Sit comfortably or even lay down.
Just take a moment unclenching your teeth,
Softening your shoulders,
Relaxing your forehead.
In this session we're going to do a very very simple and effective breath work exercise.
It's called five by five breathing or a square breath as others call it.
It's a really effective way of just tuning in to your nervous system and switching over to calm down.
Now if at any time you need to change the pace or you notice that you've even drifted off,
That is absolutely fine.
You do what you need to do but see if you can be consistent in some kind of rhythm with your breath that feels good for you.
If you are pregnant or if you are dealing with any kind of respiratory issue you might find that a shorter breath will help but if you feel breathless at all please just take longer and deeper breaths and don't worry about retaining or holding any of the breath.
So five by five breath is really really simple.
We inhale for five counts,
We hold and then we exhale for five counts and hold again like the figure of a square visualizing your breath moving in the pattern of a square.
Now I will guide you into it and then I'll just leave you for a few rounds on your own and I'll slowly bring you out of the breath work activity as well.
So again just take a moment to adjust your position,
Get any last-minute fidgets or adjustments out of the way then become very still.
Without changing anything at all just become aware of your breathing.
Just feel your breath moving through your lungs feeling how your body responds to your breath.
Your belly melting as it takes more breath down lower into it and softening your back ribs.
Just passively observing and spending some time with our breath.
What a gift it is to be breathing right now.
Take a deep breath in empty it out.
Do it again inhaling and exhaling one more just like that.
Now breathing in for one two three four five pause one two three four five exhale five four three two one pause one two three four five inhale one two three 4 5 pause 1 2 3 4 5 exhale 5 4 3 2 1 pause 1 2 3 4 5 inhale 1 2 3 4 5 pause 1 2 3 4 5 empty 5 4 3 2 1 pause 1 2 3 4 5 inhale for 5 pause 5 exhale 5 pause 1 2 3 4 5 inhale for 5 pause 5 exhale 5 pause 5 inhale for 5 and continue on now in your own rhythm your natural count may get a little faster or even slow down a little bit and that's okay just stick with your own five count rhythm that is what is important here you spending time with your breath just notice what you're thinking about come back to your breath if you've drifted off just pick up wherever you left off when we slow down our breathing to this rate we move to about three to six breaths per minute this greatly increases the amount of oxygen in our bodies and helps us get rid of more carbon dioxide it also sends messages straight from the body to the brain that says it's time to calm down now we can chill out we can switch on our rest and repair mode so as you breathe here to your own five count rhythm visualize all of your cells benefiting from this visualize the tension draining away out of your body and being replaced with pure healing anything and everything your body needs to receive right now it's receiving from your breath keep going finish the round that you're on Then just take one more.
When you're done with that one Just gently let go of the breathing activity returning to normal breathing Slowly coming out of the activity allowing yourself just to be here for a few moments Feel the space that you're in Take your body into a gentle stretch And have a beautiful beautiful day Feel the space that you're in you you you you you you you you you you you
