But when you're using the physiological sigh you can do it faster or you can do it slower. For now we're going to practice just nine rounds of the physiological sigh. So just taking a moment to get your body still. You can sit wherever is comfortable. You can sit with your legs crossed or you can even lay down in bed and put a pillow under your knees or under your head. You can be in your car right now just pulled over for a minute and just allow your eyes to close gently and let your attention gently wash over your body. You might let your attention wash from the top of your head, Behind your eyes, Your nasal passages, Inside of your mouth, Back of your tongue, Your throat. Letting your attention wash over your shoulders, Down your arms, Past your elbows and wrists, Down to your fingertips. Let your attention wash over the heart center, The ribs, Waist, Over the hips, Down the legs, Past the knees and ankles, Down to the bottoms of your feet. Just allowing that attention to settle down now on how you're breathing in the moment. Just take notice. Don't try to change your breathing. Just take notice of your inhale and your exhale. There's no judgment here. Just notice how your body is breathing in this moment. We're going to begin the physiological sigh, Which again is two gentle sips in through the nose, Opening your mouth and sighing it out. So that is what a physiological sigh is. We're going to do this for nine rounds. Here we go. Two gentle sips in through the nose. Open your mouth and sigh it out. And four more. Two gentle sips in through the nose. Opening your mouth and sighing out. And one last one. Two gentle sips in through the nose. Open your mouth and you might even put voice on this if you'd like. And just releasing that, Take a moment to keeping your eyes closed, If you have them closed, To let your attention wash over your body one more time. Just to let your attention gently wash from the top of the head, Behind the eyes, Over the ears, The nose, Mouth, The center of the throat, Shoulders, Down the arms, Down to the fingertips, The heart space, Ribs, Waist, Pelvic bowl, Down the hips, All the way down to the bottoms of the feet. Just allowing your attention to wash over you, That awareness just washing across your body. And just allow it to settle on your own natural breath for a minute, Just witnessing your inhale and your exhale whenever it arises, However deep or shallow, However fast or slow. Just witness your breath for a moment. Now you can do the physiological sigh as many times as you need to, As many rounds as you need. I like to do nine breaths per round and sometimes I do three rounds. You can modify the rounds by holding your breath before the exhale or adding sound to your exhale. You can modify the speed for what's comfortable for you. But this is a beautiful breath to balance the nervous system. So I hope you are able to use it. I hope this helps you and thank you for coming along. Namaste.