Breath Break To De-stress

A short guided practice to pause and regulate the nervous system if it is feeling unbalanced and/or stressed. The practice invites the listener to take a few rounds of deep intentional belly breaths.

Transcript

So gently finding a seat. Feeling the feet onto the ground. A sense of grounding and earthing. And the sit bones onto the chair. Sense of rooting into the sit bones and rising in the spine. The chin slightly tucked so that the neck and the spine are aligned. And the crown of the head pointing towards the ceiling. If it's comfortable maybe placing a hand on the belly. Maybe another on the heart space. Feeling the breath come in through the nostrils and tracking the breath as best you can deep into the torso around the belly area. If it's possible maybe imagining the belly having a balloon and with the inhale you're going to inflate that balloon. And on the exhale feeling the belly button drop towards the spine underneath your hand as best you can. Inviting that exhale to be a little bit longer than the inhale. When we take the longer slower exhale the nervous system is invited into rest and digest mode. Sometimes through a thought or an interaction we can be triggered into fight flight or freeze. The body tenses and contracts and the breath becomes shallow. So with this belly breathing we're inviting the nervous system back into its normal well-functioning rest and digest mode. Breathing into the nostrils inflating the belly and exhaling long slow and deep. After a few rounds in your own time coming back to your normal rhythm of breath. Just noticing how the body feels.