Take A Breathwork Break: Energetic Box Breath Technique

Stop working for 5 minutes and take a breathwork break. This energetically enhanced box breath technique goes beyond the standard box breath benefits by adding a power pose and a magical visualization to change your energetic state quickly. Practice standing up at your desk, outside, or seated.

Transcript

Consider doing this standing at your desk or outside in what's called the Wonder Woman or Superman pose, Which is that your hands are at your sides and you're nice and tall. And according to the preliminary research done by famous TED Talk speaker Amy Cuddy, Changing the shape of your body for a minimum of two minutes can have energetic effects which change the physiology of our bodies, Lowering stress hormones and inflammation. And even better, If you can do this barefoot, Again on the ground or concrete surface, Then do so. So we stand here with our hands onto our sides, Legs are kind of slightly apart. Feet planted in the ground. Step two, Begin a box breathing pattern, All right? So if you haven't done box breathing before, It's a simple pattern that goes like this. Four second inhale. Two, Three, Four, Four second hold at the top. Three, Four, Four second exhale. Three, Four, And four second hold at the bottom. Three, Four. Okay, So we're doing the box breathing. Four, It's like this, A box. Four count. Inhale, Four count, Hold. Four count, Exhale. Four count, Hold out. When we do the breathing, We're going to do what's called ujjayi breath. This is a yogic term that just means basically to constrict the throat slightly. To make the sound of ocean waves breaking on the shore as you continue your breath, Okay? So it sounds like this. Or part in. Hold for 4 seconds. Exhale for 4. So this actually helps tone the vagus nerve and induces even more calm into the breath work. So do that Ujjayi breath. All right, Step three, The final part is to connect inside by doing a visualization. This increases what's called interoception or the ability to feel inside of our interiority. To get an energetic connection going. And then when you exhale, Imagine sending that sparkly rainbow energy down the front of your body, Down to the core of your pelvis again, Okay? So this time, Let's do it together. Breathing with me. If you want to, You can close your eyes. This can help you concentrate on the visualization. Okay, Let's put this all together. So you're standing there, You got your hands on your sides, You're standing tall, Feet planted in the ground. We're going to begin with the breath, The Ujjayi breath. And we're imagining this rainbow energy coming up from the base of our pelvis, Up our spine, To our heads, Then down the front of the body, Back to the pelvis. All right, Let's begin. Breathing in four counts. Holding at the top. And exhaling again the rainbow down the front of the body. Hold at the bottom. Inhale the rainbow up. Exhale the rainbow down. And hold. Inhale the rainbow up. Exhale the rainbow down. Inhale the rainbow up. Exhale, Rainbow down. Inhale the rainbow up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhaler. Exhale it down. You can continue at your own pace. You can even do this, Of course, Sitting at your desk. This kind of energetic box breathing is an enhanced version of the box breath, Which is really well studied for how it can reduce stress, Induce a state of calm, To get us present and connected to our center.