Hello and welcome to our square breathing.
For this breath exercise we're going to focus on counting the breath,
Really gaining control of our inhales and our exhales,
As well as introducing some breath retention.
Sometimes with our breath retention,
Depending on how often we're used to holding our breath,
It can bring about some sensations of panic or fear.
If that comes up for you today,
Just take that in as information.
Perhaps during a contemplation you can ask where that may be stemmed from.
Just to see if you can bring your awareness back to the counting of the breath and allow that to help you work through any of those other unwanted feelings or sensations.
So to start as usual,
You want to find yourself in a comfortable position.
Because of the nature of this breathing exercise,
I recommend finding yourself seated with a nice tall spine.
You can be seated cross-legged,
In seiza,
Lotus,
Half lotus,
Any of those other traditional seated positions.
Or you can just find yourself comfortably seated in a chair with a tall spine and your feet grounded firmly on the ground.
To begin this exercise,
Just start by noticing the state of your breath currently,
Without altering anything.
Notice how it feels,
Notice where it's going.
Allow that to just start to relax you and bring you into your body.
Now for this breath,
We're going to be working with fours.
So eventually we're going to get to the point where we're inhaling to a slow and controlled count of four.
Then we're going to do a retention at the top,
Holding our breath for a slow,
Controlled count of four,
Exhaling to four,
And then we're also holding at the bottom for four.
Now for a lot of people,
Holding at the bottom is where this begins to get a little uncomfortable,
And maybe it will be the first couple times.
Not all of our exercises and practices are going to be comfortable every time that we do them.
Let's see if you give it a few chances,
If that changes at all.
If for some reason it does bring up a lot of panic,
You can also try switching this to a triangle breath,
Inhaling to the count of four,
Holding at the top for the count of four,
Exhaling for the count of four,
And leaving out the retention at the bottom,
And just repeating off after the exhale.
So we're going to try this now with the square breath technique.
So on your next inhale,
We're going to breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Keep going,
Hold,
Exhale,
Hold.
We're doing this on your own now,
Keeping awareness on the count of the breath.
If your mind begins to wander away,
Bringing it back to your breath,
Back into your body.
If your mind begins to wander away,
Bringing it back to your breath,
Bringing it back to After your next exhale,
Just allow your breath to return to a natural state.
Notice how that feels now.
Perhaps your breath is more shallow or more deep than it was when we started this exercise.
Just noticing any changes.
When you're ready,
You can slowly blink open your eyes and notice how you feel.
Thank you for joining me with square breathing today.
Namaste.
