Finger Breathing

In this session we practiced "Finger/Mountain Breathing".

Place your pointer finger at the base of the opposite thumb and with a slow breath in through the nose 'climb the mountain' of the thumb, pausing at the top, then slowly descend with the out breath.

Repeat this process for all the finders on the hand.

This is a mindful practice as we focus on the sensations of the fingers as we climb. The slowing of the breath is akin to a square/box breathing practice. Nose, low, slow, calming the body and mind.

Transcript

Hello 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 in through the nose, Out through the mouth, And just checking into the body and the mind. Releasing any surface level tensions that are arising and 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, You 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 mindfulness 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 suddenly 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. Pausing and when you're ready breathing out climbing down. When you're ready breathing in climbing the middle finger. Pausing when you're ready breathing out coming down. Ring finger when you're ready climbing up. Pausing when you're ready coming down. Last one 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 and you know 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. Give it a 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 that 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. But if you like, We can sit for 10 minutes. We can practice finger breathing. We could practice box breathing, Mindfulness or any other practice you would like to explore today. Let's give it a try. Let's begin. So if you'd like to maintain the meditation, You're more than welcome to do so. But for everyone else, I invite you to return to the session, Return to your body and begin to return to your day. Today we practiced a practice called mountain breathing or finger breathing. Something that combines the mindful feeling of the sensations of the finger climbing the mountain of the other finger with slow, Calm breathing. You focus on the sensations, Bring your attention back. You focus on the sensations, You bring it back. That's mindfulness. You do it with loving self-compassion. The point is to bring your attention back to the object. But it is also a slumming down of the breath practice. Slumming down the breath calms the mind, Calms the body and helps to regulate. You can do one hand in about a minute. So if you find yourself overwhelmed or struggling, Give this a try. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you in the next one.