Belly Breathing Practice

Short calming breathing practice to help you slow down, and reduce the intensity of feelings of anxiety and stress. Taking control of the breath to gently slow and deepen the breath for a few minutes can be useful. If the practice makes you feel light-headed or anxious, then please stop and take a step back.

Transcript

Short belly breathing practice.

You can do this practice seated or lying down,

With your eyes open or closed,

Whichever is more comfortable for you.

And to start,

I'll invite you to place a hand on the chest and a hand on the belly,

And just start to notice where there are movements as you breathe.

So no need to control the breath at this point.

Just notice where there are movements,

Maybe underneath the hand at the top in the chest,

Or maybe underneath the hand at the bottom down in the belly.

Or maybe there's not much to notice at all,

And that's okay too.

And what we're looking to do now is to gently take control of the breath,

And gently extend the inhale,

And gently extend the exhale.

So to help you,

You might like to place your hands on the belly,

And maybe breathing in through the nose if that's comfortable,

And out through the mouth or the nose.

So gently extending the in-breath,

And extending the out-breath.

See if we can get the belly to extend as you breathe in,

And soften as you breathe out.

Gently lengthening and deepening the inhale.

Gently lengthening and deepening the exhale.

And see what you notice in the mind and body as you start to gently deepen and lengthen the breath.

Breathing from the belly,

Breathing into the belly,

Out from the belly.

And as you breathe out,

A sense of softening and letting go.

Perhaps letting go more with each out-breath.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Allowing the body to soften and let go with each out-breath.

Tuning into the breath down in the belly as best you can.

Nothing too dramatic happening here.

A gentle extension of the inhale,

A gentle extension of the exhale.

Breathing down into the belly as best you can.

And just checking in now,

Seeing what you notice in the mind and body after this short belly breathing practice.

Letting go of control,

Allowing the body to resume its natural rhythm.

And maybe taking a few moments to yourself before going about the rest of your activities today.