Hello everyone and welcome to Today's at 250.
Whether you're joining live or listening to the recording,
It's great to have you here.
Thanks for joining.
For Today's at 250,
This is a supplement practice,
So we're going to be looking at boxed breathing today.
Box breathing is a great technique that can be used to quiet the mind.
It can be used to concentrate the mind,
Center the mind.
I sometimes use it before going to bed in order to fall asleep and I also use it sometimes when I get up in the morning if the mind is running to help balance the mind out before I start the day.
So for today's practice it's going to be much shorter.
We'll just go for a few minutes.
I'll introduce box breathing,
Run through a couple of rounds of it,
And then leave you to run through a couple rounds on your own and come back at the end to close us out.
So again,
Thank you for joining Today's at 250 and thanks for being here.
Box breathing is very simple.
It's basically a count of the breath for an inhale,
The same count while you hold the breath,
The same count while you exhale,
And the same count again while you hold the breath.
So for today let's start with a count of four.
With boxed breathing you can also use any count you like.
As you become more masterful at it,
You might want to increase the count,
But a count of four seems to be a good place to start for most people.
So first just take a moment to check in with your posture and your breathing as it is now.
How is it?
What's the texture of your breath?
What does it feel like to be where you are right now?
Just take one moment to check in.
And yeah,
So for boxed breathing we'll start with an inhale.
So let's start by inhaling for a count of 1,
2,
3,
4 and holding for a count of 1,
2,
3,
4 and then exhaling for a count of 1,
2,
3,
4 and holding for a count of 1,
2,
3,
4 and then inhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
Hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And again inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Inhaling,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Three,
Four,
And hold,
Four,
And inhale,
And hold,
And exhale,
And hold.
Now take the inhale on your own,
Hold,
Exhale,
Hold.
And for this round I'll be quiet then inhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling.
Now great,
You can keep going with this practice or you can let the breath return back to normal now,
Just letting the inhales and exhales happen as they will.
And then take another moment now to check in with the body and just notice how you're feeling.
Notice how the quality of the breath might have changed and maybe your posture and other sensations that you're having on the body might have changed as well.
So this can be a great practice to even out the mind like I said,
And you can extend the count of breathing as you wish.
If you ever begin to feel lightheaded or strange or tingly or something that you're not comfortable with,
Just return to the normal breath.
There's no reason to push the limits on this one,
But this can be a great practice of boxed breathing to regulate and even out the mind.
So I really appreciate everyone joining today for APT250.
I hope this practice is something you can use on a regular basis and maybe we'll see you again.
So thanks so much.
