7 Minute Breathing Exercise for Calm and Grounding — Relief for Anxiety, Stress and Overwhelm

When anxiety, stress or overwhelm hit, your breathing is the fastest and most direct route back to calm.

This is not a meditation. It is a practical 5 minute breathing exercise that uses a specific pattern, 6 counts in, 3 count pause, 9 counts out, to directly activate your vagus nerve and your parasympathetic nervous system, switching off your body's stress response and restoring a genuine sense of calm and groundedness in minutes.

Combined with a powerful grounding visualisation, breathing in energy from the earth beneath you and releasing it through the crown of your head to the universe above, this exercise leaves you feeling rooted, present, calm and clear.

Use it anywhere. At your desk, before a difficult meeting, on public transport, in a moment of panic or overwhelm. It works every time.

Please let me know if you enjoyed this session: sylvia@sylviaingle.com

And if today's exercise has resonated with you, a curiosity, a longing, a quiet sense that you are ready for more, I would love to support you further.

Visit www.sylviaingle.co.uk to find out how we can work together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome. Your breath is the fastest route to calm your nervous system. When we are anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, our sympathetic nervous system, which is our body's stress response, is activated. As a result, the heart rate rises, the muscles tighten, the breathing becomes very shallow and very fast. But our vagus nerve, which is the longest nerve in our body, connects our brain directly to heart, lungs, and digestive system. And by slow, conscious breathing, particularly taking long, slow breathing out, that directly stimulates that nerve and activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our natural calm response. And we can take control of this process by simple breathing exercises. So, in other words, the way you breathe changes the state of your entire nervous system. That's quite extraordinary. And you can do this in five minutes or even shorter. So this is just an exercise to show you one of the ways to do it. And I've added bits of visualizing, um, which kind of makes this process, this exercise more fun, more creative if you like. So let's begin. Find a comfortable position. You can be sitting down, you can be standing, or you can be lying down if you want to. So allow your eyes to close. But if you, for example, need this exercise to be done whilst traveling on a busy underground, then you can do it standing up with your eyes open if you want. But for relaxation, for this purpose, here you can close your eyes. Now feel the ground beneath you, how solid it is. Allow your feet to connect to the earth beneath. Ancient and completely utterly dependable. It's there. So feel your connection to it through the soles of your feet, regardless what's between your feet and the earth itself. Or you can do this through the length of your body if you're, for example, lying down. That contact point between you and the earth. This is your grounding point. This is where we begin. We're going to breathe through the soles of our feet. Imagine when you when we start breathing this exercise, imagine drawing the energy of the earth up through your body and breathe out through the crown of your head, releasing it to the universe above. So in through the earth, through your feet, through your entire body, and out through the sky to the universe. So let's begin. Breathe in through the soles of your feet. Feel the earth energy beginning to rise. One, two, three, four, five, six. Pause and hold for three. One, two, three, and then breathe out for nine. Breathe out slowly, completely releasing through the crown of your head up into the universe. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Feel the release, feel the earth energy moving through you and out. We'll do that again. Repeat this process in for six, hold for three, and breathe out for nine. And when we start breathing in, really use your wonderful imagination that you're drawing that breath from through your feet from the earth, from the core of the earth. It travels through your entire body as you pause the breathing and then breathe out through the crown of your head. It's a long and slow and complete. So let's do that again. Breathe in through your feet. One, two, three, four, five, six, pause. One, two, three, and out through your crown of your head, long and slowly. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Beautifully done. Feel that energy rising with the next breath in from deep in the earth, up through your feet, your legs, your belly, your chest, your throat, feeling you come, feeling you completely. Breathe in for six, one, two, three, four, five, six, pause and hold for three, one, two, three, and release up through your body, through your chest, your throat, your head, through your crown into the universe above. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And again, your own rhythm now. Imagine earth energy rising with each breath in, starting in your feet, releasing into the universe with each breath out through the crown of your head. Breathe in one, two, three, four, five, six, pause, one, two, three, and out. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. So finishing it now. Staying here for a moment. Notice how you're feeling. Your nervous system has just shifted, your vagus nerve is activated, the parasympathetic nervous system is engaged, your body is gently transitioning from stress response to calm response, exactly how it's designed to do. Feel your feet on the ground, that solid connection to the earth beneath you. Feel your breath slower now, easier. Feel your body here, present, grounded, calm. Repeat as many times as you wish.