Harmonic Breathing For Optimal Wellbeing

The evidence base for this practice indicates that it helps overall well-being because of the inter-related systems of the body, nervous, respiratory, digestion, immune, and cardiovascular. The most powerful link between all of these is breathing. This practice also facilitates optimal heart rate variability (HRV). As a practice for a stressed-out world, with all the metabolic complications of this stress, this daily practice is a kind of preventative medicine for the modern age. It has been shown to help people recover from burnout and problematic health. Practice it now and see what you think?

Transcript

Welcome.

Now with this practice we're going to work with creating an optimal harmonic resolution for all of the fluctuating flowing systems of your body and mind.

So this is your blood flow and your heartbeat rate,

The venus return,

The blood coming back to the heart,

Your lymphatic fluid flow which is connected to the immune system,

The cerebrospinal fluid flow which goes up and down your spinal cord and around the brain and this is largely powered by breath by the inhalation.

All of these different systems and it's also about bringing in harmonic resonance between the heartbeat rate and the brain itself.

The brain is responding to every single breath.

The movement of the diaphragm and the brain are intimately interwoven in terms of the sensory information going up from the body to the brain and also the pressure changes that breathing inculcates and creates in this fluid matrix of the body.

We are between 50 and 60 percent water by volume,

99 percent by molecular weight.

So this fluid matrix of the body is fundamentally important.

When we work with the breath in this kind of way for short periods of time for between 15 and 20 minutes what happens is that it tends to regulate these processes bringing them back into harmony,

Back into coherence.

It has been shown with evidence,

Evidence base of this,

The data behind this,

That this practice will return the heart to optimal function if somebody has been living in a stressed out state and the heart and the brain are no longer in optimal harmonic connectivity.

So quite a profound practice and a practice of building much more cohesive and coherent well-being in your body and mind.

So what do we do?

How do you do it?

Well very simply you're going to breathe in through the nose.

If you rest the tip of your tongue first behind the top teeth,

If you make the sound nugget,

Nugget that's the letter N at the beginning,

Nugget,

Like a nugget of gold.

Make that sound and feel where the N position is and rest your tongue gently there and then relax your jaw and smile a little bit and then breathe in through the nose.

So the tongue position is really important in terms of the way it affects the cranial nerves,

Cranial nerve 5 in this case.

So tongue in place,

Jaw relaxed,

Just check your shoulders are relaxed and wriggle them if you need to a little bit.

Wriggle them on an exhalation just to release those shoulder muscles a bit.

So tongue in place,

Release shoulder muscles,

Face relaxed,

Breathe in slowly through the nose and just notice the kind of rhythm that your body wants to do right now.

And then when you get to the end of that inhalation don't hold the breath at all,

Just simply go straight into the exhalation.

So this breath is a circular breath,

It's going from inhale into exhale,

Exhale into inhale without any substantive pauses at the end of the inhalation or the end of the exhalation.

Just noticing what the current rhythm,

The current cadence is like for your body.

Now this practice is very similar to some yogic practices and the name of the yogic practice is similar to is Samavritti,

Samavritti Pranayama.

And Samavritti is an equal wave,

An equal inhalation and an equal exhalation.

So what we're going to do now and what you're going to do,

The invitation at least,

Is to find your breath rhythm somewhere between five and six seconds on the inhalation and five and six seconds on the exhalation.

So we're getting that equal wave on the inhale and the exhale.

Now a second it can be counted in a slow second,

It's something like one and two and three and.

Another way of counting it is one elephant,

Two elephants,

Three elephants,

Four elephants,

Five elephants,

Six elephants.

So we can count the breath,

You can count it in your mind,

But what I'm going to do here is use a little chime.

So I'm going to chime,

Gently chime for six seconds.

Now that may or may not work for you,

Maybe your breath is a little bit less than that,

So I'll just do a couple of breaths like that with the chime to give you a feeling of that kind of dimension to the breath,

That kind of extent of the breath.

Because it may be that your rhythm is 5.

4 seconds and that feels comfortable for your body.

And the most important thing is to listen to your body.

Your body is your teacher,

Your breath is your teacher.

So listen to your body and your breath.

So whether it's 5.

5 or 5.

6 or 5.

8 or 6,

Whatever it happens to be for you,

That's what you're going to work with.

So when you're ready,

Sitting comfortably,

Stacking well with the head above the chest,

The chest above the belly,

The belly above the pelvis,

Whether you're sitting cross-legged or kneeling or whether you're sitting on a chair,

Stack the upper body really well.

Just check the shoulders are relaxed,

Check the jaw is relaxed,

Check that tongue position.

And beginning the breath now,

Just gently,

Breathing in,

Breathing in,

Breathing in for that six seconds.

And exhaling.

And inhaling.

And exhaling.

And inhaling.

So you see,

That's the kind of rhythm.

To get a sense of that.

Slow and steady.

Now the other thing I should mention is the breath is going down into the belly.

So you can put your hand on your belly and as much as you possibly can,

Get that breath to expand your belly really beautifully for that six seconds on the inhalation.

And you'll feel the belly relax away from your hand on the exhalation.

So the breath is nasal,

It's abdominal down into your belly.

Somewhere around five to six seconds on the inhale.

Somewhere around five to six seconds on the exhale.

Bringing your attention to the breath.

Bring your attention to the belly,

Really feel the belly expand in your hands.

And maybe rest one hand on the heart as well.

And as you're breathing,

Keep that sense of embodied attention in the heart space.

So it's like you're bringing the energy down from your head into the heart space.

Connecting the heart space and the belly and the head together with the breath.

Keeping it steady.

Keeping your attention fully on the breath and the body.

Fully on the breath and the body.

Finding your cadence.

Finding your rhythm.

Staying fully present.

Undistracted.

Fully present.

Undistracted.

Fully present.

Continuously finding that cadence,

That rhythm.

That brings into harmony.

Your heart and your brain.

Your brain and your body.

The rhythmical flows of the fluid matrix of the body.

Keep it steady.

Keep it steady.

Maybe even enjoying the flow of breath.

Maybe even enjoying the flow of breath through the nostrils.

Finding that slight sense of bliss that can occur simply from nasal breathing.

Maybe feeling a little more relaxed.

A kind of ease and softness.

It can occur as you breathe down into the belly and expand the belly.

Just breathing like that sends new information up from the body to the brain,

Up the vagus nerve.

And the brain hears that information.

And it understands that you're relaxed.

Staying present and clear with every single breath.

Every part of the breath.

The whole of the inhale.

The whole of the exhale.

The transitions where the breath changes from the inhale to the exhale and the exhale to the inhale.

Keeping it steady.

It's really good.

You're doing really well.

Just being here.

Just doing the practice,

You're doing really well.

Practicing this harmonic breath.

This coherent breath.

This Samavritti,

A breath.

It's enabling you to find a sense of deeper clarity.

Deeper clarity.

Deeper presence.

Deeper relaxation,

Maybe.

And from the evidence we know that this brings the oscillating systems,

The fluid matrix of the body,

Into a greater state of harmony,

Of coherence.

And that this itself enhances well-being.

Keep finding that rhythm between 5 and 6 seconds on the inhalation.

5 and 6 seconds on the exhalation.

Finding what it is for your body.

Trusting your body.

Trusting the breath.

Keeping it steady.

Keeping it steady.

You've already done over 10 minutes of practice.

You're doing extremely well.

Keep it steady.

Keep finding this coherent rhythm.

This cadence that your body wants,

That your body likes.

Feeling the body.

Feeling the whole body breathing.

Feeling the whole body breathing.

Feeling the whole body breathing.

Breath coming in.

And breath going out.

Breath coming in.

And breath going out.

So we're just going to do one more minute at this cadence,

At this rhythm.

Staying present.

Staying clear with the breath.

Resting,

Relaxing into the body.

Fully and completely.

Whole body breathing.

Whole body breathing.

Breath coming in.

Breath going out through the nose.

And at the end of the next exhalation,

Let go of any control over the breath.

Give the breath back to the brain stem.

This ancient part of the brain that has been controlling breathing in all living creatures that have been on the land for the last 350 million years.

Just give it back to the brain stem now and notice.

Notice what the brain stem does with the breath now.

And as you notice this,

Notice how you feel.

Notice how the body feels.

How the mind feels.

If you want to,

You can lie down for a minute or so.

Maybe two minutes.

Just take a little rest.

Or you can sit still.

Just observing the breath.

Sometimes there's a tendency to drift off into a bit of a dream state or a trance state.

Like a daydream.

And if that happens,

It's okay.

But if you can,

Stay present with the breath.

Taste fully present,

Fully clear with the breath.

Again,

Continuing to notice.

Continuing to witness the inhalation and the exhalation.

Continuing to notice the whole body.

Whole body breathing.

Whole body breathing.

Breath coming in and breath going out through the nose.

After the next exhalation,

Take a long,

Slow inhale.

And as you breathe out,

Make a humming sound.

Let it vibrate in your nostrils.

Let it vibrate behind your eyes and your brain.

And into your chest as well,

If you can get it doing that.

So that's a slow inhalation and a long exhalation.

Breathing out.

And one more inhalation.

And a long exhalation.

Humming again.

Wonderful.

And if you have your eyes closed,

Then gently open them.

Just check that you feel good.

Check that everything is okay.

And that is the end of this practice of harmonic or coherent breathing.

You can return to this any time you want to.

That was a 12 minute practice and you can do this practice a couple of times a day if you wanted to.

You can do it for 20 minutes if you want to.

But that's the end of this practice.

So move your body in a way that feels good.

Say thank you to yourself for diving deep into this practice.

And have a really good day.

Reviews

Unique and interesting. I suspect it works its magic behind the scenes as I definitely felt a subtle new calm in my body afterwards.

Thank you so much Christopher. That practice with you is perfect. 💜

Amazing— bad insomnia (still awake) but I feel calmer— thank you 🙏🏼❤️

I found it challenging to ‘let go’ by controlling the breath and it took some time to ‘get into the flow’.
It was well worth it. Thank you🌷