The 6 minute pause.
Welcome to the 6 minute pause with me,
Louisa Cain at the pause before.
Thank you for taking some time out today to support your wellbeing to check in with yourself,
With your mind,
Body and energy.
If you haven't already done so,
Check that your phone is on silent and ideally you're somewhere you won't be distracted.
Visualise pressing your very own pause button.
As you do,
Anything you've been doing,
Any to-do's,
Actions or thoughts,
Slow down to a stop,
Just for a few moments.
On a scale of 1 to 10,
With 1 being not so great and 10 being amazing,
Ask yourself,
How am I today?
Let go of any expectations or judgement and just take the time to be curious about yourself at this moment in time.
Today we're learning the WHQ breath,
The quickest way to rebalance our nervous system.
Sit up tall and roll your shoulders up,
Back and down,
Away from your ears,
Creating space.
Feel the ground underneath the soles of your feet,
And notice the parts of your body in contact with the chair,
As you become more centred.
I invite you to close your eyes or take your gaze down to the floor,
To reduce any external distraction.
Take a deep breath in and out through your nose if you can.
Bring your awareness to your breath.
Notice how your abdomen and chest rise as you breathe in,
And they fall as you breathe out.
Allow this to become an anchor point for you.
If your mind wanders off,
Just gently redirect it back to this gentle movement.
We're now going to move through the WHQ breath.
Let's focus back on the breath.
WHQ is for where?
Where are you breathing from?
Your chest,
Abdomen,
Both?
Or maybe you can feel it somewhere else?
Take a few breaths here.
H is for how?
How are you breathing?
Maybe fast or slow,
Or somewhere in between?
Are you holding your breath?
No need to diagnose what's meant by fast or slow.
You know the right answer for you.
Take a few breaths here.
Q is for quality.
What's the quality of your breath?
Is it smooth or jerky?
Deep or shallow?
Easier to breathe in or breathe out?
Take a few breaths here.
Becoming aware of our breath is the fastest way to rebalance our nervous system and dial down our fight or flight response.
We're aiming to breathe smoothly and slowly,
Using the whole of our ribcage,
Just like slowly inflating and deflating a balloon.
Take three slow deep breaths here.
And notice any changes in your mind,
Body or energy.
Just like we did at the beginning,
Check in on your scale of 1 to 10 and see if anything's moved or maybe it stayed the same.
Again,
Just be curious.
Make any stretches or movements you'd like to make as we transition back into the world and the rest of our day.
Remember,
You can come back to this recording or do the WHQ breath anytime you need to.
W is for where,
H is for how and Q is for quality.
Thank you for taking a pause with the pause before and joining our mindfulness community.
Come and pause again with a C.
