Practice guided breathwork to regulate your emotions and activate your body's natural calming system.

Pranayama

Spirituality

Stress & Anxiety

Stress

Movement

Yoga

English

Ratio breathing can help soothe your nervous system and bring some calm into your day. In this breathwork practice, you will learn how to extend your exhales longer than your inhales.  You will develop awareness through pausing.  Ratio breath is a gentle approach to help you learn how to bring relaxation into your day and release any stress or anxious energy.

Breathwork For Calm

 Hello, this is Chris McDonald, licensed therapist. I'm going to teach you today a breathing practice that can help calm your emotions, help you get back to more emotionally regulated state so that you can feel more grounded and connected. You can go ahead and sit in a chair or on the floor on a cushion, whatever feels most available and comfortable for you. Just tuning in for a moment, getting into your body, arriving, noticing your shoulders, any tension or heaviness, noticing the seat beneath you, if it feels light or soft, just imagining the earth holding you up. Go ahead and inhale through the nose for a count of four. Hold for a count of four and exhale for three, two, and one. Just notice how that felt in your body. Let's do that again. Inhale for a count of four, hold for four, exhale for three, two, and one. Just notice any sensations during and after that breath. Inhale for four, hold for four, this time exhale five, four, three, two, and one. Letting it go. Breathing normal. Inhale for four, hold for four, exhale five, four, three, two, and one. Good. I'm letting that go for a moment as you breathe normal. What we don't want to do is over-breathe with these practices. Inhale for a count of four, hold for four, exhale for a count of six, five, four, three, two, and one. Let it go and breathe. What you don't want to do with the exhale is feel like you're gasping for air. That's going to put you into more of what's called the sympathetic nervous system, which is more activating and triggering, can make your heart rate go up. We want to turn on the parasympathetic, which is that calming nervous system. If six was too hard on the exhale, go ahead and move down to five when I move up to six. I'm going to do one more six. Inhale to a count of four, hold for four, exhale six, five, four, three, two, and one. Just notice how that felt for you. One more time, inhale four, hold for four, exhale six, five, four, three, two, and one. Letting that go. What we're going to do now is go down to five. Inhale four, hold for four, exhale five, four, three, two, and one. Letting it go. Just notice any sensations that may be coming up as you do these practices, just being aware of the present moment, what's happening. Inhale four, hold for four, exhale five, four, three, two, and one. Letting it go. Letting that breath go. Just do a natural breath in between. This time we're going to go back down to an exhale to a count of four. So inhale four, hold for four, exhale four, three, two, and one. Letting it go. And one last time, inhale four, pause for four, exhale four, three, two, and one. Letting it go. Letting the counting go. Allow your body to get back to its natural rhythm of breath. Noticing where you are right now. How are you feeling? You're doing this short, amazing practice. And see if you can get in the habit of practicing this breath each day. The more you do this, the more calmness and more centeredness you can bring to each and every day. I hope this was helpful for you, and I will talk to you again next time, hoping to bring you more meditations as well.