Before we get started,
Make sure that you're in a comfortable position where you can sit for just a few minutes and you won't be disturbed.
So even if you have to go in the bathroom,
In a closet,
Ideally you're in a room where you can close the door,
But just do the best you can.
And whether it's sitting down,
Laying down,
Just make sure that your upper body stays straight so that the breath can move easily in and out.
So once you find your quiet,
Comfortable position,
Just close your eyes and start to notice your breath.
So you're not changing anything,
You're just feeling it moving in and out of your body.
Maybe you're breathing in and out of your nose,
Maybe you're breathing in your nose and out of your mouth.
Just see what the breath is doing.
And then bring one hand to your stomach and one hand to your chest.
And try to pull your breath deeper down into your belly so that your belly expands and you press against your lower hand before your chest expands and you feel that movement in the hand that's up higher.
This also feels like an expansion in the whole upper half of your body out to the sides,
Obviously to the front,
Maybe even in your back a little bit.
Just continue taking a few deep breaths here again,
Feeling everything expand,
Feeling your lungs fill up on your inhale.
And then exhaling everything out,
Feeling the breath move up and through your throat out of your nose or your mouth on your exhale.
And feel free to just stay here and keep breathing those deep belly breaths.
Or another thing you can try right now is moving to towards an even inhale and an even exhale.
So what that looks like is counting.
Let's start with four on your inhale.
And that can be four seconds or just counting to the number four if four seconds feels like a lot.
So inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And then exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And again,
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And just play around with that over the next few rounds of breath and see if maybe you can slow it down a little bit more.
Maybe you can go four seconds or maybe like I was just doing,
You just count to four on your inhale,
Count to four on your exhale.
But what that even inhale and exhale does is helps regulate your system because we usually either inhale or exhale a little bit faster.
And so when we even it out,
It just as I said,
It regulates our system,
It calms things down,
It kind of gets us back on track,
Which is what we really need right now.
So continue breathing here on your own.
I'm going to be quiet for a moment.
And now feel free to continue this breath work on your own or you can be done.
And it's just a quick five minute breathing exercise that you can do when you start to feel anxious or stressed or if you just need to take a little break throughout the day.
