2:1 Breathing Technique

A short guided meditation practicing the 2:1 breath or "Extended exhalation" breathing technique. This technique is a powerful tool for immediate relief when experiencing moments of anxiety, panic, high stress or overwhelm as it activates our parasympathetic nervous system while deactivating our 'fight or flight' stress response. This allows us to feel calm, grounded, and more emotionally regulated.

Transcript

Hi everyone,

Welcome back.

So today we're going to move through a breathing technique called the length and out breath.

So this technique is used to activate our parasympathetic nervous system,

Which is our rest and digest nervous system.

So it takes us away from our fight and flight response and into a regulated slow state.

So as always this can be done wherever,

Whenever,

Watching TV,

Sitting at the office,

Standing,

Sitting,

Lying down,

Eyes open or eyes closed.

So once you're ready we're gonna start by sealing off the lips and taking a two count breath in.

So inhale,

Hold,

Exhale for four,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold at the bottom for two.

So it's similar to our box breathing but this time it'll be two in,

Two hold,

Double the count out,

Two hold.

So let's try that again.

Sealing off the lips,

Inhale,

Hold,

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Inhale,

Hold,

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold.

Now we can do this with the different sets of counts too.

So let's do it for a count of four and eight.

So sealing off the lips,

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

Hold,

Exhale,

And then slowly when you've completed a few rounds you can release that breath.

Maybe just take a moment to notice if your breathing is different,

More lengthened out,

Maybe it's slightly slower,

And then notice how that makes you feel in this moment.

And then as always you adapt your practice to yourself so you can pick any counts.

The idea is just to pick a count for the inhale and then double the count for the exhale.

We don't want to create any strain or tension in the breath here,

So pick a count that's comfortable for you if you feel your breath is catching or if it feels very tight in the chest then maybe just back off slightly and lower those counts.

Reviews

Wonderful exercise! Thank you!