This is a breathwork exercise to take you from states of racing mind and anxiety into a centered embodied calm.
So you can do this anytime day or night and you'll want an empty stomach.
So no practicing after a meal.
I'm Courtney Sanborn and I'm going to walk you through it.
Go ahead and come to a comfortable seated position and let's close our eyes.
And before we get started with the breathing,
Let's tune into the body.
So notice your sit bones touching the surface beneath you.
So maybe it's a chair or the floor or the couch and just feeling that contact.
And then feeling the body,
The state of the body.
If there's anxiety,
Just witness it.
Not changing,
Just noticing.
And then let's begin breathing.
So there's two parts to this,
An inhale and an exhale.
We'll begin with the inhale and the inhale is through the nose.
When you get to the top of the inhale,
We're going to exhale,
Pushing the breath out the mouth.
And then inhaling back through the nose again.
And then pushing the air out the mouth as if you're trying to blow your breath on someone.
You could additionally imagine that perhaps there's a mirror in front of your mouth that you're trying to fog.
So just continuing with this breath,
Slow,
Deep inhale,
Bringing that breath to the top tip of the lungs.
You're filling them completely and then exhale,
Pushing it out the mouth.
We'll just keep going nice and slow.
Find your own rhythm.
And while you stay with this breath,
I want you to just notice a couple things in the body.
So make sure that the shoulder blades are relaxed,
So the shoulders are not hunched up.
So you're pulling the shoulder blades down the spine.
And then as you inhale that air in,
Let's visualize the color red.
So you're inhaling a color red all the way down to the navel.
And then as you push the air out with that push,
Imagine that red color coming up and out the mouth.
So trying this again,
Continuing with the color.
If another color shows up for you,
Stay with that color.
And if you're struggling with the color,
That's fine.
Just keep focusing on the breath.
We're going to do three more rounds,
Filling those lungs to the max capacity,
Pushing that air out.
If at any point of the exercise you get dizzy,
Please stop.
Otherwise,
Just continue on with the breath.
Last one.
And keeping the eyes closed,
We just have natural breathing now in and out of the nose.
So no more forced,
Controlled breathing.
And then just witness this breath coming in and out of the nose.
And then as you inhale,
Just keep focusing on the breath.
And then as you exhale,
Just keep focusing on the breath.
And then just witness this breath coming in and out of the nose.
And then coming back to the body,
So feeling the sit bones sit on the surface beneath you.
And noticing if your hands are touching anything.
And then notice what's going on in the mind.
And then staying with this sense of peace and relaxation for the rest of your day.
