And welcome to the session.
I invite you to take a seat.
And lie down.
And get yourself comfortable.
For today's session we're going to keep our eyes open.
Just begin by taking some slow,
Deep breaths.
Through the nose.
Now through the mouth.
Just checking into the body and the mind.
Releasing any surface level tensions that are arising.
Settling yourself into the session.
Today we're going to be combining Mindfulness.
With slowing down the breath.
Mindfulness offers focus.
Clarity.
And presence.
And the slowing down the breath.
Calms the body.
And calms the mind.
Activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
The system that activates when we calm.
So what we're going to do is something that you might have seen when you were younger.
This one is often offered to young kids as a simple exercise to just Help them to just release some of the pressure that builds up.
It's called finger breathing or mountain breathing.
You hold your hand out in front of you.
And you start with your finger at the base of your thumb.
And as you breathe in.
.
.
You bring your finger to the tip of the thumb.
Pause there for a little bit.
Top of the mountain.
And as you breathe out,
You bring it down the other side of the thumb.
As you breathe in,
You bring your finger up the pointer finger.
Pausing at the top of the pointing finger,
And then as you breathe out,
You bring it down into the middle.
As you breathe in,
You bring your finger up.
The mountain to the middle finger,
Top of the middle finger.
As you breathe out.
You bring it down to the base of the middle finger and so on.
Finger breathing.
So what we're doing here,
It's marvelous and slow,
Calm breathing.
Why is it mindfulness?
You're focusing on watching.
And feeling the sensation of the finger rising.
You're focusing on the breath.
These are the points of focus.
If your mind wanders,
You bring it back to the task.
Bring it back to the sensations of the finger climbing the mountain.
It's slow,
Calm breathing because we're going to do it slowly.
So it combines both activities.
Now,
Yeah,
It looks a little bit silly,
But that's okay.
This could be a practice you do by yourself,
Or you could have your hand,
You know,
Subtly down beside you as you do it,
If this is something that appeals to you.
Let's give it a try.
We're going to do one finger,
One hand rather.
Finger at the base of the thumb,
Breathing in.
Pausing at the top of the thumb.
And when you're ready,
Breathing out.
When you're ready,
Breathing in climbing to the top of the pointing finger.
And when you're ready,
Breathing out,
Climbing down.
When you're ready,
Breathing in,
Climbing the middle finger.
When you're ready,
Breathing out,
Coming down.
Ring finger.
When you're ready,
Climbing up.
Pausing when you're ready.
Coming down.
Pinky finger.
When you're ready,
Breathing in.
Pausing at the top.
And breathing out.
So each hand has the opportunity for five slow,
Calm breaths.
That takes about a minute to do.
So you can do a minute and a minute and a minute.
And so on and so forth.
With each hand.
Like I said,
This is a mindfulness exercise.
End it.
When you do this and you really focus on the sensations of the hand,
Really focus on the sensations of the finger moving up.
Really focus on the breath.
You're training your mind to focus on a particular object.
Because this is a mindfulness practice,
You're also being aware of where the mind is.
Your mind wanders to thoughts of the past or the future.
You bring it back.
You have feelings about the exercise itself.
This is a silly exercise.
Even that you acknowledge.
You bring it back to the sensation.
Anywhere your mind wanders.
You bring it back.
Because you're actively slowing down the breath.
The mind.
Picks up cues from the environment.
If you are breathing fast.
Quick breathing.
The mind perceives danger.
Why are we breathing quickly?
Similarly if we slow down the breath,
Really slow it down.
The mind picks up the idea,
Oh,
We're breathing slowly.
We must be safe.
So you can use your hand and climb the fingers on the mountain.
As slowly as you like.
To try really,
If you're pausing at the base and you're pausing at the top.
Of the Mountain of the Fingers.
This is a box breathing practice.
Box breathing or square breathing,
Also known as tactical breathing.
When you breathe in for four seconds,
Hold for four seconds,
Breathe out for four seconds,
Hold for four seconds.
You could visualize a box as you're doing that.
But really,
You're almost feeling that.
Pausing at the base for four seconds.
Climbing for four seconds with the finger.
Pausing at the top of the finger for four seconds and coming back down for four seconds.
We're just adding more tools.
It's an idea known as entrainment.
When you add things,
If you have a busy mind.
Adding more things for your mind to focus on can help you to maintain the focus on what you're doing,
Maintain mindfulness,
Maintain your meditation.
So if you're looking for a mindfulness practice,
It also is a calming practice,
A breathwork practice.
Give the finger breathing or perhaps box breathing a try.
Thank you for joining me.
See you in the next session.
