Turn on Your Relaxation Response with a Breath Pause

Dear fellow breathworker,

What I love so much about this breathwork technique is how simple and effective it is at the same time.

Truthfully, the simplest breathwork techniques can initiate the most profound shifts in your nervous system, and we are nerding out together on one of those techniques today: the breath pause.

What is a breath pause?
A breath pause is when you briefly hold your breath at the top of your inhale, the bottom of your exhale, or both (depending on the breathwork practice). Breathwork practitioners also call this technique a breath hold. I prefer to use the term breath pause because it feels most true to the intention behind it: to relax and restore you.

What can pausing the breath do for you?
A breath pause can support stress reduction and anxiety relief and, if practiced daily, you can use it to shift your baseline functioning to a more grounded, calm, and centered way-of-being.

Here is a list of potential benefits that pausing the breath can offer you:

• Interrupts racing thoughts
  By consciously shifting your focus inwards and creating this micro-moment of mindfulness, a breath pause takes your focus away from your mind and towards your breath and your body. This can allow racing thoughts to soften, release, and, over time, possibly cease altogether.
  

• Turns on your body’s relaxation response
  Pausing the breath can stimulate your vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve in your body that is responsible for activating your parasympathetic nervous system. This is the branch of your autonomic nervous system that regulates the rest, relaxation, and digestion responses in your body. Breath techniques such as pausing the breath often activate the vagus nerve, which is kind of like a shortcut to a relaxation response.
  

• Signals “safety” to your brain
  Anxious breathing is often fast and shallow. Intentional breath pauses break that pattern, allowing your body to begin to feel safer and more present.
  

• Slows down reactivity
  When practicing long, deep breathing (breath pauses included) on a regular basis, you can create a calmer, more grounded, and more peaceful baseline functioning. This can allow you to be less reactive and more responsive in your interactions with people.

The Gentle Pause Meditation
I created a special guided meditation for you called the Gentle Pause Meditation that allows you practice breath pausing in real time.

Practice this meditation as often as you’re called to. If it resonates with you, I highly recommend creating a 30-day practice out of it. The benefits of daily practice can really stack up to help you create miraculous shifts in your mind, body, and even in your relationships.

Happy practicing! ✨

With care,
Heather