A Daily Breath Practice

A number of you have asked about a daily breath practice and I’d like to suggest that you DO have a daily breath practice.

A very simple one could consist of taking 10 consciously connected breaths. Filling your lungs up completely with a brisk inhale and then allowing that air to be released with a relaxed exhale. You can use your mouth or your nose. Be sure to emphasize the inhale and relax the exhale with zero pauses between them. Connected breathing is the key.

You could extend this to breathing for 5 or 10 minutes, or more. Michael Brown, author of The Presence Process, recommends doing two 15 minute consciously connected breathing sessions per day as integral to connecting with Presence. His book is really great and I highly recommend it.

You can hear the breath style he recommends by going here.

Breathing fully into the body filling up the lungs from bottom to top and releasing with a relaxed exhale.

And then noticing how you feel after this exercise.

Want more? Ok….. I am working on suggestions for a longer practice of breathing and will add it here.

Start to become aware of your breath throughout the day.

Your breath is such an important part of your life and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it’s significance….

More to come….

Coherent Breathing

There is lots of information online about Coherent Breathing:

Basically, I took some ideas for the heart-focussed breathing from HeartMath (called the Heart Lock-In technique which is breathing into and out of the heart while feeling a very pleasant emotion) and added it to the information I found in books and online about a scientifically proven breathwork style called Coherent Breathing so you don’t need to purchase the electronic breath coherence monitors (HeartMath sells a few of these)

HeartMath also has done MUCH research on the heart-brain connection and I recommend you check out their site and look around.

This is a really great video about the HeartMath Quick Coherence technique. It does not mention the 5 or 6 second breath cycle and does mention all the other steps. And, another video that highlights the HeartMath technique while digging more deeply into the emotional component.

Realize that some “experts” recommend that you breath this way while sitting up while others say you can lay down while practicing. It seems that sitting up is more natural to my way of thinking. You can try it both ways and see if one is better for you.

Coherent Breathing for less stress and more energy

The only thing to add to the instructions in that previous article and other online information is to imagine that you are breathing in and out through your heart and feeling a positive emotion such as gratitude or love while you are imagining breathing in and out through your heart. This step is the core of the HeartMath technique.

Coherence: The New Science of Breath

A very good video that teaches Coherent Breathing but without the HeartMath ” addition of heart breathing.

And here are some free breath pacers that you can use to support your Coherent Breath practice

Cardiac Coherence / Biofeedback Tool: Inhale (5 sec) – Exhale (5 sec) MP3+Video

Breathing exercise at near resonant frequency (6 BPM) — short version

HRV Resonant Breathing Exercise: 5.5-6BPM

Train Your Brain to breathe deep for 10 min at 5 br per min

Coherent Breathing with a bell to signal inhale and exhale

Cardiac Coherence – 5 minutes to Reduce your Stress

And there are a number of great books on the subject of Coherent Breathing:

The Healing Power of the Breath

Heart Coherence 365

You will probably enjoy viewing this great video by Gregg Braden on Heart-Brain Coherence.

 

Simple breath technique

Here are two things you can do to start your own breathing practice:

1. Observe your breath
2. Breathe

How are you breathing right now? That is the question we ask ourselves as frequently as possible. The result of simply being aware of our breath, no matter what emotion we may be experiencing, is the first step in this process. We can be feeling happy about something or we may have taken personally something that someone else may have said or done. It doesn’t matter where we start as long as we do. The more we think about our breath, the more the spirit of breath will inform us.