Finger Trace Breath For Anxiety

If you experience anxiety or a wandering mind, this breath technique can be wonderfully helpful. A beautiful way to focus your mind and occupy your busy fingers. Your breath slows down your mind and the body focuses on methodical tracing. Take a moment to slow down and soften your busy brain. Please note that this practice is for support and does not replace professional care.

Transcript

Hello, Hello, Welcome back. So this series that I'm going to teach you now is another variation of a square breath or a boxed breath, But it's much shorter. And this one is super helpful for anyone who has trouble with a sitting still or the stillness that comes with that box breath, Especially the pauses. We can find ourselves building anxiety, The mind gets busy, The heart gets busy, The body gets tense. So this one's going to give us something to do with our hands. So we have something else to focus on just besides the movement of the breath alone. Struggles with anxiety or overwhelm and needs to refocus but finds sitting still hard, Which is a lot of us, This one is great. I also love this breath because it can be done very discreetly wherever you are, Underneath a table, Before an exam or a test, Before a big presentation, In the middle of a meeting, When you just need to refocus, Right? No one's going to notice what you're doing, Hands under the table, And this one's really easy. So what we'll do with this one, I will guide you through the breath. We're going to use one hand and then the other. I'll use my right pointer finger first for my left hand, And I'll use my left pointer finger for my right hand. So as you breathe in, The right pointer finger will draw a line, Trace right up the thumb to the top when the breath is done. As you breathe out, We're going to trace a line right down the thumb. As the next inhale wave comes, We breathe in up through the pointer finger. We pause at the top, Soft breath out through the pointer finger, Pause in the bottom. We'll continue that path up and down. It'll be 10 rounds of breath on one hand, Actually, Since we have five fingers. Then we'll release that. Left pointer finger, We'll head into the right hand, 10 rounds of breath, And we'll let that go. And we'll see where we're at. Good. So find a nice tall seat. Again, You can be sitting anywhere on the ground or in a chair. Longest spine that you can manage, As much support as you need to give that spine a lot of length. Palms will press down for a moment or flip up if you need to borrow a little energy. Some shoulder rolls and neck rolls, Get rid of any tension that's built up. Let's do it. Eyes closed if that feels comfy for you. Again, We don't need to see. I'll talk you through it or a soft gaze down. Take a big breath in through both nostrils. Big sigh out, Let go of anything that's getting in the way so far today. Full breath in through both nostrils. Big soft sigh out, Let your shoulders just melt down. Lip seal, If that's available. Breath comes in through both nostrils. Soft breath out through both nostrils. Here we go, Left palm flips up, Rest it in a comfortable place, Right pointer finger to the base of your left thumb. Inhale up the length of your thumb. Pause at the top and breath out down your thumb. Pause at the bottom. Breath in, The pointer finger up. Pause, Breath out down the pointer finger. And pause. Breath in, Up the middle finger. Pause, Breath out, Down the middle finger. Pause, Breath in, Up the ring finger. Pause, Breath out, Down the ring finger. Pause, Breath in, Up the pinky. Pause, Breath out down the pinky. Gently switch hands, Left pointer finger, Base of the right thumb. Breath in, Head up. Pause, Breath out, Down the thumb. Pause, Breath in, Up the pointer finger. Pause, Breath out, Down the pointer finger. Pause, Breath in, Up the middle finger. Pause, Breath out, Down the middle finger. Pause, Breath in up the ring finger. Pause, Breath out down the ring finger. Breath in, Up the pinky finger. And breath out down the pinky finger. Release both hands down, Take a full breath in. And a soft breath out. One more round full and deep and Gentle and soft out. Flutter your eyes open or refocus them. And once again, Just notice what you notice. Right, For me, That brings me so tactilely, If that's a word, Into my body. Right, We have so many nerve endings in our fingers, Just that gentle graze over the fingers brings your mind right down. That can be done one way and the other way and one way and the other way on both hands. So it can double its length and time. You can also do it as much as you need, Back and forth and back and forth. You can switch hands multiple times. And the goal is to try to slow the breath so much that the finger is tracing that breath the whole time. It should feel like it takes a little time to get up the finger. Obviously our fingers are different lengths, But can you keep the length of the breath the same as you move through? Hope you find that helpful. Hope you feel great. And I will see you soon.