Welcome.
Thank you for joining me to practice together today.
We're going to be working with a breath practice today,
Which is a three-part breath.
And this particular type of breathing is really effective for helping us lower our stress levels,
For toning down the intensity of moments of anxiety or stress.
It's really good for emotional regulation when we're feeling something very intensely.
Basically,
It's good for any time our nervous system is feeling activated.
And when we find ourselves wrapped up in anxiety or stress or a strong emotion,
Our breathing tends to become faster and more shallow.
So we breathe from usually just the very top of our lungs.
And that fast,
Shallow breathing is biologically associated with danger or physical exertion.
It lowers our carbon dioxide,
Which can sometimes lead to feeling dizzy or brain fog or just feeling kind of disconnected or spacey.
And this faster,
Shallower breathing also requires a lot of exertion,
A lot of energy from all of those little accessory muscles in the neck,
In the shoulders,
In the upper chest.
And that muscular tension sends more signals to our brain that say,
Uh-oh,
There's some kind of threat here.
So it's a self-perpetuating cycle.
When we're activated,
We tend to breathe more quickly and more shallow.
And that exact breathing pattern causes our nervous system to become even more activated and stay activated.
So in this practice,
We're purposefully slowing down the breath and we're purposefully directing the air to all of the areas of the lung.
So we're using the whole lung instead of just the top part.
And this is a tool that we can use to actually shift our own physiological state.
We have this ability to shift ourselves out of that state of activation.
We can calm that fight or flight response and shift us towards rest and digest,
Where we feel more calm towards that sense of safety in our nervous system.
And this type of breathing also helps us ground ourselves into the present moment because we're focusing the attention on the breath and therefore shifting our attention away from whatever mental gymnastics the mind has been engaged in.
So let's explore this breath together.
Encourage you to find a comfortable position,
Whatever that might be,
Sitting or lying down.
You can do this standing too,
Or even moving around if that's what your nervous system feels like it needs today.
And as a note,
As you're settling in,
Some people find it helpful to lie down on the back for breath practice because the surface beneath the body offers some proprioceptive feedback.
And when you're lying down,
Your core is not doing the work of holding your body upright.
So you can really focus on bringing the breath into the different areas of the trunk.
So just something to consider as you're finding what feels comfortable today,
Remembering that in these mindfulness practices,
Comfort is key.
So getting any last wiggles out,
Whatever position you've chosen,
Allowing the body to just be heavy,
Letting go of any tension in the physical body,
Allowing the eyes to gently close if that feels natural,
Or if not,
Just allowing the gaze to soften,
Letting it be fuzzy.
Starting by just noticing the breath,
Noticing that the body is breathing.
Does bringing the attention to the breath make you inadvertently try to control it?
Sometimes just shifting the attention there makes us slow it down or breathe deeper.
So just for this moment,
See if it is possible to just notice what the breath naturally wants to do.
We'll take a cleansing breath in together,
Big,
Deep inhale,
And open the mouth,
Let it go.
We'll take one more just like that,
Big,
Deep inhale,
And opening the mouth,
Exhale,
Letting it go.
We'll take a deep breath into the belly,
Filling up the belly,
Inhaling up into the rib cage,
And all the way up into the upper chest,
Exhaling slowly through the nose.
Inhaling again,
Deep into the belly,
Letting the belly rise,
Up into the rib cage,
Ribs spreading wide,
Up into the top of the chest,
Lifting the collarbones,
And exhaling through the nose,
Letting it all go.
Inhaling to inflate the belly,
Let it be round and full,
Up further into the ribs,
And up to the very top of the chest,
The collarbones,
And exhaling through the nose,
Letting the whole chest,
Torso deflate.
Inhale,
Belly,
Ribs,
Collarbones,
Exhaling through the nose,
Slow and long.
Inhaling,
Fill the belly up,
Spreading the ribs in every direction,
Filling up to the top of the collarbones,
The whole trunk is filled with air,
And letting it go,
Exhaling through the nose.
Inhale,
Belly,
Ribs,
Collarbones,
Exhale,
Deflating all of the areas of the trunk.
Inhaling,
Belly,
Ribs,
Upper chest,
Exhale,
Letting it all out through the nose.
Inhaling,
Filling the belly up through the ribs,
Up through the collarbones,
Filling up all the way,
As full as you can get,
And letting go,
Exhaling through the nose,
Letting all of the air out,
Exhale.
Letting go now of the control of the breath,
Letting it fall back into its natural rhythm,
Noticing that it takes a few cycles of breath to settle into a natural,
Easy cadence,
Noticing what it's like now that we've controlled the breath and we've let it go,
Noticing what's happening in the mind,
Is it busy,
Is it quiet,
Noticing what's happening in the physical body,
What about the emotional landscape,
Is there anything there to notice?
Take another cycle of breath in,
And exhaling out,
And slowly just allowing the gaze to refocus,
Or letting the eyes open if they've been closed,
Slowly and gently allowing the visual cues of the space around you to come back in,
Thanking yourself for taking these few moments to breathe and bring some calm to the day.
Thank you for joining me today to explore this three-part breath.
I hope to practice with you again very soon.
