Slow the breath, steadying the mind

This breathing practice uses slow inhales and longer exhales to calm the nervous system. You’ll practice breathing in a way that helps you regain balance when stress is high. A useful tool for staying steady under pressure.

Why this helps? Long, slow breathing can help deactivate the stress response.

Transcript

Naming Stress And Overwhelm

Understanding Fight Flight Freeze

Why Breath Calms The Body

Posture And Setup

Guided Long Exhales

Counting 4 In 8 Out

Refocus When Mind Wanders

Parasympathetic Activation

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Calm breath. Life can get stressful for all of us. There are several things that can cause stress. Whether it's the many responsibilities you hold as a student, deadlines for projects, hours spent doing homework and studying for tests, or applying to colleges. Other times, other aspects of your life can also cause anxiety, such as demanding extracurricular activities, relationships with friends or family, money issues, or racial stress. There are many factors that can cause us to feel overwhelmed from time to time. And when we feel overwhelmed or stressed out, our brains and our bodies react. You may have heard of the fight, flight, or freeze response. When our nervous system is overwhelmed, it responds in these three ways. It's our built-in defense mechanism that has evolved over millions of years to help keep us safe in life-threatening situations. Sometimes we may feel completely overwhelmed by circumstances in our lives. We may get angry and want to yell and throw things. Or we may just want to roll up in a blanket and go to sleep to get away from it all. And still other times we might feel numb or detached, not sure how to respond. In such times, when we're feeling anxiety and stress, it can be helpful to have a practice that allows us to calm our nervous system and deactivate the fight, flight, or freeze response. Calm breath is a practice that can help you regain your balance when you're feeling overwhelmed. We're going to be taking calming in breaths and long slow out breaths. Breathing in this way deactivates our stress response, helping you find ease and balance. Let's practice so that next time you feel like you're about to flip your lid or lose your cool, you'll know how to take a pause and cultivate calm with your breath. This is a skillful way of staying steady in heated situations. So let's begin by coming into your best meditation posture. Remember what that means. You can sit up a little taller and make sure your feet are flat on the floor. Your eyes can be gently closed if that feels safe, or you can simply lower your eyes. Now bring your attention to the sensations of sitting just as you are. Very simply aware of sitting and breathing. Take in a deep breath through your nose and exhale through your mouth, releasing your breath slowly on the outbreath, and softening your belly. Breathing in gently through the nose, and releasing the outbreath slowly through your mouth. Long slow outbreaths, releasing tension and anxiety in the body, and softening the belly, breathing in through the nose, and allowing the outbreath to be long and slow through the mouth, softening your belly at the same time. You can also explore counting as a way to encourage the long, slow outbreaths that calm your body and mind. So you can count to four on the in breath and count to eight on the outbreath. Let's try that. Counting to four on the in breath, one, two, three, four, and breathing out eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Again, breathing into four, one, two, three, four, and out to eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Continue in this way, breathing in through the nose to the count of four, and out through the mouth to the count of eight. If you notice that the mind wanders to a thought, that's okay. Just notice this and gently bring your attention back to your breath, breathing in through the nose to the count of four, and out through the mouth to the count of eight. Making your outbreaths long, releasing any tension you may be holding in your body, and softening your belly. Breathing into four, one, two, three, four, and out to eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Breathing in this way helps you deactivate the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system responsible for the stress response. And it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the part responsible for calm awareness. With calm breaths, you're helping yourself regain balance and cultivate calm when you're feeling stressed out. Keep breathing in gently through the nose and breathing out long, slow out breaths through the mouth. Relaxing your body and soothing your mind so that you can be calm, balanced, and strong. Continue practicing calm breath for as long as you like, allowing your body and mind to relax.