The Principles Of Breathwork For Relaxation & Calm

Hello and welcome to the session.

Today we're going to be talking about the principles of breath work for relaxation and calm.

You can use breathwork for a number of things.

For deep insights for unlocks,

But also as a simple tool to help you calm down and regulate.

That's what we're going to be talking about today.

The simple principle is this.

Nose,

Low and slow.

If you breathe in through the nose.

Slowly.

And low into the belly.

Your body will calm down and therefore your mind will calm down.

That's it that is the summary of what we're going to be talking about here Breathwork for calm equals nose.

Lobe Slow.

But let's get a little bit more detailed.

The mind and the body are connected.

The mind the thing that is sort of judging.

Can't see the external world.

It uses sensory inputs.

The eyes,

The ears,

Sensations from the body,

The internal senses,

To judge.

So it's looking,

It's contemplating,

It's thinking,

It's like,

Are we in danger right now?

How does it know?

We can judge by the state of the body.

Is the heart beating fast?

Is the breath deep and slow or is it shallow?

Are the muscles tense or are they relaxed?

Are the eyes doubting and moving around.

What's the posture like?

Is it tense or is it?

Open and expansive.

It will look or it will feel.

It will judge.

The actions and behaviors of the body.

And determine if there's danger.

If it determines that there's danger,

It will increase the parasympathetic nervous system activation.

Releasing stress hormones to get you ready for fight or flight.

To get you ready to act.

To keep yourself safe and this becomes a bit of a loop.

You get safe,

And then what should happen.

Our body should start to calm down.

We start to slow down the breathing.

Our heart rate slows.

Our muscles relax because we're safe.

The mind realizes that we're doing that.

It helps to activate this.

Parasympathetic nervous system,

The relaxation hormones release,

And so on and so forth.

Now there's a bit of a duality here.

The mind and the body are connected.

So if you calm down the body,

Then the mind calms.

You calm down the mind,

The body calms.

So therefore,

If you find yourself not in a calm state.

You can actively do physical things to calm the body down.

And that internal calm the mind down.

You can actively do things in the mind.

That's a different session,

A different talk.

Calm down the body.

Inserting positive thoughts.

Affirmations,

Mindfulness,

Other things.

But today we're focusing on the breath.

If you actively slow down your breathing,

Your mind's realizing that the body is slowing down its breath.

We must be a little bit safer than it.

We otherwise feel.

In through the nose.

Low into the belly.

Slow Give it a try now.

Take a long Slow.

Deep breaths.

To the belly.

Now compare that to a couple of fast,

Shallow breaths,

Sort of high breaths.

Yeah,

You can feel the difference in activation.

Take another slow,

Deep breath.

And through the nose.

And release.

Take another one.

And release.

In through the nose.

Low into the belly,

And slow.

Actively choosing to slow the breath down.

But we're doing so in a way that isn't overwhelming.

Because let's say you start practicing the slowing of the breath.

After you've been running,

After you've been activated during a panic attack,

After some sort of altercation.

You're like real tense.

You're like breathing fast.

And to slow down the breath can self-induce panic because it feels like you're not getting enough oxygen in.

So there are a lot of like sort of breath work counts,

Sort of like a four,

Seven,

Eight breath,

In for four,

Hold for seven,

Release for eight.

Or a box breathing where you in for four,

Hold for four,

Out for four,

Hold for four.

There's a lot of different counts and a lot of different practices.

But I find that a lot of the time and with a lot of people that I work with,

Those counts can themselves be anxiety inducing.

Because you're trying to force a specific count upon a specific person in a specific situation.

And unless it lines up,

It can cause anxiety because you're trying to like force yourself.

The only thing you should really be focused on doing,

At least initially,

As you're calming down.

In through the nose.

Low and slow.

Just a little bit slower than what you were doing.

Right.

So if you're breathing quite fast.

Just slow it down a little bit.

And a little bit more.

And then a little bit more still.

If you're breathing through the mouth.

Start to breathe through the nose,

At least breathing in through the nose.

And you can breathe out through the mouth.

Just slow it down.

Until you can calmly,

Comfortably breathe in and out through the nose.

And then eventually your breath will start to slow.

You can actively relax the muscles.

You can fix your posture.

You can just start to calm down in the other ways as well.

You'll notice your heart rate starts to slow.

You'll notice that your body starts to relax,

That the posture will release.

And maybe then you can move into a specific counted breath.

I like box breathing.

I like four,

Seven,

Eight breathing.

I like circular breathing.

They all work in different circumstances depending on how I'm feeling.

The overarching practice,

The overarching principle,

And I'm going to keep saying it in this talk,

Is nose low and slow.

Is during the middle of a panic attack,

During the middle of overwhelm.

No's low,

Slow.

That's easy to remember.

In through the nose.

Slower than what you're doing.

And you keep slowing it down until you get to the slowest possible in that moment.

But not so slow that the act of slowing down the breath is causing extra duress.

It's slower than what you're doing.

That's the summary.

Nose.

Low and slow.

Final thing of this talk will be to introduce the concept of a yogic breath.

When I say low,

We're talking about breathing.

Into the belly so to speak now obviously the lungs are the lungs you don't breathe into the belly But if you look at a child breathing,

They breathe deeply.

They breathe right down into their belly.

It's like as you breathe in.

The belly raises,

Not the chest first.

The belly raises,

Then the chest raises.

So a yogic breath,

A slow breath,

A deep breath.

You breathe in through the belly.

Then feel the chest,

And then there's this final little sip that almost feels like you're sipping at the throat.

Belly,

Chest,

Throat.

Pause for a little bit.

Just comfortably until your body wants to release.

Then you release from the throat.

Then the chest,

Then the belly.

So it's into the belly,

Into the chest,

Into the throat.

Release from the throat,

The chest,

The belly.

Comfortably.

You wait for your body to initiate the breath.

Let's give it a try.

Belly,

Chest,

Throat,

Paws,

Throat,

Chest,

Belly.

Let's try it now.

And you just repeat that process.

You just sort of almost visualise the belly being filled up.

And you'll see your belly rising,

See the chest rising.

You feel it into the throne.

And reverse on the way out.

And the final practice,

The final practice of slowing down the breath for anxiety,

For panic,

For release,

For calm.

We've got no slow and slow.

I've got the yogic breath into the belly,

The chest,

The throat,

Pausing and in reverse order releasing.

Not forcing.

In time with what your body wants.

The final practice is called a gratitude breath.

So this combines a bit of the body and a bit of the mind.

You slow down the breath.

You take a slow,

Deep breath like we just did.

But on release,

You sigh.

Now,

If it's appropriate,

You can cite externally,

Like making a.

.

.

Ahhhh.

Sort of sound.

Or you can just do that sort of internally.

You're doing a long,

Slow,

Deep,

Sighing breath.

But you're also at the same time doing a couple of other things.

Actively relaxing the muscles,

Dropping the shoulders,

Releasing the belly,

Releasing the tension in the jaw,

In the thighs,

Anywhere else you're holding tension.

Just relaxing everything.

And you're fostering some gratitude.

Picturing a person,

Pet or plant,

Ideally that's around you or that is,

You know,

That you know of.

That you're connected to.

You've fostered the sense of gratitude.

Practice the long sleep deep slow sighing breath as you're releasing the muscles in the body.

So you're hitting the body,

You're hitting the breath,

And you're hitting the mind.

All three together is a great stopgap,

A way to quickly release and come back into the moment and calm yourself down.

Try it.

Try it now.

But then also hold that practice as a response to anxiety,

Overwhelm,

Triggers,

Or just as potentially a meditation practice itself.

Let's try it.

We're going to take a long,

Slow,

Deep sighing breath.

Relaxing our muscles.

Fostering gratitude.

Just repeating that process until we feel calm.

Let's try it now.

Sigh.

You can do that as many times as you like.

I encourage you to explore that practice.

Once again,

In through the nose,

Low,

Slow.

The yogic breath is into the belly,

Chest,

Throat.

And they're releasing in reverse order.

The gratitude breath,

The last practice is.

.

.

Long,

Slow,

Deep sighing breath.

Releasing the bodily muscles whilst fostering gratitude to a person,

Pet or plant in our life.

Thank you for joining me.

May your next breath bring calm.