There's an ever-changing yearning for homeostasis within our body.
Through our breathing,
We search for balance,
Engaging the two branches of our autonomic nervous system,
The sympathetic branch,
Which speeds things up and readies us for action,
And the parasympathetic,
Which slows things down and facilitates rest.
With every full cycle of our breath,
We activate these branches.
We need them both,
Love them both.
They are working hard to look after us.
With intentional breathing,
We guide our mind and body into a particular state.
Often,
Our intention is to slow things down,
To find calm and peace of mind.
When we slow down our inhalation through the expansion of our lungs,
Our sympathetic nervous system eases off a bit,
And then on the exhale,
We get more time for the parasympathetic qualities to register.
With our breath,
We can alter the chemistry in our body,
Our heart rate,
The neural circuits in our brain associated with awareness and memory,
And ultimately,
The emotional state we experience.
In this session,
We'll be performing the resonance breath,
Slowing down our breathing to roughly five to six equal breaths a minute.
The power of the resonance breath is in the effect it can have on our heart rate variability.
Heart rate variability is a good indicator of our physical and emotional health.
It's measured through the variation in time between our individual heartbeats.
We're looking for a high variability.
That's a strong indicator of good health,
Whereas decreased variability can be an indicator of stress.
When your parasympathetic branch is at play,
The heartbeat slows down,
And there's more room for the irregularities to occur.
Now,
You might think,
Why not extend the outbreath as long as possible to maximize this?
There's a reason we work towards an equal in and out breath.
We gradually encourage the respiratory and circulatory systems to bring the heart rate and breathing into coherence.
Through the synchrony of heart and breath,
We stimulate these systems at their resonance frequency.
By doing so,
We create a healthy resonance state within our physiology.
Helping to lower blood pressure,
Reduce cortisol,
And change our heart rate.
In the process,
We stimulate our vagus nerve,
The one that wanders between our brain,
Gut,
And many other organs.
By increasing its tone,
We increase our capability to relax after feeling stressed.
This isn't anything particularly spiritual,
It's just biology,
And a beautiful example of how we can affect our mind through our body,
And our body through our mind.
If you can,
Find a place where you won't be disturbed.
Sitting up or lying down,
Allow your eyes to fall shut.
As you close your mouth,
Take a big deep breath through your nostrils,
All the way in,
And slowly let it out at your own pace.
How do you feel right now?
A moment just to acknowledge that.
Whether it's a strong,
Fuzzy,
Or not much of anything at all feeling.
How's the mind?
Still,
Quiet,
Racy,
Jumbled,
Craving after something.
Is it okay to turn your attention away from this,
Beginning to feel your way into your body?
Just with this more focused attention,
We begin to reduce activity in our amygdala,
A part of our brain involved in detecting and responding to threats,
Real or otherwise.
Just starting to ease any stress we are experiencing.
Gently scan your attention over the different parts of your body.
How long since you gave attention to the far reaches?
Noticing those tones,
Sensations,
The bits that ache,
The bits of nothingness.
Perhaps places of pleasure and soothing.
Is it possible to let go just a little bit more?
Softening the brow,
The eyes,
Your jaw.
Drawing that softening down through your shoulders,
Through your arms.
Any clenching,
Concaving,
Holding.
It's not needed now.
Breathing out and into any areas of tension.
And then moving your attention towards the abdomen,
Into the belly.
Abdominal breathing is the most efficient and relaxed way of getting air into our lungs.
When we breathe through the upper chest,
Which is associated with a fight and flight response,
We send subtle signals to the sympathetic branch.
Breathing through the abdomen activates our parasympathetic branch and is associated with sleep and digestion.
With a little more intention,
Begin to elongate your breath slightly by expanding your abdomen.
With minimal movement in the chest,
Allow your belly to gently rise up and out.
And relaxing back down.
Play with a couple of breaths at your own pace.
Begin to notice the ethereal sound.
As it guides you in and out.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
For the next 10 minutes or so,
Settling into the resonance breath.
Whenever your mind wanders,
That's okay.
The breath is still there waiting for you.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Breathing out.
Letting go now of the effort to control your breath.
Letting go of any effort you are making.
Resting for a minute within the effects of your practice.
How do you feel?
No need to analyze or explore.
Acknowledge whatever's there by softening into a gentle smile.
Thank yourself for choosing to spend 15 minutes on your well-being.
Creating the conditions for a resonance frequency within your body.
Bringing your heart rate and breathing into coherence.
And perhaps a little more peace of mind.
