This is Annie Barrett,
And we're going to do the practice of belly breathing together.
This is a wonderful practice that you can do anytime,
Any place to help regulate your nervous system,
To help release stress,
To help you shift your mindset.
It also can be helpful for increasing alertness and even allowing your body to release toxins.
So let's try this.
Begin and your eyes can be open or closed.
Begin by just noticing your breath as it is right now.
And it can be helpful to take a hand to your belly.
And you may notice that your breath is already in your belly,
But for many of us,
We'll actually discover that we breathe fairly shallowly during the day,
And you might notice that your breath is only up in the upper part of your body.
So notice your breath as it is right now.
And then with your hand on your belly,
Begin with taking a deep breath into your belly,
Letting the air expand,
And then continue filling your chest cavity with breath as well.
And then exhaling all the way out.
Let's try that again.
Breathing in a deep breath into your belly,
Letting the air expand,
And then filling your chest cavity with breath.
Filling the movement first in the belly and then in the chest,
Pausing for a moment.
And then we're going to exhale slowly.
First exhaling the breath out of the chest,
Then slowly exhaling the breath out of the belly,
Pausing for a moment.
And let's do that again.
Inhaling in through belly,
Up into chest,
Pausing at the top of the inhalation,
And exhaling all the way out.
Chest and belly,
Pausing for a moment at the bottom.
Again,
A deeper inhalation beginning in the belly,
Moving up to your chest,
Pausing at the top of the inhalation,
And exhaling out through your chest,
Out through your belly,
Pausing at the bottom.
Let's try that twice more.
Belly breathing in,
Belly,
Up into chest,
Pausing at the top,
Exhaling out the chest,
Out of the belly,
Pausing at the bottom.
And once more.
Inhale,
Belly,
Chest,
Pause,
Exhale,
Chest,
And belly.
And just taking a moment to return to your natural breath and just notice if anything shifted for you.
Oftentimes it just takes five deep belly breaths to help us shift the body into a more relaxed state.
And this is a practice that we can do anywhere,
Anytime.
I hope this is helpful.
