Intentional Breathing To Increase Resilience & Ease Stress

This 20-minute guided meditation introduces the practice of Intentional Breathing. Intentional Breathing integrates the ancient wisdom of yoga and meditation traditions with contemporary principles of neuroscience and psychophysiology to increase the relaxation response, and cultivate present-focused awareness of thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. This technique is ideal for lessening the experience of stress and anxiety, attaining deep relaxation, encouraging restful sleep, building stress resilience, and regaining your presence of mind.

Transcript

The following practice introduces a simple and effective breathing technique called intentional breathing.

Unlike other techniques like belly breathing or abdominal breathing,

The emphasis here is to follow the natural flow of the breath,

Inhaling from the top down and exhaling from the bottom up,

Rather than trying to attempt or force the breath in any direction.

First,

Remember that this is a practice.

It may feel strange,

Awkward or difficult,

And that's to be expected,

Especially if you've never tried anything like this before.

But remember to be kind to yourself and see this as an exploration rather than something that you need to perfect.

Second,

And most importantly,

If for any reason you feel uncomfortable,

Anxious or this practice just doesn't feel right for you,

It's perfectly okay to take a break or to discontinue the exercise and try it again at another time.

So first begin by finding a comfortable position,

Like sitting upright in a chair or lying on your back.

And if you're feeling sleepy,

You may want to try this sitting up because it's very relaxing.

So once you find a comfortable position,

Slowly begin to observe the flow of your breath,

Just as it is.

And as you observe the flow of your breath,

Slowly tracing it inward and outward,

Notice where the breath fills you up.

Notice if you're breathing into the front of the body,

The back of the body,

Maybe the sides.

Notice if the breath tends to be more in the upper chest,

Or maybe you're breathing further down toward your belly.

As you observe your breath,

Try to breathe just as you are,

Naturally allowing the breath to flow in and out.

You may already notice that the act of observing your breath may be slowing down your respiration rate.

And that's okay too.

Just take a few moments and breathe in and out,

In and out.

And now when you're ready,

Take a nice,

Deep inhalation and a long,

Slow exhalation.

And do that a couple of more times,

Just nice,

Big breath,

Filling yourself up.

And a long,

Slow breath out the nose or the mouth,

Emptying yourself out as much as you can.

Now whenever you're ready,

Please place your left hand so that your thumb is just below your navel.

Next place your right hand right on the sternum,

Which is the breastbone,

Right in the center of the chest,

Just to the left of your heart.

And take that hand and just flatly place it on your chest in such a way that your shoulders and your upper body are still relaxed.

Once your hands are there,

Continue to breathe normally,

Just as you are.

And notice if your breath seems to travel into the right hand or the left hand.

And again,

Continuing to breathe normally,

Just notice which hand seems to move more as you inhale and exhale.

So again,

As you breathe,

Noticing how it feels to breathe in your body today.

Noticing the quality of your breath.

Is it smooth and fluid?

Or you may find that it's a little bit short or perhaps a little jagged or discontinuous.

Again,

Just notice your breath,

Just as it is,

Trying not to attach a story or an idea around it or creating a judgment about it.

Just try to observe your breath.

And as you observe your breath,

Is there anything that you notice?

So now we're going to try changing the breath a little bit.

And when you're ready,

I would like you to try to breathe just into your right hand.

So inhaling through the nose,

If that's accessible to you.

Filling up the space under the right hand.

And then exhaling,

Slowly allowing the breath to travel back out through the nose or the mouth.

And continuing to breathe just into that right hand,

Without forcing or using undue effort.

Just see if you can fill up that space right between the heart.

And exhaling whenever you're ready.

And notice how it feels to breathe into just your right hand.

Perhaps some sensations will arise.

What do you notice?

And keep observing the breath just this way for about 10 or 20 more breaths,

Noticing whatever sensations or feelings arise.

And whenever you're done exploring breathing into your right hand,

Take a nice big full inhalation.

And then nice long slow exhalation.

And we'll just pause for a moment,

Breathing normally.

And take a moment to notice how that feels.

And now we're going to change the breathing by breathing just into the left hand that's resting on your abdomen.

And again,

Recognizing that your lungs do not travel all the way down to your abdomen.

Talking about breathing down there is more of a metaphor to think about,

Breathing deeply and fully,

But you're not actually breathing all the way down into your belly.

So without forcing the breath at all,

See if you can breathe just into the space below your left hand.

Breathing in through the nose,

Drawing the breath all the way down,

As fully as you can.

And notice how that feels.

And just as you did when you breathe into your right hand,

Notice if it feels as though you're able to slow the inhalation and the exhalation down,

Or does that feel odd or uncomfortable?

And continue to observe your breath,

Breathing down into that left hand,

For a few more breaths.

And after you've taken about ten or so breaths,

Once again take a nice big inhalation and exhale normally.

We'll pause for a moment and just breathe as you always do.

Now we're going to try something interesting.

We're going to break the breath up into two halves.

So when you're ready,

I'd like you to try to breathe half of your breath into your right hand.

Take a little pause,

And then the other half of the breath into your left hand.

Take a little pause,

And then exhale the breath from the left hand out from the bottom up,

Without using too much effort.

And pause,

And then from the right hand back out through the nose or the mouth.

And a little pause there.

So let's try that again.

Inhaling,

Breathing into the right hand.

Little pause.

Inhale the other half of your inhalation into the left hand.

Little pause.

And then exhale,

Breathing from the bottom up,

Exhaling from the left hand.

And then exhaling out from the right hand.

We'll try that a few more times on your own.

Inhaling into the right hand.

Little pause.

Inhaling into the left hand.

Little pause.

Half of the exhale out from the left hand up.

Little pause.

And then the rest of the exhale from the right hand back out.

And try that a few more times on your own.

Again remembering that this is a practice,

It's a new way of breathing.

It may feel awkward or uncomfortable at first,

Or you might find that it's actually very soothing and comforting.

So take a little bit more time practicing inhaling and exhaling.

Half the breath into the right hand.

Inhaling the other half into the left hand.

And then exhaling,

Left hand.

And right hand.

And as you practice,

As you slowly begin to get the hang of it,

Again noticing,

How does it feel to breathe this way?

What do you notice?

And as always,

Whatever you notice,

Trying to purely be aware of that experience without creating a narrative or a story or a judgment around it.

Observe the breath.

One at a time.

And whenever you're ready now,

Take a nice big full breath the way you normally would.

And exhale.

We'll do that a couple more times.

Big full inhale.

And nice long exhale.

So lastly,

We're going to do the same exercise we just did without taking a pause in the middle.

When you're ready,

Take a nice big in-breath,

Breathing half the air into the right hand.

And continuing breathing the rest of the inhalation into the left hand.

And at the end of that inhalation,

Slowly exhale from the bottom left hand,

Past the right hand,

And out.

One more time,

Inhaling into the right hand,

And then all the way down into the left hand.

And exhaling from the left hand,

Allowing the breath to be as smooth as possible as it travels out through the right hand.

And doing that a few more times,

As slowly as you can.

And elongating the exhale as much as possible,

Without any effort,

Just allowing the breath to travel back out in its natural course.

And trying that for a few more breaths.

If possible now,

See if you can slow down the exhalation so that it's longer than the inhalation.

If you like,

You can try to count the inhalation and the exhalation.

So maybe saying one,

Two,

Three,

And so on.

But just see if you can focus on slowing down the exhalation in particular.

Once again,

Notice how it feels to breathe that way.

Notice any sensations that arise.

And see if you can allow them to pass without creating a story or a narrative or a judgment around them.

And for a few more moments,

Continuing that nice,

Slow,

Deep fluid inhalation and exhalation.

And whenever you're ready again,

Taking a nice big full inhale,

A nice long slow exhale.

And beginning to return to your normal breath pattern.

And in your own time,

Slowly bringing your attention back into the room.

And if your eyes were closed,

Gently beginning to open the eyes.

Noticing how you feel physically.

And maybe noticing a shift emotionally and energetically as well.

This exercise is intended to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and elicit the relaxation response.

Not everyone experiences relaxation right away,

But most people report feeling a sense of calm,

Particularly following this exercise.

So if your mind tends to wonder,

Some people find it's helpful to think about the word in as you breathe in.

And the word out as you breathe out.

Some people like to use syllables like so as the breath travels in.

And the syllable hum as the breath travels out.

What's most important is you find some way of breathing that feels right for you.

This type of intentional breathing takes some practice.

The good news is you can practice it virtually anywhere at any time,

Even when you're interacting with other people.

Just please remember not to try to breathe like this when you're operating heavy machinery or driving a car.

The more you practice,

The easier this becomes.

Particularly if you practice it frequently.

So I suggest practicing intentional breathing at least a few times a day,

Every day,

Preferably in a quiet space and with all distractions removed.

You can practice intentional breathing whenever you find yourself sitting still for a few moments.

Remember it's much easier to learn a new skill when you're in a place of stillness and relaxation rather than trying to adopt it while you're multitasking or while you're experiencing stress.

So do your best to take a few moments each day just to practice some intentional breathing and see how the experience works for you.

To learn more about how chronic stress impacts your life and your relationships,

Please look at my website where you will find a lot of resources,

Workshop ideas,

Some inspirational reading on my blog post regarding research in this area,

As well as information regarding my book and trainings,

Mindful Relationships,

The Seven Skills for Social Change.

Reviews

That was wonderful!! Thank you it was very easy to follow and I felt very relaxed afterwards.
Saved as a favourite! 💗

A unique breathwork practice that ultimately felt cleansing for me ✨ if you’ve done this before, you can skip the last 2 minutes

Mind your breath. Gracias 🙏🏻

Fascinating! I want to learn more. Thank you and Namaste 🕉☮️🕊

I love this technique, I have never come across it before. Its wonderful for keeping focus- thank you for sharing

Great breathing exercise. Easy to follow. It did make me feel calmer and centered. Thank you!

Found this really helpful and instructional as well as really calming ❤️

Interesting and relaxing, thank you💜

I found this excercize challenging especially the divided breathing. I will continue the practice tho as my nervous system needs strengthening.Will be checking out your book also. Thankyou Beth

It was quite funny innocence to be breathing like this. But once I went through the technique and started feeling a sense of calm and relaxation start washing over me it felt good it felt like I was doing it correctly and not breathing like I normally would thank you for this I have reached a complaint that I haven't reached in quite a while I appreciate it!

A good lesson in mindful breathing...

Beautiful. Felt deep relaxation afterwards. Thank you 🙏🏻❤️

Amazing exercise

Amazing meditation

Helpful ideas requiring practice .

Excellent teaching and practice. Simplicity with depth. Useful. Thank you 🙏💟

Very relaxing- I fell into a deep sleep after.

Really terrific!!! Thx!