Hello,
It's Sarah here with a balanced breathing practice for you today.
Balanced breath is designed to bring your parasympathetic and your sympathetic nervous systems into balance.
When we balance our two sides of the nervous system,
We feel both awake as well as relaxed.
This practice can be great for the mornings or any time during the day when you feel like you might need a little pick-me-up or a little bit of stress reduction but not too much relaxation.
Let's start by finding our comfortable seated position,
Whatever that looks like for you today.
Perhaps seated in a chair with your feet firmly planted in the floor.
Perhaps sitting on a mat or a cushion,
Cross-legged.
Perhaps sitting in hero's pose on your knees with hips on heels.
Whatever works for you.
And once you're there,
If it's comfortable for you today,
Feel free to flutter your eyes closed.
If not,
Take a soft gaze just beyond the tip of your nose and begin drawing your attention to your breath just as it is right now.
We do this to bring our mind to where our body is,
To be present in our body,
To center ourselves.
And just notice what your breath is like in this moment.
What does it feel like to breathe right now?
Where do you feel the breath moving through you?
Maybe you feel it coming in through the nostrils.
Maybe you feel the air whooshing out over the top of your top lip.
Maybe you feel your belly expanding and contracting with a wave of your inhales and exhales.
Maybe you feel it in your chest,
Across your collarbones.
Maybe you feel it in your shoulders moving up and down.
Maybe you feel it in your rib cage if you're expanding from side to side or front to back.
Where does the breath feel strongest for you in this moment?
Now we'll begin the balanced breathing practice and this involves simply making your inhales and your exhales the same duration.
So let's try inhaling for a count of three or four and then exhaling for a count of three or four.
Go with your breath and what makes you feel comfortable never straining.
If your breaths are shorter,
Count to two and if your breaths are longer,
Count to five or six.
Whatever works for you.
I'll start out with the three count.
Inhale two,
Three.
Exhale two,
Three.
Inhale two,
Three.
Exhale two,
Three.
Keep going with your own breath,
Whatever the pacing is that feels right for you,
Trying to make your inhales and exhales the same duration.
Notice if you're practicing this,
If your mind is wandering,
Perhaps continuing to count the duration of the inhales and the exhales will keep your mind on the breath.
Perhaps not and if not,
No worries.
Just gently bring your mind back to your breath and when you've established a steady pattern where you feel like your inhales and your exhales are a constant rhythm with each other,
Then you could stop counting if that is a distraction.
Simply breathing this balanced breath for another minute or so.
Across the body.
And wherever you are release that last breath come back to your natural breath come back to where you are in the room notice the points of contact that you're making with the floor or the chair wiggle your fingers maybe roll your head very slowly and gently from side to side take one nice big deep inhale into the belly open mouth audible exhale and flutter your eyes open I hope that you feel both awake refreshed as well as relaxed and restored Have a great day!
