I want to welcome you to what is called the optimal breathing.
Some people call it a circular breath,
Coherent breathing.
Generally what it is,
Is the way you want to be breathing as much as possible in your daily life.
And that's about five to six seconds on the inhale,
Five to six seconds on the exhale.
With just the gentlest of pauses,
Making the pauses as little as possible and making the breath as circular as you can.
The more you're able to breathe this way in your daily life,
Just the healthier it is for all of the major bodily systems.
And especially for triggering that relaxation response and engaging the parasympathetic nervous system.
Bringing us into a state to relax,
Bring us into a state we're ready for nice rest and sleep.
So I'll start us off and do four breaths,
Where I'll do the counting.
Then I'll do four breaths,
Where I just tell where it's time to breathe in and time to breathe out.
And then we're gonna do four breaths on our own.
And you'll find your own rhythm for this breath.
Once again,
Coming into a meditation posture,
We welcome you to sit in a chair on the floor.
And it's also fine to lie down with a pillow behind your head.
Getting into a state that cultivates awareness as well as relaxation.
You're sitting,
Feel that spine rising and everything relaxing around that spine.
If you're lying down,
Make sure you're comfortable.
Find a quiet place.
Connect to the breath.
We're gonna connect to the breath in the body.
So bring your awareness to the lower belly.
In fact,
The whole lower abdomen.
So not just the belly,
But the sides and the lower back.
Feel the abdomen expand on the inhale,
Contract on the exhale.
Breathing in through the nose.
If at all possible,
Breathe out through your nose.
But if you feel more comfortable breathing out through the mouth,
That's okay too.
But always breathing in through the nose.
And then on the exhale,
Connect with that feeling of relaxation.
So release on the exhales.
So wherever you're at,
Let's take an exhale.
Empty out,
Empty out on this exhale.
Now we're going to begin and breathe in.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Out.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
In.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Out.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
In.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Out.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
In.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Out.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
In.
In.
Out.
And four more on your own.
And let's do one more last one on our own.
This time as you breathe out,
Breathe out even more.
Exhale.
Exhale until there's absolutely nothing left to breathe out.
Bring your awareness inside the body,
Holding at the bottom of the exhale right now.
And take a nice relaxing inhale.
Now let go of the counting.
Just experiencing the body breathing.
Feeling as you breathe in,
Healing effects as you oxygenate through the blood and the cells.
And as you breathe out,
The ability to calm,
Just release any bit of worry,
Tension.
And stay with this practice as long as you'd like.
You can go back to the count or you just be with the breathing body.
Oxygenating on the inhale and fully releasing,
Relaxing.
Triggering that relaxation response on the exhales.
