Stress is the silent killer. Breathing exercises are fabulous stressbusters. The following heart activation breathing (HAB) exercise helps to align and synchronize your head and your heart.
Breathing relaxation exercises are a crucial part of emotional self-regulation and stress release. Breathing exercises and meditation help you feel more balanced and emotionally available for the people around you.
I suggest you grab your phone and record the following post so that you can play it back as a meditation. Remember to speak slowly and clearly! In the future, I will create a guided audio for you and post a link to it here when it’s ready.
Heart Activation Breathing (HAB) Exercise
I want you to take your right-hand and place it on your chest,
just to the left of centre, so that it covers
your heart.
As you do so
I want you to start focusing
on your breathing,
concentrate on breathing in a nice
comfortable rhythm,
A little deeper than normal
not forcing your breath,
just a comfortably deep breathing rhythm.
As you do this,
you will find yourself relaxing more and more
with each breath.
Now,
with each breath in,
I want you to feel that breath go through your heart,
physically feel each breath in pass through your heart.
And,
with each breath out,
I want you to feel that breath pass through your heart,
again,
physically passing through your heart
as you breathe out.
Breathing in through your heart
Breathing out through your heart
Breathing in through your heart
With each breath in you are breathing in calm, relaxed feelings
Breathing out through your heart
and with each breath out, you are breathing out all the stresses of your world
and letting them disappear out into the atmosphere.
Breathing in through your heart
Taking in calm, relaxed feelings
Breathing out through your heart
Breathing out all the stresses of your world
and letting them disappear
into the atmosphere.
Breathing in through your heart
Breathing out through your heart
And you find your breath continues
comfortably
In a deeply relaxed rhythm
With every breath you relax more
and the more you relax
the better you feel,
and the better you feel
the more relaxed you feel,
and the more relaxed you feel
the more comfortable you feel,
and the more comfortable you feel.
Now
as you relax deeper
And deeper
Continue to breathe comfortably
Through your heart
Just so
let me explain how this works.
It is possible to measure the electrical pulses from both the heart and the brain
and this can be viewed on monitors showing peaks and troughs in these pulses.
When you are in a place that is not calm,
those monitors will show peaks and troughs that are completely out of sync,
However,
When you concentrate on breathing through your heart
Like that
for as little as two minutes
You start to bring those peaks and troughs
into alignment,
until they match
exactly.
Then,
You think clearly from the heart and the head.
Don’t you
Your head,
on its own,
can lie to you
because it protects you from harm.
Your heart,
on the other hand,
tells you the truth,
the truth from the core of who you are.
When you put both in alignment
you can see any situation clearly.
Now,
as you remain in this relaxed state
and breathing in and out through your heart
I want you to think about three things in your life that,
if you could,
you would be grateful for
right now.
They don’t have to be big things,
they could be as simple as being grateful for waking up this morning
as many around the world didn’t.
Or
it could be feeling grateful for your family,
your home,
the food you have to eat and the water you have to drink,
what 3 things can you be grateful for right now?
I’m going to be silent for a moment while you think of 3 thinks you are grateful for
Very good
Let you hand relax comfortably by your side
Now, you can slowly start to return to the room.
Take your time to open your eyes and allow them to re-focus and,
if your hand is still on your heart, you can allow it to drop to a comfortable position.
Take a look around the room and
notice two things that you either haven’t noticed for a while
or you have never noticed before.
What is the first thing?
And what is the second thing that you have either not noticed for a while
or
you have never noticed before?
Now that you have returned to the room and you are back here with me,
how do you feel?