Breathing for Anxiety

Welcome. We made it. So glad you're here. This simple and effective breathing practice is designed to offer some relief for anxiety. In my experience, postpartum depression and anxiety can creep in, linger, and at times be debilitating, in which case seeking support is essential for our healing process. As always, listen to your body as we move and breathe and really honor your unique timing as we go. Okay, so let's begin on our back with just some simple movement to create a bit more breathing room for us. Find your way onto your back. And it might feel nice to hug your knees into your chest and rock a little bit from side to side. Easing in with windshield wipers, groundless soles of your feet nice and wide, you might stretch your arms open and just begin to let your knees move from side to side. Then cruising onto the inner outer edges of your feet. And it might feel nice to let your head move away from your knees and feel how you can reach and lengthen through both arms, creating space through the side body, the hips. And notice how this movement feels up through the spine, all the way up into the neck. A few more times side to side. And then let's take a moment to pause with the knees over to the right and reach up through the left arm and feel how you can create a bit more length here and then soften. Bring your awareness into your left lung and just notice how the breath responds. You'll be feeling the fullness through the intercostal muscles, across the diaphragm, down into the hip flexor and the psoas. Let the jaw soften a bit. And as you're ready, inhale, let the knees come up and over to the other side, reaching out through that opposite arm, maybe it's your right arm. And again, feel how you can reach and lengthen. And then with the exhale, you can soften. Bring your awareness into your right lung now. Just notice the quality of the breath, creating a bit more space and room for you. Again let the eyes soften, let the jaw release. And then as you're ready, inhale up and a few more times side to side. It's amazing how in the postpartum body, some areas are tighter, some areas are looser, weaker. And then let the knees come back into the chest, rock from side to side. As you're ready, roll to your side. Use your arms to press yourself up and let's find a simple seated position. So you might sit up on a blanket or a bolster, whatever feels right for you. And just come into a simple cross-leg position, bring the hands onto the knees or shins and let's just begin to round and stretch the back and then roll the pelvis forward, arch and lengthen. Exhale, curl round, stretch the back and roll the pelvis forward. Feel that lengthened space. And a few more times, you might keep the eyes soft or open. You might be tracking your baby around the room. Nice. And then as you're ready, just begin to fold forward, walk the hands forward, lean a little bit from side to side in the hips. Notice how it feels. And then you might allow the head to release here. Heavy palms turn down towards the earth. Another breath here into the back body and towards the kidneys. When you're ready, just slowly begin to round and roll your way. Let's reach the right arm out. Inhale the left arm up towards the sky and just feel how you can reach a little bit forward and back. This feels so good, huh?

Finding a bit more space and length through the body. You might stay here. You might walk your right fingertips out and reach the arm up out and over, coming into a side bend. What would it feel like to round and roll the body down towards the floor and then spiral open towards the sky? A few times like this, just feeling into your body, breathing into where you feel it. When you're ready, take a look down and inhale, reach the top arm up, exhale, release. And let's just take a few shoulder rolls up, back and down, maybe a sigh out of the mouth. Oh, I feel better already. Let's lean back and just switch the cross of the legs. Bring the hands onto the knees or shins and then just round and stretch the back, feeling the shoulder blades, the back of the heart. Roll the pelvis forward, feel that length and space. Exhale, curl round and stretch. And then roll the pelvis forward and lengthen. A few more like this. Eyes might be open or closed, whatever feels good for you. And then next time you lengthen forward, fold at the hips, reach the hands forward, walk a little bit, lean, wobble side to side, feeling into the hips and maybe releasing the weight of the head or supporting it. What would it feel like to take a breath into the back of the body, breathing down towards the lower back, the sacrum into the hips? Another moment here. And as you're ready, slow chin into the chest, rolling your way back up, reaching the left hand out, inhale the right arm up towards the sky and just lean a little bit forward and back. Notice how it feels in this moment. For me, it feels achy, stiff. Nice. You might stay here, you might walk the fingers out and stretch the top arm up out and over, feeling a bit more length and space. Again, you might round roll towards the floor and then lift the heart spiral open towards the sky. A couple more times like this. Breathing into where you feel the stretch. Next time you round down, inhale, reach with the top arm slow, come back up, and a few shoulder rolls up, back and down might feel nice. Nice. Let's find a bit more room in the neck. So softening the chin down towards the chest and gently roll the right ear towards the right shoulder, reaching the left fingertips out. And you might round and look down towards the right knee, keeping your left hand facing the floor or begin to spin the palm up towards the sky. And you might slowly begin to explore, letting the head roll up towards the right, getting into the underbelly of the neck. Breathing into where you feel the sensation. Another moment here. And then as you're ready, roll the chin back to the chest and roll the left ear towards the left shoulder. Reach out through your right fingertips. You might stay right here. You might roll the palm open towards the sky, looking down towards the left knee. Maybe if it feels good, rolling the head up towards the left and down. Ooh, a few times you might track and feel the current moving down from the base of the skull, the neck, down the shoulder, into the arm. When you feel ready, roll the chin back to the chest and then gently roll the head up and a few shoulder rolls up, back and down might feel nice. Nice. As we move into a breathing practice, you might stay seated. You might sit on a chair. You might lie down with a bolster under the spine, opening the chest. So just make sure you're comfortable. And let's take a few moments to bring the attention, draw the awareness towards the breath. And even this can create some anxiety noticing the breath. If that's the case, there might be an area in the body where you feel the most and you might just bring your hand or your hands there. And for me, anxiety usually kind of rests in the gut or sometimes the upper chest area. That's where I tend to feel it. So you might bring your hands to your body. Notice the quality of the breath, how the breath changes the shape of the body moment to moment. Nice.

And then just become aware of the movement of the breath in the upper chest, right around the collarbones, keeping it soft and relaxed through your throat, your neck, your shoulders. And then draw your awareness down towards your rib cage and lungs and notice the quality of the breath in this area, in the ribs. From the ribs, draw your awareness down into the belly and just begin to notice the breath in the belly. Can you feel and sense the breath here? Again, keeping it relaxed in the upper body as you feel and sense the movement of the breath in the belly. Nice. Take a moment to relax the effort of your attention and just allow for a gentle clearing breath. Inhale. Nice, full, slow exhale, softening the jaw. From here, we'll experiment with a breathing practice called Viloma, Pranayama. Viloma is an intentional interrupted breath, sometimes translated as against the grain. So let's bring the hands down to the belly. And as you're ready, we'll inhale into the belly and pause. Take a breath up into the ribs, inhale, pause, and then a breath up into the upper chest, pause, and then a slow long exhale all the way down to your toes, emptying. Nice. Take a moment to notice the natural rhythm and flow of the breath. And if you'd like, we'll try that again. So with the awareness down into the belly, inhale, pause, inhale up into the ribs, pause, inhale up into the chest, pause, and then slow exhale all the way down to the toes, empty, long, sweet exhale. And just notice how you feel. All right. So one of the purposes of the inhale is to promote the exhale, right, really promoting that parasympathetic branch of our nervous system. Let's try it again as you're ready.

With the awareness down into the belly, we'll inhale, pause, inhale up into the ribs, the lungs, pause, and inhale up into the chest, pause, exhale everything, letting it go all the way down to the feet, pause and notice. At any point if you feel more anxious from this technique, just relax the technique and rest. Let's experiment one or two more times, drawing the awareness into the belly. As you're ready, inhale, sip in some breath, pause, inhale a bit more into the ribs and lungs, pause, inhale into the upper chest, collarbones, pause, and exhale everything. Let the breath wash away and out. Again, observe and notice how you feel. Let's play with that one more time. As you're ready, inhale, pause, inhale expanding into the ribs and lungs, pause, inhale into the upper branches of the lungs, pause, and exhale everything, softening the face, the jaw, the heart, the belly, letting go. Just aware of the breath moving in and out of the nose, resting. Nice. Let's bring one hand to the belly and one hand to the heart. Together we'll inhale and let out a long full sigh with the sound, ah.

So, so good. As you're ready, we'll inhale, ah, healing the exhale, lengthen the face, soften the jaw, soften. Let's play with that two more times. Breathing in, ah. Last one, breathing in, ah, allowing the sound to come out, taking a few moments to rest or lie down. Thank you so much for joining me and I hope this helps.