Hello and welcome to this breathing practice which can help lessen that background feeling of anxiety that many of us live with.
We're going to practice breathing intentionally slowly and lightly,
No complex patterns or counting.
So begin by getting settled in your chair and sitting up tall.
Take a deep breath in through your nose,
Pause at the top and let out a cleansing sigh from your mouth.
Do this two more times and feel some tension dropping away.
We're first going to focus on becoming aware of our natural breath.
Close your eyes if you like as this can help turn your attention inwards and lightly place your focus on the center of your body.
Breathing in and out of your nose,
Notice how your breath feels right now.
Place your hands around your lower ribs and the sides of your belly and begin to become aware of the sensation of your breath through your hands.
Notice if your ribs and belly slightly rise and expand on your inhale and deflate on your exhale.
This is what we're aiming for.
If you're finding this hard or find that you're not naturally breathing this way,
Don't worry.
Keep noticing and practicing and it should become more natural for you with time.
Continue to stay aware of the sensation of your own breath in your body.
Now you have some awareness of what your breath is doing.
Let's see if we can slow our breath down a little.
So you're breathing more deeply and slowly.
In and out through your nose into your belly and ribs.
And see if you can breathe right into the bottom of your lungs and visualize your inhale filling your lungs from the bottom up and your exhale emptying your lungs from the top down.
So slow breaths in and out through your nose.
Breathing deeply and allowing yourself to really focus on your breath.
Staying nice and relaxed in your body and not forcing your breath in any way.
As you breathe in,
Your lungs are filling from the bottom up.
And as you breathe out,
Your lungs empty from the top down.
Your belly rises on your inhale and deflates on your exhale.
And when you breathe slowly and deeply like this,
Your breath is sending a calming cue to your nervous system and is shifting both your physical and emotional state.
It really can change how you actually feel in this moment.
And continue breathing slowly like this for around 15 seconds.
30 seconds more.
Keep going with breathing slowly.
And we'll begin to move into also breathing lightly in just a moment.
First,
I'll briefly explain why we might want to breathe lightly.
Ideally,
We would all benefit from breathing lightly,
Quietly and with as little effort as possible on a daily basis.
Why?
Well,
Each time we breathe out,
We blow off the gas carbon dioxide.
The lighter and slower we breathe generally,
The less carbon dioxide we get rid of,
Which in turn increases our body's tolerance of it.
The buildup of carbon dioxide in our body is what creates our urge to breathe.
And so the more we can tolerate,
The slower our breathing rate will be day to day.
So slower,
Quieter breathing is the most efficient way to help oxygen get to our blood,
Organs,
Muscles and cells and all the benefits that come with that,
Such as lower blood pressure,
Better digestion,
More energy and increased concentration.
So with that in mind,
Let's now gradually reduce how much air you're taking in.
Remember,
Breathing faster doesn't give your cells more oxygen.
It actually has the opposite effect and activates your stress response.
So continuing to breathe slowly.
Now place one hand on your belly and one hand on your belly.
And as you breathe in,
Use your hands to apply a little gentle pressure so you create some resistance to your breath.
Then let your exhale feel relaxed as if a balloon were deflating.
You're aiming for as little movement as possible in your belly and chest.
If someone were to look at you,
They'd barely see you moving.
Make each breath shorter and smaller.
Breathing as lightly as possible to the point where you feel like you'd like to breathe a little more deeply.
If you're feeling some air hunger,
You are doing it right.
But stay at a manageable level for you so that you can keep going.
So that you're not tensing up or feeling stressed in any way.
If the feeling does become too intense or breathing smoothly becomes difficult,
Stop and breathe normally for 15 seconds and then go back into our practice.
You're activating the calming side of your nervous system by breathing slowly and building your body's tolerance to carbon dioxide by breathing lightly.
Over time,
This will help you to breathe less overall and stay in a relaxed state more often.
Stay with this light and slow breathing.
For around 30 seconds more.
And now release any control of your breath.
Notice again how you feel.
Are you more relaxed?
More at ease?
Has any mental chatter quietened down a little?
Perhaps you feel just the same and that's okay too.
We are simply becoming aware.
And by tuning in to how we feel,
We gain more information about ourselves and our current state.
With more information about ourselves,
We can make small adjustments and changes to move us towards better health.
Begin to lightly move your fingers and toes now and blink open your eyes.
Do a final check-in and feel if you have more saliva in your mouth than normal.
If you do,
Then that's a sign that you have triggered the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system and moved yourself towards a calmer state.
I hope you can feel some benefits of taking a few minutes to focus on slowing down your breath and breathing more lightly.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
