Step 6: Balanced Breathing
In Step 6 you’ll work with a familiar breathing pattern, in a new, more challenging posture.
Sit upright with your feet hip width apart and your hands on your lap. Lengthen your spine. When you inhale, intentionally expand your lungs. When you exhale, intentionally contract your lungs and belly.
Pace your breathing by counting the length of your inhale and the length of your exhale. 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.
Breathing Pattern
inhale - pause - exhale - pause
Counting the quantity of breaths on your fingers, observe 8 slow, comfortable breaths.
in - your count (expansion)
pause
ex - your count (contraction)
pause
The real challenge in this step is maintaining a tall spine while keeping consistency of your breathing pattern.
After these 8 breaths, rest for 2-3 normal breaths, then continue to the recovery postures.
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!
Work on this step for at least 7 days. When you’ve mastered it, continue to Step 7.