5-Minute Breathing Meditation to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

Hi, my name is Chloe Freytag and welcome to Get Healthy UTV meditations. Today we're doing a five minute breathing meditation to reduce anxiety and stress. So we all know that living less stressful lives is beneficial for our health, for our bodies, for our minds. You know we live in a modern age where there's a lot of stuff going on. There's a lot of moving parts in our lives, and so instead of changing who you are, and what you do. You can change how you react, how you take these stressors in. And this meditation is a tool you can utilize at any moment to bring you into a slower pace. We're going to use a breath pattern called square breath that works to reduce our heart rates and bring our body into a slower rhythm naturally. Which thus calms us down, relieves anxiety, and relieves stress. So go ahead and find your way into a comfortable seat if you want to sit cross-legged like me on the floor, or use a pillow or blanket under your hips. Maybe even you're sitting in a regular chair. However you can lift up your spine nice and tall. Go ahead and you're gonna get your body comfortable, arms rest on the knees or in your lap, however feels good. And then you have the choice to either close your eyes all the way down or just softly gaze toward the floor. Starting here to just notice how your breathing naturally. So what's your natural pace of breath? Is it kind of short and irregular or is it a little bit slow, steady just notice how you breathe on your own. We'll start to adapt our breath into this square rhythm. So, for the count of 4, you'll take an inhale in through your nose, you'll count this at your own pace. You pick how slow or how fast you decide to breathe. At the top of that inhale, you'll hold your breath for 4, again that same even count whatever pace you chose. You'll slowly exhale the air out for 4, all the breathing through the nose. And then at the bottom of the exhale, you'll hold again for 4. So this square breath, it's very even all parts of the breath are for the same amount of time. Pick a pace that's sustainable and manageable for you. But still slow. Beginning if you haven't begun already. Just counting out those breaths 4 counts to inhale, 4 counts when you hold at the top, 4 counts when you exhale, and again 4 counts at the bottom. Keep your eyes either closed or relaxed, your face relaxed. Your chest and arms relaxed as you just breathe, focusing all your attention onto this breathing pattern. Keeping your rhythm very steady, very consistent. Got about a minute and a half left of our meditation. Stay with that rhythmic breath. Keeping all of your focus on just maintaining that steady breath. Each part of the breath completely even for the exact same amount of time. Letting the steadiness start to affect your body. Start to slow your heart rate down naturally. Start to produce feelings of being calm, of being relaxed. Last 30 seconds. Maintaining that even rhythm and pace. Keeping your shoulders relaxed, your face relaxed as you breathe. Wherever you are in your breathing pattern, go ahead and exhale the air all the way out. And take a deep inhale in all the way, hold the breath for just a moment. And once more completely let the air go. Keep your eyes soft or closed, and just notice now what's your natural rhythm of breathing. Has it become a bit slower on its own? Bit steadier? Just take a few breaths comfortably at your own pace. Slowly you can start to blink your eyes back open and gaze forward. Thank you so much for meditating with us today here at Get Healthy UTV. Be sure to check out all of our other meditations as well, and remember this is something really simple that only takes a few minutes of your day. But can have a profound effect. You can do it in the morning, in evening time, in the afternoon. Whenever works for you. Definitely be sure to come back and see us again here some time. Thank you so much have a great rest of your day.