This is a practice to share with your children.
It's called hands-on belly breathing.
We're going to try something now called hands-on belly breathing.
This is something you can try whenever you want to calm down.
You are feeling upset or perhaps it's time to go to sleep.
You can do this lying down in bed or on the floor or sitting in a chair.
Begin by placing both your hands on your belly.
Can you feel how your belly goes up and down as you breathe in and as you breathe out?
So now perhaps keeping your hands where they are,
Closing your eyes if you're happy to do that.
And seeing now if you can just notice your hands on your belly gently moving up and down as you breathe.
Seeing now if you can notice with your hands on your belly the belly rising as the breath comes in and the belly dropping down as the breath goes out.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Hands on belly,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
There's no need to breathe in any special way.
You know how to breathe and you're breathing all the time whether you're noticing it or not.
Sometimes when we do this our mind goes on to other things.
It doesn't stay with the belly breathing.
And if this happens to you,
Don't worry.
Just come back to hands on belly and notice your breathing all over again.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Can you feel anything else in your body?
Maybe you can feel the breath as it comes into your nose,
As it's cool as you breathe in.
And then it's warm when you breathe out.
Are there any other places in your body where you can feel yourself breathe?
If you're lying on the floor you might even notice that your back moves very gently against the floor as you breathe in.
Tuning in to your body breathing.
Breathing in and out,
Feeling your hands gently moving up and down like a boat on a nice calm sea.
Whenever you want to you can do this on your own.
Belly moves gently up and down,
Your hands move gently up and down as you breathe.
So you can do this anytime you want to calm down.
When you want to make yourself feel better when you're upset.
Or when you want to get off to sleep.
I'm going to stop this practice now.
If you're feeling warm and comfortable and you want to carry on you can do this on your own.
Hands on belly breathing.
And each time you do this you'll be getting better at doing it.
So doing it every day will mean that when you are upset or you want to settle yourself down you can do this really easily.
Remember hands on belly breathing.
Belly breathing.
