Welcome to Day 4 of Breathing to Thrive.
Today we're going to work with a technique known as three phase yogic breath and this will allow us to create more space to breathe.
It helps us expand our abdominal wall,
Expand our rib cage and even expand our lungs through three phases and we finish with a really nice slow and steady exhale to relax our nervous system once again.
You can practice today either in a seated posture or lying down.
So spending a few moments getting comfortable in your position and we'll place one hand on our belly and one hand on our chest.
We'll breathe in and out through the nose for this practice and the first phase starts down at the level of your belly.
It's a two second inhale that expands the belly.
Then we move into a two second inhale expanding the chest and then we top up with a one second inhale to really expand the lungs and a long slow steady exhale.
So your inhale has three parts and your exhale has one part.
Giving this a try for a few moments,
Inhaling for two seconds into the belly,
Two seconds into the chest,
Topping up for one and a long slow steady exhale for at least five seconds.
Then bringing in your ujjayi noise on the exhale.
The key thing to avoid during three phase yogic breath is that when you take your two second inhale into the chest and your one second top up that you're not moving your shoulders up and down with these parts.
You want to be creating the space all around your rib cage in a more lateral sense rather than any vertical movement.
So keeping that in mind I'm practicing for three more rounds.
We are practicing three phase yogic breath today in a quite relaxed steady pace focusing more on creating space and achieving relaxation.
You can speed this practice up slightly for a more invigorating result.
You can also use it to increase your breath hold.
Practicing for about two minutes and then inhaling exhaling and then moving into a breath hold.
But for this course we're going to mainly focus on space and relaxation.
So we'll continue with the rest of our breathing exercises and then we'll finish up with three phase yogic breath towards the end.
So keeping the hands and the belly and the chest moving into ujjayi breath four second inhale six second exhale making that nice ocean sound on your exhale.
We'll do this for two minutes and then I'll let you know when to come back.
APPLAUSE you you you As we come past the two-minute mark letting go of your breath count letting your breath return back to its natural rhythm I'm just observing any movements or sensations around your body and we'll now move into two minutes of box breathing starting at either three four or five seconds whatever suits you remembering the box breath has four equal parts and during the pauses we're enhancing our ability to tolerate more carbon dioxide so being kind to yourself during those pauses maybe even bringing a smile to your face because there may be some discomfort or irritation but remembering you're well oxygenated you're safe and it's just your phrenic nerve relearning how to handle carbon dioxide so beginning when you're ready and I'll let you know when we come to the end of our two minutes you you you you you you you you you now that our two minutes has come to a close just letting your breath return back to its natural rhythm observing how you are feeling you you you you you you you and after practicing our longer exhales with a joy he breath our box breathing we're in a great place now to move into our three phase yogic breath so when you're ready beginning with that first inhale into the belly for two seconds the chest for two seconds one second top up long slow exhale continuing in this pattern on your own you you you you you and now that you've been practicing for over a minute I want you to try start linking up the individual phases of the three phase so instead of a feeling like three separate movements creating more of a flow up through the belly and the chest and then a nice flow on the exhale you you remembering to limit the movement in your shoulders thinking more horizontally and avoiding any vertical movement you you you And after your next exhale bringing to a close your three phase yoga breath,
Relaxing your hands on your lap and just sinking in leaning into any feelings any sensations around your body.
This brings to a close day four we've moved past the halfway mark hope you're enjoying the sessions and keep going till day seven.
