Box Breathing & Breathwork For Calm (+10 Mins Practice)

Today we practiced 'Box Breathing Plus', followed by 10 minutes of silence.

Principles of breathwork: Nose, Low, Slow. If you are following a count, speed it up or slow it down depending on you. Do not force it. breathwork should be calming!

Breathing in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, out for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds. Repeat.

Entraining (adding) a visualization of the box and counting on the fingers to occupy the mind.

Remember to adjust the count to suit you. If the count offered is too fast or slow, it can be anxiety inducing. Feel free to speed up, slow down, and tweak to your count (just slowing the breath down is the goal!)

Transcript

Hello, Welcome to the session, I invite you to take a seat or lie down, Get yourself comfortable, Close down the eyes if you wish, Just begin by slowing down the breath, Just a little bit slower than what you are currently doing, Today we are going to be looking at breath work for calming, For regulation, For anxiety reduction, The main principles of breath work to take for this session and moving forward is nose, Low and slow, Breathing slowly in through the nose, Low into the belly, We'll move to a box breathing soon but I will be offering you a count, If that count is too fast or too slow you change it to adapt to you, Before we begin that let's just take some slower deeper breaths, You might place your hand on your belly, Your hand on your heart space, What should notice when you're breathing in is that the hand on your belly rises first, Then the one on your chest and there's a final little sip at the top of the throat, You pause for a little bit and when your body is ready you release in reverse order from the throat, The chest and the belly, The principles of nose, Low and slow help guide you, It's a little bit slower than what you're currently doing, You aim to slow your breath down as much as possible but only to a level that feels comfortable, If you're struggling, If the process is causing anxiety, Change it, Nose, Low, Slow, Let's take five slow deep breaths together just a bit slower than what you're currently doing, The mind and the body are deeply connected and the mind looks at cues from the body to see what's happening, By slowing down the breath, Letting the mind know we are safe, By relaxing the muscles we let the mind know we are safe, So if we're struggling with overwhelm or lots of thoughts or anxiety we can impact the mind by gently lovingly calmly slowing down the breath, Not so much that we struggle, It's just a little bit, Nose, Low, Slow, So the formal practice that I want to introduce to you is called box breathing, Also known as square breathing or tactical breathing, What you do is you breathe in for a count, Hold for a count, Out for a count and hold for a count, Usually the count of four, Like I was saying speed it up, Slow it down for what works for you, You can also add to this practice and train in this practice a visualization, So at the bottom corner of a box you visualize a light or a line, You breathe in it travels up, As you hold travels across, As you breathe out it travels down and as you hold it returns back to the beginning creating a box, So I will offer you a count saying breathe in, Hold, Out, Hold, If it's too fast, Too slow, Tweak it to what works for you, Nose, Low, Slow, That's the principle, Let's begin, Breathing in, So that is the basic practice of box breathing, Breathe in for a count, Hold for a count, Out for a count, Hold for a count, You can add the visualization of the box in, Just remember to adjust the counting as you go, Might start a little bit quicker but as you relax you can slow it down, The principles of box breathing and all breathing practices that are designed to regulate and calm are nose, Low and slow, Thank you for joining me, I'll see you in the next session, If you like we can sit together for 10 more minutes in silence, Practicing box breathing, Calming breath, Mindfulness or any other practice you call to practice, Let's begin, See if you'd like to maintain the meditation, You're more than welcome to do so, For everyone else just gently returning back to the day, Back to your session, Back to your body, Back, Today we practiced box breathing with a look at the principles behind breath work for calm, The main takeaways are nose, Low and slow, If you'd like to calm the nervous system down, Slow down the breath, Do that by breathing in through the nose, Deep into the belly, Just actively slowing it down, Just a bit more than what your current rate of breathing is, But not so much that it overwhelms you, If you ever do a count with someone, The track and you're finding that keeping up is causing a bit of stress, Change the timing, As long as it follows the principles of nose, Low and slow, It will be effective, That's true for box breathing or the 4, 7, 8 breath or any of the other breath work timings that you'll come across, Thank you for joining me, I'll see you in the next session.