Welcome,
My name is Celia Roberts and I'm the founder of the Biomedical Institute of Yoga and Meditation.
And today we're going to explore heart rate variability,
Breathing and our psychological perspective of the world and how it changes just through our breath.
Our perspective can change as we change our breathing,
Affect our nervous system and therefore our thinking patterns,
Our psychology,
Our mind.
So I want you to see if you can sit up nice and tall,
If possible with your back unaided because this will really assist with your breathing patterns and your breath ratios.
And first of all we're going to explore the breath just as if it's a natural breath.
So the moment you bring your attention to the breath it makes it so that you're controlling it to some degree.
So just be aware as you focus your attention on the breath it will naturally change and keep the breath as natural as possible.
Now what we'll try and do from this point onwards is follow the natural breath for a period of time before we start to change the breath ratio.
Now what you might notice here is that as you breathe in your heart rate increases and as you breathe out your heart rate decreases.
You'd have to feel into the chest and if this makes you feel a little bit anxious doing this then just bring your attention to the hands or to the feet.
Don't bother about the practice at this point,
Just breathing is fine.
So your in-breath will slightly increase the heart rate and your out-breath will slightly decrease it.
Now I want you to focus on taking a long and steady inhalation and a shorter exhalation.
So we might try a breath count of six and if this is too much for you then you can change it to your own pattern.
So we're breathing in for six and then we'll breathe out for four.
Let's try that.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
So breathing in for six.
Breathing out for four.
Breathing in for six.
Breathing out for four.
Lovely.
Return to a normal natural breath.
So you might feel a little bit stimulated by this breath,
It might have been a little bit difficult and I want you to just notice how you feel,
Your psychological perspective of the world.
Just observing any state change as you return to a natural normal state of breathing.
Now we're going to change it so we'll breathe in for four and breathe out for six.
So we're referring to the work here of Stephen Porges and the breath ratio is 40 to 60.
Okay,
40 on the inhale,
60 on the exhale.
So we're going to use a breath count like I mentioned of four,
Breathing in and breathing out on the exhalation with a longer out-breath.
Breathing in for four.
Breathing out for six.
Breathing in for four.
Breathing out for six.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Keep going,
Longer out-breath and in-breath.
And then gently let that go and just observe psychological shifts,
Changes,
State changes in your psychology,
Your emotional state,
Your mind and your body perhaps as well.
So Stephen Porges says we shift our psychological perspective to a positive one when we really focus on a longer out-breath because it elicits the relaxation response.
So you might have found that the breath was a bit difficult when we practiced on the initial breathing in for six,
Breathing out for four and the heart rate will have increased.
So it leads us to be in symptoms of flight or fine.
Whereas when we breathe out with a longer out-breath,
We slow the heart rate and this can take us into states of calm,
Rest,
Relax,
Digest and even reproduce.
So it's a healthy place for us to rejuvenate,
Restore,
Relax.
Now heart rate variability is good.
So it's good to be able to go from a high state of arousal to a lower state of arousal for the heart rate to reflect this.
But I want you to just be very clear that the psychological shift can be very,
Very positive when we focus on the out-breath because we elicit calm.
This makes us feel connected and socially engaged.
We're going to make the out-breath now a little bit longer by using just a simple hum and this hum will actually extend your out-breath further.
It also increases an anti-inflammatory molecule called nitric oxide in the bloodstream.
So as you begin to breathe out,
Just focus on that gentle hum.
And I want you to start to now breathe compassion down the limbs with the hum.
So you're going to almost hum to the limbs and when you hum,
Breathe out compassion,
Healing to the limbs.
And as we do this,
We use the science of the science of psychoneuroendocrine immunology and literally as we place thought or consciousness or awareness in that limb,
The blood flow and lymphatic flow will increase.
And with the hum,
We increase nitric oxide,
So an anti-inflammatory molecule and the compassion meditation of course manages heart rate variability,
Vagal tone and actually has magnificent brain changes as well.
So it lowers cortisol in the bloodstream as we reduce the size of the amygdala over a period of time.
So let's hum down the left leg with compassion using the mantra.
Humming down the right leg with a sense of compassion and self-care.
Humming down the left arm.
Humming down the right arm.
And this time humming to the face.
And use the hum to make the facial muscles feel very calm.
And then the hum to make the whole body with compassion feel very calm.
Use the hum to vibrate all the way through to the very cells in your body with sound.
Surround yourself in the deepest compassion and kindness.
Just notice how this hum,
This longer out-breath elicits parasympathetic nervous system activity making you feel calm,
Connected and also psychological shift perspective to one that's more positive.
Now it's not a cure-all for everyone but the majority of people will notice this significant psychological shift through practicing with a longer out-breath and the breath ratio is 40% on the inhale,
60% on the exhale.
This is the work of Stephen Porges in the Polyvagal Theory.
I wish you all the best with your meditation.
Continue to practice focusing on a longer out-breath using the hum.
