Lie in a comfortable position and place your hands on your abdomen. When you inhale, intentionally expand your lungs. When you exhale, intentionally contract your lungs and belly.
Begin to pace your breathing by counting the length of your inhale and the length of your exhale. Count slowly, at a pace of about one count per second. Let your inhale and exhale be equal in length.
Once you establish the cadence of your breathing, begin to observe a pause at the end of your inhale and another pause at the end of the exhale.
Step 3: Intentionally Paced Breathing
Breathing Pattern
inhale - pause - exhale - pause
Counting the quantity of breaths on your fingers, observe 8 slow, comfortable breaths using the breathing pattern and your comfortable length of breath. Continue using intentional expansion and contraction.
in - your count (expansion)
pause
ex - your count (contraction)
pause
Here’s more detail!
Recovery
After you do the strengthening posture, follow up with these key movements to help your body relax and recover.
You did it! Mark your Tracker with today’s date!
This is a challenging step. It uses mindfulness as a tool to pace the breathing and increase control of your abdominal muscles. Practice Step 3 for at least 7 days, until you feel confident you’ve mastered it, up to 14 days.
Remember, you’re trying to strengthen the communication between your brain and your muscles. The more consistently and mindfully you practice, the more quickly the communication will improve. You can practice twice per day if you’d like, at different times of day.
When you feel ready, continue to Step 4.