Welcome,
I'm Dr.
Diana Hill and I'm going to lead you through a breathing practice,
A very short breathing practice that you could use to start your day or if you need to reset in the middle of the day.
It's a great de-stress and rejuvenating practice.
We're going to be doing three types of breathing.
The first type of breathing is a simple soothing rhythm breathing where you find your own natural slow breath.
The second type of breathing is a box breathing where we'll be controlling our breath by counting our inhale for five slow counts,
Holding it at the top for five counts,
Exhaling for five counts,
Holding it at the bottom.
This type of box breathing gets your breath into a rhythm and actually gets you into the ideal frequency of breath so that you're not breathing too much.
That's actually one of the challenges of breathing is that we tend to hyperventilate and breathe too much.
So it's that ideal physiological state.
And then finally,
We're going to be doing alternate nostril breathing where you'll be placing your middle finger and your first finger right up here between a little above your eyebrows,
Between your eyebrows,
And you'll be closing off your right nostril with an inhale in through the left.
You'll close off both nostrils and then you'll exhale through the right.
Let's get started and I'll walk you through it.
You can have your eyes open or closed for this exercise.
I do recommend that you find a seated position where your spine is long,
Lengthening from the base of your spine all the way up to the top of your head like a zipper that would zip up your spine,
Opening your heart and your chest and allowing your shoulders to drop,
Letting your belly go.
And begin by taking long,
Soothing breaths,
Breaths that are at a pace that are perfect for you,
Whatever that pace is.
Taking your breath down,
You slow your body down,
Appreciating the inhale and the expansiveness and letting go on the exhale,
Any tension or holding in the body.
You can breathe in this slow,
Long breath and just really feel it nourishing you.
And as you breathe out,
You're just loosening,
Opening and resting.
And we're going to bring some structure to this breath so that you breathe in for a count of one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
And then you hold at the top,
Feel the expansion,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
And then breathe out completely,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Holding at the bottom,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Breathing in,
Open,
Expansive,
Aware,
Alive,
And hold at the top,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Breathing out,
Letting go,
Rest,
Relax,
Five,
And hold at the bottom,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
So breathing in again,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
And one last hold at the top,
Expand,
Open,
And hold,
Breathing out,
Letting go,
Finding peace all the way,
And hold at the bottom,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Take a soothing breath in and a soothing breath out.
Allow your natural breath to return,
Long,
Slow,
Soothing breath,
Drinking in the air,
And exhaling completely.
And now you're going to take your first finger and your middle finger and place them right between your eyebrows slightly up,
Your thumb is going to close off the right nostril and your ring finger will close off the left nostril.
So closing off the right nostril,
Take a long soothing breath in,
Close both nostrils off,
And then open up to the right and breathe out completely.
Breathing in through the right nostril,
The left nostril is closed off with the finger,
Closing both nostrils and keeping your thumb closed,
Open up through the left and breathe out.
So you're taking these long soothing breaths,
Nostril by nostril,
Side to side,
Breathing in,
Closing,
And breathing out on the alternate side.
Take this at your own rhythm and your own pace.
And as you breathe,
Just notice how it feels different on each side of your body if there's any difference from side to side.
Is one side more open or closed?
Not only within your nose,
But also within the core of your body and your chest.
Opening up one complete round of this alternate nostril breathing so that you're landing,
Exhaling on the left side.
And then placing your hand down again at your lap and taking again some of those long,
Slow,
Soothing breaths,
Drinking it in,
Enjoying breath through both nostrils,
Enjoying your exhale,
Enjoying this moment to slow down and breathe you are alive,
This precious moment.
And feeling that nourishment of yourselves from breathing,
The activation of your vagus nerve,
Which just naturally activates your parasympathetic nervous system,
Slows you down,
Helps you feel at peace and safe in the world.
And then you can slowly let your breath just come back to its natural state.
Thank you for joining me in this breathwork practice.
I hope that you do it on your own.
And I really appreciate you taking these few minutes to breathe.
