Hi there and welcome to this recording of the first unplug practice which is a parasympathetic practice,
4 to 8 breathing,
Where the ratio of the out-breath to the in-breath is targeted to be 1 to 2.
So you want to make that out-breath twice as long as the in-breath to create that parasympathetic response.
So please come to a place where you're comfortable.
If you're sitting,
Put your feet flat on the ground.
Notice any tension that might be in your body and kind of just let it shake free.
Put your hands on your lap and generally just allow yourself to relax in a little bit.
And just before we start,
Drop into the body and notice what's going on in your body.
Are you relaxed or are you tense?
Are you chilled or are you stressed?
What exactly is going on?
Do you think your parasympathetic or your sympathetic nervous system is more active right now?
Get into the habit of periodically dropping into your body so that before you go into a practice you have a sense of what are you trying to affect,
Where you're starting from,
Where do you want to end up.
One of the other advantages of paying attention at the beginning of a practice is you can then hook that up by paying attention to your body at the end of the practice and see what impact the practice has had.
To have this practice I'm going to invite you to nose-breathe as much as possible if there's any difficulty with that,
By all means fall back to the mouth.
But please,
Please try to make it as much as possible in and out through the nose.
As we do this practice I invite you to pay attention to the breath.
So to try to keep yourself mindful if you like of the count and of the breath as it goes in and out,
Noticing it going in and out of the body as opposed to doing it mechanically and just allowing your mind to wander.
We're going to begin this practice with a count of 4 in and 4 out and we're going to work up through 4 in 6 out,
4 in 7 out and 4 in 8 out.
The most important thing is that you should never put yourself under stress or pressure if you find that the longer counts out are in any way challenging you.
Stay at the level of out count which is most comfortable for you.
Over time you'll find that you'll get to longer counts if they present a challenge in the beginning.
So let's get started.
Breathing in 2,
3,
4,
Out,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
3,
2,
1.
Making the out breath longer.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
7,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
Out,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In 2,
3,
4,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Returning to your normal breathing.
And now just dropping in and noticing what's going on in your body.
Has there been any shift?
If so,
What is that shift?
Just notice.
Just pay attention to it.
As we sit here just in the aftermath of that exercise,
Just notice how did you do with the out count.
If you struggled a little bit on the higher count of 8 or 7,
Well then you can speed up the pace just a fraction or you can go with the lower count.
The key thing here is you're aiming to have ultimately the out breath twice as long as the in breath.
But until you've built up to a stage where you can do that comfortably,
It's okay to just have it at 4 in,
6 out,
4 in,
7 out.
Whatever is comfortable.
The key thing in this practice is comfort.
Obviously,
Once you've found a pace that works really well for you,
And as I say ideally is 4 in and 8 out,
You can work with that without the recording.
You will not need the benefit of the recording at that stage.
In terms of pacing it,
I would suggest that the best way of pacing a practice like this is to start from whatever pace you happen to be breathing at,
At the time when you start the practice and over time through the practice just to slow it down just a fraction until it's at a comfortably slow rate and you've got that ratio going up.
So that's unplug one,
The 4-8 breathing practice.
