How To Do The SOMA Breathwork Technique

Learn how to do the popular SOMA Breathwork Technique with Casey as your guide. This audio includes an introduction to the SOMA Breathwork technique along with a sample practice. The SOMA technique includes rhythmic breathing followed by a breath hold and in this special audio Casey will walk you though how to do it before guiding you through a single round of the practice. This is great for beginners looking to explore breathwork.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this introduction to the Soma breathwork technique.

My name is Casey and I am a certified Soma breathwork instructor who's been doing this practice daily since 2020.

Now before I discovered the Soma breathwork practice,

I was exploring many different varieties of breathwork.

And what I really liked about Soma is the synchronizing the breath with music.

Now in this practice that I'll guide you through in just a few moments,

You're going to hear music playing and the breathing rhythm is synchronized to the rhythm of the music.

Now that makes it really easy to follow along with the breathing rhythms.

Now another thing I liked about the Soma breathwork technique is the variations in the practice.

Now there's rhythms and music that will help you relax and there's rhythms and music that will energize you as well as rhythms and music that can help you find balance.

So if that sounds interesting to you,

I'd like to introduce you to how to do the practice and then we'll do a simple practice together so you can get your first taste of it.

How does that sound?

Good?

Well,

Let's begin.

In order to do the Soma breathwork technique,

You'll be breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth,

Synchronized to the rhythms of the breath patterns that are already mixed in with the music.

This makes it really easy to follow along.

In this first practice that I'll guide you through in just a moment,

The breath pattern is in for four seconds and out for four seconds.

In through the nose for four seconds,

Out through the mouth for four seconds.

And you'll follow along for this rhythm for a few minutes.

This rhythm is meant to help balance your nervous system.

It also is synchronized to the right beats per minute that your heart will synchronize with the rhythm of the music and with the rhythm of the breath,

Bringing you into what's called heart coherence.

Now there are lots of benefits to the Soma breathwork technique,

Including increased focus,

Mental capacity,

Reduction in stress and anxiety symptoms,

And an overall better mood just to name a few.

And I explain more about the benefits of the practice in my live sessions here on Insight Timer.

So the invitation is once you try this practice out,

You can then join me for a live session to learn more about the practice and to go deeper into it.

What I always recommend is,

Especially for somebody new to this,

To try it out,

Get an experience of it.

If you enjoy it,

There's a whole world to explore on the other side.

So now I've explained the first part of the Soma breathwork routine,

The rhythmic breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth,

Following along to the breath patterns in the music.

After spending a few minutes in the rhythmic breathing portion,

You'll come to the next part of the Soma breathwork technique,

And that is the breath hold.

And in Soma,

We hold our breath with no air in our lungs.

So at the end of the rhythmic breathing portion,

What you'll do is take a deep inhale through the nose,

Followed by an exhale through the mouth,

And then you'll pause.

And it's more of a pause than a hold.

Once you've exhaled all the air out,

You'll simply pause and stop breathing.

And in this first try here that I'll guide you through in just a moment,

We'll hold for a few seconds just to give you a taste.

The more you do the practice,

The easier the breath hold gets.

So don't beat yourself up if it's difficult and you have a hard time,

Even in this first round where we'll only hold for a few seconds.

Now,

In this first practice,

At the end of a few moments of holding your breath with no air in your lungs,

I'll invite you to take another deep inhale in through your nose,

Filling your lungs up with air,

And then we'll hold for a few moments with our lungs full.

And then after holding for a few moments,

We'll exhale and relax.

And that completes one round of the Soma breathwork technique.

And the beautiful thing about this Soma breathwork technique is just one round will get you benefits.

Just a few minutes of practice on a daily basis,

And you'll really start to notice some of the benefits that I explained earlier.

And if you enjoy it,

You can do multiple rounds on a daily basis.

I like to do this breathwork practice first thing in the morning.

Now,

I'm somebody that's struggled with stress and anxiety for much of my life,

And that's why I enjoy doing this practice first thing in the morning.

It really helps me personally and a lot of my clients and people that I've worked with get ahead of the stress and anxiety.

Instead of responding or reacting when you already feel stressed or anxious,

Doing a practice like this on a daily basis in the morning can help you combat the stress and anxiety before it occurs.

So you don't feel as much stress and anxiety during the day.

So let me walk you through that one more time.

All together,

Simplified,

And then we'll get into a practice.

So the first thing you'll do,

You'll find a comfortable position.

I personally enjoy lying down for this practice.

So once we get started,

You'll hear the music start to come through and I'll invite you to lie down for this practice.

And if you're lying down,

You want to be flat,

Lying down flat.

So your back is straight and there's no pillow under your head.

So the breath flows smoothly through your esophagus down into your lungs.

If you have a pillow under your head,

It props your head up and it puts a kink in the flow of the air.

So I'll invite you to lie down flat to get ready for the practice.

When the music begins,

Eventually you'll hear the breathing patterns and a breath count already in the music.

It'll sound something like this.

In,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Out,

Two,

Three,

Four,

In,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Out,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And all you need to do is relax and breathe along to the rhythm.

Now you want to try to connect the in-breath and the out-breath,

Eliminating the pause in between.

Then after a few minutes of rhythmic breathing,

I'll invite you to take a deep inhale in through your nose,

Followed by a full exhale,

And then we'll pause for a few moments.

At the end of a few moments of the breath hold with no air in your lungs,

I'll invite you to take another deep breath in.

A small pause with the lungs full,

Followed by an extended exhale.

And that will complete one round.

So with that being said,

Make yourself comfortable and let's begin this first round of Soma breath work.

I'll guide you through it and then I'll give you a tip on the other side of the practice of if you enjoyed that,

Where you can go from there.

So with that being said,

Make yourself comfortable,

Lie down and let's begin.

Now that you've found yourself in a comfortable position.

On your next exhale,

I'd like to invite you to bring your eyes closed.

Begin to slow down the breath,

Extending the exhale a little further.

Smooth and slow inhale through the nose,

Followed by an extended slow exhale through the mouth.

Preparing yourself for the rhythmic breathing portion,

Which will begin in just a moment.

With every exhale,

Feel your body relax a little more as you activate your parasympathetic nervous system,

The rest and digest.

And in just a few moments,

We'll begin this round of Soma breathing.

Do your best.

Follow along to the rhythm of the music.

And if at any point you notice your mind has wandered off,

Just bring it back to the breath.

Bring it back to the rhythm of the music.

Begin to follow along with the breath patterns.

Nice and smooth.

Gentle with the breath.

You're doing a great job.

Just continue to breathe along.

Relaxing.

Breathing away the stress and anxiety.

Letting it go with every exhale.

Increasing your focus,

Your mental capacity.

And putting yourself in a better mood.

You've got it.

Just a few more breaths.

Let's take a deep breath in.

Fill your lungs with air.

Pause for just a moment.

Now exhale all the air out.

And pause for just a moment.

Now take a deep breath in.

Pause.

And exhale.

Great job.

Now that was a single round of the Soma breathwork technique.

Now if you enjoyed that and you would like to explore more,

I have a lot of this practice here on my profile on Insight Timer.

You can try out a different practice on a daily basis.

You can start doing a single round or you can get into multiple rounds to get a feeling of going deeper into the practice.

Now I have some practices that are guided where I'll guide you through.

But now that you've got the hang of it,

You can also explore some of the Soma breathwork music that I've created that is just the music and the breath sounds put together to take you on a deep inward journey.

I also do live sessions here on Insight Timer where I'll guide you through the Soma breathwork practice while explaining a little bit more in depth about how to do the practice,

How to get deeper into it,

And the benefits.

So if you enjoyed this first practice,

I invite you to explore more and I hope to see you at one of my live sessions here on Insight Timer.

Thank you again for trying out this introduction to the Soma breathwork technique.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Please give me a follow here on Insight Timer and I hope to see you back soon.

Thanks again.

Have a great day.