Simple Breathing Technique

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, I'm going to share a simple technique with you called Box Breathing. Now I'm a big fan of little techniques that you can implement into your day that have a big return on investment. And I found box breathing to be one of those. Essentially what it involves is breathing in for set period, holding for a set period, exhaling for a set period, and then holding again for a set period.

So you could think of that as a box. So let's make that pattern four seconds each. So breathing in for four, holding for four, exhaling for four and holding for four again, and we'll do this together. So let's start by breathing in for one, two, three, four. Holding for four, three, two, one.

Exhaling for one, two, three, four. And holding for four, three, two, one. Great. So that's box breathing. Very simple.

The elongated hold of the breath and the exhale of the breath does seem to be very settling for the parasympathetic nervous system. And I find it's a great practice to do before bed, when I'm feeling a little stressed or overwhelmed, or simply when I'm holding extra bodily tension in my body. So this is something that you could try out. Again, it's another tool you can add to your toolkit. See how it works for you in your day to day life.

Thank you for your practice. I'll talk to you soon in the meditation and take care.