Hello and welcome to this vagus nerve reset using deep belly diaphragmatic breathing.
My name is Rachel and I'm going to be your guide today through this journey of breath work.
We can use the breath in any situation within our lives to slow us down,
To draw us away from our ever busy monkey minds and it allows us to connect to the felt sensations within our bodies at any given moment.
Before we begin I'd like for you to find a comfortable seated position.
Perhaps that is lying down,
Perhaps that is sitting with your legs crossed,
Perhaps you're on a chair and just begin to allow your shoulders to rest without tensing,
Perhaps drawing your shoulders up towards your ears and then back down the body,
Taking these a few more times.
Perhaps rolling your tongue around the roof of your mouth.
This practice of diaphragmatic breathing gently activates the vagus nerve,
It allows that vagus nerve to be toned and when that toning happens regularly that's when we shift ourselves from this fight or flight state to a more relaxed rest and digest way of being.
Before you begin just taking a deep breath in through your nose and a long audible sigh out through your mouth.
Taking a deep breath in through your nose and a long audible sigh out through your mouth.
Placing one hand gently on your belly,
Perhaps one hand on your chest and taking a deep breath in expanding your belly as though it was a balloon,
Expanding,
Feeling the belly rise while your chest remains still as best it can.
Pausing for a moment on that inhale and then exhaling,
Releasing that balloon,
The abdomen starts to contract inwards.
When we are breathing out just imagine any excess unwanted energy leaving your body,
Allowing yourself to feel grounded and steady.
I invite you to take a few more of these deep belly breaths as we breathe in expanding your diaphragm outwards and as we breathe out contracting it inwards,
Allowing yourself to really notice the sensation of the breath,
Allowing yourself to connect with how the body is moving and how the breath moves rhythmically on its own without any understanding or motion from us to do so.
It is an automatic function that we can also control and just allowing your breath to be expanding that belly as you inhale and contracting as you exhale,
Maybe taking one or two more of these breaths in your own time and knowing that this is a practice and it takes time like anything to practice but eventually this becomes memory stored in our bodies and it becomes a more natural way of breathing,
Allowing yourself to finish off this last breath and then just gently placing your hands onto your heart center,
Allowing yourself to receive the calmness,
The support that you've just given yourself and knowing that you can take this into your day wherever you are and thank you for practicing with me today with all my love,
Rachel
