Circular Breathing For Calming The Nervous System

This is a short meditation using breath awareness to calm the nervous system. It may be useful for beginners who wish to work with breath techniques and small periods of silence. For more experienced practitioners this practice may be a useful preparation for self-guided meditation. Ideal for short breaks in the day when it may not be possible to engage in a longer practice. You will gently shift from general breath awareness, to smoothing and shaping the breath, and finally to circular or continuous breathing.

Transcript

Allow yourself to find a comfortable position,

Ideally with your spine straight.

Allow the shoulders to be soft,

And bring your awareness to the breath moving in and out from the nostrils.

Notice the cool sensation of the breath as it moves in,

Feeling it travel across the roof of your nose and throat,

And then the warmth of the breath as it travels back out.

Exhaling your breath like this three or four times,

Keeping your awareness at the opening of the nostrils and the sensation of the breath.

And as you begin to deepen the breath a little,

Observe your navel rising and falling with the breath.

Maybe notice where the breath is moving in the body,

And gently guide it down towards the navel,

Towards the diaphragm,

Feeling the navel rise and fall,

Maybe feeling the bottom side ribs gently expanding and contracting.

And begin to very gently shape the breath into an equal inhale and exhale,

Perhaps counting to four on your inhalation,

And counting to four on your exhalation.

Breathing in for four,

Breathing out for four,

Continuing to count the breath in and out as you watch the navel rise and fall.

Begin to observe the quality of the breath,

Noticing if there are any hitches or interruptions in the smoothness of the breath.

And spend a little extra time in those places,

Allowing the body and the breath to soften,

Allowing the breath to be even and smooth,

As if the movement of the breath were a paintbrush,

Smoothing the paint up and down,

Feeling the evenness between your inhale and exhale.

Beginning to notice those little moments of suspension at the top of the inhale and the bottom of the exhale,

And even smoothing that out so the breath is a continuous movement in and out.

You might find it helpful to reduce your breath capacity by 50% or more in order to allow this continuous or circular breath.

And allow yourself one minute to ease into this continuous breath.

And whenever you're ready,

You can gently begin to deepen the breath,

Completely letting go of shaping the breath,

Just moving back into your natural rhythm,

Maybe wiggling your fingers or giving yourself a stretch,

Rolling the shoulders back.

And if your eyes are closed,

You can gently flutter the eyes open and close your practice.

Reviews

New to meditation and trying different breathing techniques, I find that this circle breathing is the one I prefer. I was able to relax and focus on my breathing without too much difficulty. And I like that it was just narration without music or sounds to potentially distract my attention. Thank you for this practice!

Amazing thank you 🤍

Love guided pranayama without music.

Lovely practice for shavasana post workout. 🙏🏻

Thank you 😊

Great meditation, natural and easy Namaste🙏🙏🙏

So calming, balancing and helpful - will return to this again