If you spent your day putting out fires,
Staring at screens,
Or managing a high-pressure schedule,
Your nervous system isn't relaxed right now.
It's just stuck in high gear.
Welcome back to Breathing Patterns.
Today we'll be doing a precise practice designed to pull your brain out of survival mode and return you to high-level focus.
Let's begin.
Find a comfortable seat.
You don't need perfect posture.
Just something that allows your body to soften and relax.
And before we begin,
Gently lower your gaze or close your eyes.
Notice the pace your mind is currently moving at.
No judgment.
Just information.
Now take a slow inhale through the nose for 4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale out through the mouth for 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
And breathing out through the mouth nice and slow for 6 counts.
Right now,
We're getting rid of all of that stimulation,
All of the urgency,
The burden of being constantly connected.
Feel the chair or the surface beneath you.
Feel your feet.
Feel the physical presence of your body as it's held in place by gravity.
Continuing that breath.
In for four.
Out for sex.
Amazing.
With each exhale,
Letting it become your anchor.
Something that holds you in place and keeps you from drifting.
Each time you breathe like this,
Your nervous system receives a new signal.
You don't need to react to everything.
You don't need to engage with everything that's going on in the world around you.
You are allowed to pause.
To give yourself a chance to just be.
Letting your muscles soften.
Letting everything go,
At least for a few moments.
One more breath together.
In through the nose for 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Exhaling as fully and completely as you can out through the mouth.
Drawing this out.
Letting all of the air release from your lungs.
And as you are settling back into your normal patterns of breathing.
Asking yourself.
What would it feel like to move through the next hour with less urgency?
You've already taken the first few minutes.
Leaning into that feeling.
Knowing it's okay to be here.
Take your time now as you come back to the present moment.
That shift that you feel?
That's your body moving from stress to recovery.
I'm Julia and this is Breathing Patterns.
I'll see you next time.
