So how can we use the breath to calm the mind?
There's three simple principles that I'd like you to remember.
You breathe in through the nose,
Low into the belly,
And a little bit slower than what you're doing.
I encourage you to give it a try now.
Taking a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in through the nose.
Feeling up the belly.
Then the chest and a nice little bit at the end.
And then releasing in the reverse order.
Slower than what you usually are doing.
By slowing down the breath.
We're telling the mind that we're safe.
We can add some muscle relaxation and closed or focused eyes.
And that's it.
Using the breath to calm down the body,
In turn will calm down the mind.
There are plenty of different breathwork accounts.
For example,
Box breathing,
Where you breathe in,
Hold,
Out,
Hold.
Or 4-7-8 breath where you breathe in for 4 seconds,
Hold for 7 seconds,
Breathe out for 8 seconds.
There are many,
Many more.
The principles behind them all.
And if you're doing a guided session where there is a count and it's causing stress because it's too slow or too fast,
That's okay.
And through the nose,
Low into the belly.
And slow.
The final little addendum is.
.
.
If you want to use the breath to calm you down,
Just make sure that the out-breath is longer than the in-breath.
That's it.
So you breathe in for maybe a count of four,
And breathe out for maybe a count of eight.
Let's give it a try now.
Breathing in.
And breathing out slowly.
Well done.
So if you'd like to find more guided and other breathwork-based content for calm and relaxation,
I have a collection of audio and video tracks available for you here on Insight Dharma.
Check it out,
And I'll see you there.
