Welcome to this guided session on foundational breathing.
My name is Eric Schott and I'm thrilled to share this practice with you today.
Foundational breathing,
As the name suggests,
Is your starting point for many other breathwork modalities and is one of the best methods to calm and relax your state.
Following this introduction,
I will personally explain and coach you through the benefits in each step of this modality and then we will practice in real time.
As always,
I encourage you to leave any comments,
Questions,
Or suggestions as I love seeing and responding to your feedback.
Foundational breathing is a relaxing technique and is the most effective way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
This is the state of being where we can rest,
Relax,
Heal,
And create.
To practice,
You can either be sitting with an aligned back or lying down in a comfortable position.
We will focus on regulating the breath,
Inhaling through the nostrils.
As we inhale,
Focus on pushing your belly out to fully expand your torso.
Often,
It helps here to place a hand over your belly and feel your stomach pushing against it on the inhale.
As your torso expands with each breath through the nostrils,
Focus on drawing that breath first into the belly,
Then the chest,
And finally to the neck and head.
At the climax of your inhale,
Gently hold the breath for five to ten seconds.
Finally,
On the exhale,
Release the relaxing and satisfying sigh out.
It's worth noting here that the longer we extend the exhale,
The more time we are giving the body and mind to dip into this relaxed state.
As an alternative to the exhale sigh,
You can also ujjayi on the exhale.
For those of you not familiar with ujjayi,
This is also known as victorious breath,
Sounding like the ocean.
Simply make the sound you would make when fogging up a window,
Sounding like this.
All you have to do now is close your mouth and that is ujjayi.
So putting all the steps of foundational breathing together,
It will sound something like this.
Fully in through the nostrils,
Belly,
Chest,
Head,
And hold.
Exhaling out,
Ujjayi.
Let's drop into a few foundational breaths guided by me and then I will turn it over to you to settle into a short meditation.
Let's begin starting in three,
Two,
One.
Breathing through the nostrils,
Fully in,
Belly,
Chest,
Head,
And hold.
Exhaling out.
Fantastic work.
Once again,
Fully in,
Belly,
Chest,
Head,
Hold,
And exhale out.
Terrific job.
Let's do that again.
Fully in,
And hold.
Exhaling,
Ujjayi.
Nice work.
And once more,
Fully in,
Filling up the belly and the chest and the head,
Holding at the top,
And exhaling out.
Continue on with your foundational breathing,
Following my breath and nestling down into a relaxing meditation.
Fully in,
Breathing through the nostrils,
Belly,
Chest,
And head,
Holding at the top,
And exhaling out.
Bringing your awareness back,
Begin to tap into your senses and the sensations within your body.
I would like to thank you for taking the time to learn how to breathe a more satisfying breath and honoring your intelligent body which does so so much for you.
It has been an honor to share this practice with you today.
Enjoy the amazing benefits,
Be relaxed,
And be well.
Namaste.
