Soft-Belly Breathing (Long)

One of the simplest and most effective tools I’ve found for grounding in the present moment and freeing ourselves from loneliness, is soft-belly breathing. In this meditation, I guide you through the experience and explain how soft-belly works to reverse the fight or flight response and bring physiological and psychological balance to your mind and body.

Transcript

So what we're going to do for the next 10 or 11 minutes is we're going to do soft belly breathing.

And as we do it,

I'm going to take you through the physiology of how this is working and then show you how it can be used,

How it can be an instrument to create relaxation in all parts of our physical and emotional and intellectual being.

And also indicating how it can be enormously important in helping us connect with other people.

So let's begin by sitting comfortably.

And I'm changing my position.

You maybe find yourself changing your position.

The one I was in was comfortable for a while,

But I realized,

I don't want to stay in that one for 10 minutes with my foot up on the rung of this chair in front of me.

Let me just sit with both feet planted on the floor,

Feeling my connection with the floor and with the earth underneath the floor,

Feeling my connection to the back of my chair.

I'm leaning a little bit back.

And to the seat of my chair,

My seat on the seat of this chair.

So allow your breathing to deepen.

And if you feel comfortable,

Close your eyes.

This is a wonderful way to eliminate external stimulation and distractions.

Breathing deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Perhaps saying to yourself,

Soft as you breathe in and belly as you breathe out.

So you're concentrating on the breath and on the word soft as you breathe in through your nose and belly as you breathe out through your mouth.

And while you're doing this,

Feel your belly relaxing and softening.

So breathing slowly and deeply like this in through the nose and out through the mouth with your belly soft and relaxed.

More air goes to the bottom of our lungs,

Where there is better oxygen in the air.

And that air is going to be flowing through the nose and out through the mouth.

And that air is going to be flowing through the nose and out through the mouth.

And that air is going to be flowing through the mouth where there is better oxygen exchange.

So more oxygen enters from the lungs into the bloodstream.

And that oxygen feeds all the cells in our bodies.

Breathing slowly and deeply like this in through the nose and out through the mouth with our belly soft and relaxed activates the vagus nerve.

You may remember vagus is spelled V-A-G-U-S.

And vagus means wandering in Latin.

And this big nerve wanders up from our belly through our chest back to our central nervous system to our brain.

When it's activated,

It slows heart rate,

Lowers blood pressure,

Relaxes the big muscles in our bodies,

And improves our digestion.

The vagus nerve is the antidote to our body's nervous system,

And it's activated in all vertebrates.

The vagus nerve is the antidote to the fight or flight response that's activated in all vertebrates.

When we fear for our lives or we're anxious,

In humans when we have emotional distress,

The fight or flight response is activated.

And the vagus nerve is activated in our body's nervous system.

One half of the autonomic or automatic nervous system.

It's the half that is the accelerator,

Puts us into fight or flight.

Breathing slowly and deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth with our belly soft and relaxed through our nose and out through our mouth,

We're quieting our body,

Lowering blood pressure and reducing our blood pressure.

And then we're breathing slowly and deeply into our nervous system.

And then we're breathing slowly and deeply into our nervous system.

And then we're breathing slowly and deeply into our nervous system,

Lowering our body,

Lowering blood pressure and heart rate,

Relaxing the big muscles,

Improving digestion.

We're also calming activity in the center of the brain responsible for fear and anger.

It's called the amygdala,

A-M-Y-G-D-A-L-A.

It's the amygdala that is the main thing.

When we breathe slowly and deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth,

We're quieting that fear and anger.

And at the same time,

We're stimulating activity in the frontal part of our cerebral cortex,

In areas responsible for thoughtful decision making and awareness and compassion for ourselves and others.

And as we continue to breathe slowly and deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth,

With our belly soft and relaxed,

The activated vagus nerve makes contact with other nerves,

Other cranial nerves,

Nerves in the head that are responsible for facial expression and speech.

So when we're breathing slowly and deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth with our belly soft and relaxed,

We're quieting our bodies,

Calming our minds,

And making it easier to read other people's facial expressions,

To tune into their speech,

To connect with them.

And we're putting ourselves in a state where we can make clear decisions,

To make good decisions,

To be self-aware,

And to feel compassion for ourselves and other people.

All this with breathing slowly and deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth,

With our belly soft and relaxed.

As we continue to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth,

With our belly soft and relaxed,

All the muscles in our bodies begin to relax.

And I invite you to feel that as you exhale,

As you exhale,

You feel the relaxation in your belly and your pelvis and your buttocks as you exhale,

Feeling the relaxation in your legs and feet as you exhale,

Feeling the muscles relax all up and down your back as you exhale.

I stretched a little there.

Feeling those muscles relax.

Feeling the muscles now relax in your chest and shoulders.

Feel the muscles relax in your arms and hands as you exhale.

Feel the muscles relax in your neck and face and head.

Feel your whole body relax with each exhalation.

To encourage this process,

Say to yourself,

Soft as you breathe in and belly as you breathe out,

Focusing on those words,

On the breath,

And on the feeling of your belly being soft and relaxed.

If thoughts come,

Let them come.

Notice them.

Let them go.

Gently bring your mind back to soft belly.

OK,

Slowly,

Gently open your eyes.

Let your attention come back in the room.

Reviews

Great

Excellent! The end felt a bit abrupt but this was an effective session. 🙏 Thank you.

I’ve just discovered you book and pleased to find you narrating this practice here. I have a tendency to gulp when focusing on my breath. So breathing deeply is not always easy or restful. I can panic. Today I kept focusing on your lovely voice, saying the words and reassuring myself. I feel this is something to keep practicing before it becomes more natural.

Even the cat I just met today fell asleep in my lap! He went from nipping my hands to total relaxation :) Thank you

Very good breath work and objective description of parts of our autonomic system

I return to this meditation frequently. Thank you 🙏

Listened to your lecture at Functional Medicine Academy on mindfulness and loved it. It was a nice surprise to find this meditation here in the app. So relaxing, definitely going to add it to my favorite.

O could relax and simultaneously understand a complex objective explanation. Gracias 🙏🏻

Have been looking for ‘soft belly’ meditation since reading a wonderful Stephen Levine book. A Year To Live. Thank you. I shall return. 🙏🏼✨😌

So simple, so effective, thank you

Very calming and relaxing for the body and mind. It was also beneficial to hear the physiology of the breathing-Thank you!

Wonderfully calming

Very constructive session. Definitely took me to a much calmer state. Thanks!

Very solid breath practice, thank you Dr. Gordon!🙏🏻

Good review of parasympathetic nervous system in layman’s terms. Beneficial for my over stimulated amygdala. 🙏❤️☺️

Wonderful! Thank you!

Thank you💛. This couldn’t have been any more perfect for what I needed today.

This is an excellent meditation/talk that simply explains the relationship of soft belly breathing to the vagus nerve and how it impacts our parasympathetic nervous system. Soft-belly breathing is such an important piece to our meditation practice and overall health.

This is the best explanation of belly breathing! Thank you 🙏💜

Loved it. Soft belly