3-2-5 Breathing For Grounding And Calm

This is a brief breathwork practice to help you settle and feel more grounded using a 3-2-5 rhythm: inhale for three, hold for two, and exhale for five. This type of breathing where we extend the exhale signals to the nervous system to relax. You practice several rounds with gentle attention, softening the jaw and relaxing the eyes and eyebrows, then continue on your own to find your rhythm. The practice transitions from counting to simply observing the breath, then to natural breathing, and ends with a collective breath of gratitude before opening the eyes. Give it a try and let me know what you think! Once you know the technique you can practice at any moment throughout your day.

Transcript

Hello, My name is Brenda. This is a very quick breath work practice that you can do when you want to settle and just feel a bit more grounded. So it's a practice of breathing in for the count of three. You'll hold the breath for just a brief count of two, And then you'll exhale for the count of five. We never want to feel like we're straining at any moment, So you might have to modify some of this count. And you can work up to three, Or you can work up to five. As we're exploring the breath in a few moments, Just know or have a quick understanding that as we're extending the exhale, That starts to signal to our nervous system that we can settle, That we can relax, And that we can ground further. So go ahead, Start to make your way to your seat, Closing your eyes or looking down. To start, Just take a big breath in through the nose, Out the mouth. Again like that, And then we'll start in the third round. Inhale through the nose, Exhale out the mouth. A very gentle breathing in, Three, Two, One, Hold. Exhale, Five, Four, Three, Two, One. Breathe in, Three, Two, One, Hold. Exhale, Five, Four, Three, Two, One. Breathe in, Three, Two, One, Hold. Exhale, Five, Two, One. Continue on a few more rounds on your own. As you're cultivating your own rhythm, Your own counting, Be very gentle with the breath, Almost like you're cupping a butterfly between your palms. It's a gentle observation, It's a gentle hold and a slow release. Gentle reminders of releasing your jaw, Softening the eyebrows or the eyes. I know I was kind of holding on to those parts of myself right now, So just some reminders to relax that as well. And take two more rounds, And then let the counting fall and just observe the breath. No counting, But just see if you can kind of keep that rhythm. And now let go of any pattern. Perhaps you are still retaining or just any rhythm, Just natural breathing now. However, It's coming inside of you. And to finish off our practice here, We'll take a collective breath and gratitude together. Breathe in through the nose and out the mouth. Blink your eyes open as you're feeling ready. Thank you so much. I hope this brief yet intentional breath work will be supportive in the rest of your day.