Breathe…how to be present, calm, open, and connected.

The simplest, most accessible, most profound tool we have to enhance our presence, is with us every moment. Our breath.

Calming breath is used for anxiety, vocal quality, grounding, finding your authentic voice, transitions, to connect to our selves, to connect with our emotions, and to connect with our audience.

When we breathe, the audience breaths. When we breathe, everyone relaxes. When we breathe, we connect with ourselves and with others.

Practice every day, just a few rounds of breath. At breakfast, at a red light, at a meeting, during a hard conversation, in the grocery line…

Daily practice embodies the work so that we will naturally begin the deep breathing whenever we sense tension or anxiety creeping in. 

Simple Breathing Exercise

1)    Find your belly breath by putting one hand on your belly just below the belly button, and the other on your chest, just below the clavicle.

2)    If you can’t locate your belly breath, stand up and bend forward, allowing head and shoulders to drip towards the floor.  Put your hand on your belly and breathe.  You can feel the belly move. 

3)    Slowly roll back up into standing and recreate that sensation, breathing into your expanding belly.

4)    Breathe into your belly, as if filling a balloon.  Notice if the hand on your chest moves or your shoulders move up and down.  If so, allow them to relax and drip down your spine.

5)    Breathe in through your mouth as if sipping a straw on the count of 5.

6)    Breathe out through your mouth on the count of 5.  Notice the belly pulling in to expel the breath.

7)    Repeat this cycle 5 times.

If you get dizzy (as can happen when you begin getting more oxygen than you are used to),  sit and put your head between your knees.

Continue daily with a count of 5 for a few days, then add a count every few days until you reach a cycle of 10 counts in and 10 counts out.