A guided session (part 3 of a 4-part course) led by Ashok Gupta focused on breathing practices to manage anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chunk presents: a brief check-in about prior meditation practice; an explanation of how the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems relate to breathing and emotion; guided exercises in deep diaphragmatic (belly) breathing and alternate nostril breathing with step-by-step instructions and safety cautions; and resource recommendations (Art of Living "Happiness Program" and an audio exercise called "Soften and Flow"). The tone is practical and encouraging, with explicit cues for practice and suggestions for when to use the techniques.
Chapters
Sam.
Yesterday we talked about meditation. How was that for you? What was your experience like? Did you know that meditating together with.
Your partner or your family can increase.
Harmony and decrease arguing and conflicts in the home? That might be really useful right now. And please be patient with yourself as you learn meditation. It can be a bit like learning to ride a bike. It can feel a little wobbly first, but when you finally get it, you'll feel powerful and free to take yourselves to all kinds of calm places. So please give yourself time and space and the rewards will come. For example, you wouldn't expect to go to the gym for the very first time and lift the heaviest weight on the machine, would you? It takes time to slowly build up. And we do our part to train the mind by just being aware of our thoughts in a non judgmental and gentle way. Today we're going to talk about breathing. Now you might say, Ashok, I'm brilliant at breathing. I do it every day. But it's about bringing our awareness to our breath. It can make all the difference, especially how we experience meditation as well. And breathing has amazing benefits of its.
Own with respect to meditation.
Each time we become aware of thoughts and meditation, we are gently bringing our minds back to our breath. It's as simple as that. As long as we are that witness, that observer that simply watches our thoughts like clouds passing through the sky, then we're making a difference and building a new muscle. And that muscle is being calm and centered. And when we're calm and centered, we're less vulnerable to the gushing tides of our thoughts and emotions. Breathing is another layer of M for mind in the men's program. And deep breathing techniques have been shown in some studies to boost the immune system. But first, a little bit about the science of how this works. We have two aspects of our nervous system that determines our level of stimulation or stress. The sympathetic nervous system is our stress response, sometimes called the fight or flight response. This is the part of our system that releases a lot of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. And when we're relaxed, we have the parasympathetic system which dominates. And this is sometimes called the heal, rest and digest system. And when we change our pattern of breathing, we can switch our systems from the stress system so the sympathetic system into the parasympathetic state, which promotes overall good health, well being.
When we get stressed, afraid, angry, or.
In fact any emotion, the rhythm of our breathing changes. I mean, you know what it's like someone insults you or criticizes you and suddenly you Feel your heart rate go up and your breathing becomes faster and it becomes more shallow from the upper part of the chest. Or another common response is, is to hold your breath without even realizing it. And this is sometimes called the freeze response. In the short term, that shallow pattern of breathing is okay, but it's not great if we do it regularly. And for many of us, after a while, that shallow breathing from the upper chest becomes a habit. And this impacts on our health. And we may only be using half the capacity of our lungs. But did you know that the same happens in reverse? We can take advantage of a feedback loop between our mind and our breathing. So our emotions change our rhythm of breathing, but when we change our rhythm of breathing, we change our emotions. The easiest technique is something called deep diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing. Let's practice it together.
Now.
Of course, if you have any chronic illnesses, such as breathing conditions or heart problems, please consult with your doctor.
First.
We can put one hand on our upper chest like this, one hand on.
Our belly around here.
And if we breathe in a stressful way, it's more likely that this top hand will move more. So we'll breathe shallowly from up here. But if we breathe in a more relaxed way with the parasympathetics, then the bottom hand will move more. So let's practice that. Let's close our eyes now.
So let's close our eyes and let's breathe in. Take a deep breath in and push the belly out. And as you breathe out, the belly.
Can naturally come back in. You're learning to train a new muscle here.
So keeping our eyes closed. Let's try that again. Let's breathe in and push the belly.
Out.
And then breathe out as the.
Belly comes back in.
And now just continue breathing like that in a rhythm that feels comfortable without gasping for air.
Do that a few times now.
And now let's make the breathing smoother and slightly slower in your own time. Keeping your eyes closed, let's do a few slow, deep breaths. Smoother in and out breath and slightly slower. Keeping your eyes closed. Now let's make the out breath slightly longer than the in breath. Spend a few moments now making the breathing slightly slower and deeper with each breath in a way that feels comfortable.
Comfortable.
Enjoying the peace and stillness of this present moment right now. And you can pause the video if you want to continue. Otherwise, keeping your eyes closed, let's take a slow, deep breath in. And breathe out. Take another slow, deep breath in from the belly and let go. And now you can just Relax your hands and when you feel ready, you can just gently open your eyes.
Welcome back. How did that feel? Sometimes when people first practice that technique, they can feel a little light headed or it feels strange because finally your body and your brain is getting that boost of energy that it wants. So I'd love for you to practice breathing more from the belly in general. And you can practice deep breathing for five minutes just before you meditate, or you can just use it when you feel stressed. Let's say you're feeling anxious or angry at someone. You can simply close your eyes and observe the physical sensation.
Where is it?
Is it in your head or your heart or your stomach? And then simply observe those sensations without any judgment, whilst at the same time doing that deep diaphragmatic breathing. And you'll find that within minutes you may notice that relief from that emotion. Another similar technique is called Soften and Flow, which is in the audio exercises section of the Challenge. And an amazing breathing course that I recommend to all of my clients is the Happiness Program provided by a humanitarian charity organization called the Art of Living Foundation. They teach a three day program which has been clinically shown in many studies.
To relieve stress, improve sleep and boost the immune system.
So when the timing is right and the opportunity is possible, I highly recommend that you attend their workshops. They're also doing them online now and you can find your local course@www.artofliving.org. Another amazingly powerful technique is called alternate nostril breathing, which is an ancient Eastern technique. It's designed to balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain and to promote overall good health.
Let's experiment with this breathing technique right now.
It's called alternate nostril breathing and it's.
Been used for millennia to calm the mind easily. You'll be breathing alternately between your left and right nostril. So first of all, with your right hand, gently rest your middle finger and forefinger on your forehead. Close your right nostril using your thumb and breathe in from your left nostril.
Breathe deeply from the stomach.
Now hold it a few seconds. And now open up your right nostril. So let go of your thumb. Close your left nostril using your little finger and ring finger and breathe out through the right nostril. Take a breath in from the stomach. Breathe in through your right nostril with a smile. Close your right nostril using your thumb and let go of your left nostril and breathe out through your left nostril from the stomach with a smile. Breathe in from your left nostril. Close your left nostril using your small finger and ring finger and breathe out and let go through your right nostril. Breathe in from your right nostril. Swap close your right nostril and breathe out from your left nostril. Breathe in from your left nostril.
And.
Now continue for a few minutes with a smile and enjoy the peace and relaxation that comes.
Sam.
When we have certain emotions, our pattern of breathing changes to become more shallow and rapid. We can calm ourselves down using deep diaphragmatic breathing.
In deep diaphragmatic breathing we breathe comfortably.
And smoothly and slowly, gradually making the breathing slower and we also make the out breath longer than the in breath.
Alternate nostril breathing is a great technique to calm the mind and boost well being. We can do five minutes of diaphragmatic breathing or alternate nostril breathing straight before our meditations or whenever we're dealing with tricky emotions. I recommend a course called the Happiness Program from the Art of Living foundation and you can find the course at www.artofliving.org.
