Coherence Breath into 7-11 Breath. This slow-breathing protocol reduces the rate of our breath to calm the body and center the mind.
Video Transcript
Morris (00:25):
All right, my friends. How’s it going? My name’s Morris. This is Olivia. Today we’re teaching how to use your breath to manage stress and anxiety. This is a slow breathing protocol that’s designed to get us out of that fight-or-flight, go, go, go state we live in… and into a deep parasympathetic state. Learning how to chill-out and slow-down really quickly. So as we know, that starts by being able to take a deep diaphragmatic breath. The breath that we need to be bring into our daily lives is called a Coherent Breath (or Coherence Breath.) This requires breathing in a pattern of five seconds in and five seconds out through the nose. That gets our breath down to six breaths per minute. And when we do this, we get a minimum of an 18% oxygen advantage.
(01:18):
This is because we’re now breathing through our noses, which creates nitric oxide. By slowing down and utilizing N.O. we can grow our oxygen advantage to as much as 35%. It’s profound. Imagine bringing somewhere between 20 and 30% more oxygen to every cell of your body and your brain all day long with each breath. So let’s do that here and now. So I’m going to invite you guys along for the ride. Five seconds in, five seconds out. After that we’ll use extended exhales, which slow the breath even further. Extended exhales are great for lowering blood pressure while decreasing cortisol and stress levels. So we’re going to go from a five in five out, to a five in eight out, and end with a seven second inhale and an 11 second exhale. Does that sound good to you? Okay. Closing your eyes. Sitting up nice and tall, opening through the chest and gently relaxing your hips and belly.
(02:45):
And now bringing our awareness to our breath and taking your first conscious breath. Inhaling 2, 3, 4, 5, exhaling, 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhaling, 2, 3, 4, 5, exhaling, 2, 3, 4, 5. Staying in this beautiful rhythmic pattern. Five seconds in. five seconds out. Deep diaphragmatic breaths. Initiating the breath down low in the belly and pulling it all the way into the upper chest before gently exhaling through the nose and letting it all just come back down again. Staying with that big, beautiful, Coherent Breath, knowing that at any time we can come into this breath pattern. It’s a balanced breath pattern. If we bring balance into our breath, that’s going to show up in our daily lives. Okay, staying with this for just 30 more seconds. Three more beautiful Coherent Breaths in this pattern of five in, five out.
(04:17):
Remember, soft belly pulling the air all the way into the upper chest, expanding with every inhale. Relaxing with every exhale. Okay, so now I’m going to invite you to slow your exhale just a bit. So we’re still going to be inhaling to five filling up, and then gently exhaling through the nose to the count of eight. Getting into an extended exhale. This is a great way to really push ourselves towards the parasympathetic. It’s a way to calm down, soothe our nervous system. Really drop into a calm, balanced, even state. Staying with this breath in for five, out for eight. Okay, at any time begin stretching your breath to 7 seconds in and 11 seconds out. If you aren’t there yet, don’t worry about it. Just keep practicing this breath. We want to be lengthening our exhales. Calming down. We’re building more nitric oxide, we’re properly oxygenating our bodies and falling into a calm, balanced state.
(05:38):
So staying with that big, beautiful breath, really filling up and filling to the top before gently exhaling through the nose. The way we really extend the exhale is to be mindful at the turn of the breath. So after we inhale all the way, be very slow to release the exhale and let the breath come out very softly. Okay, staying with this for just two more breaths. Big breath into the count of seven, exhaling now to the count of 11 if possible. Try not to over-stress the system, but working towards this as a goal. 7-11 Breath.
(06:31):
Final breath, coming to a rest, just sitting and feeling the sensations of our body, noticing the quality of our breath as it returns to its normal state. Is it a bit more gentle? Is it a bit more fluid? Is there a little more space within us? And when ready, just gently opening your eyes and coming back. How we doing? Very good. Nice work. Thank you guys so much. To just recap, that was Coherence Breath… five in, five out into extended exhales, five seconds in, eight seconds out, working up to the goal of slowing to 7 seconds in, 11 seconds out. Thank you so much for your time.
