Good Practice for Calm and Stress
This is a nice meditation for one experiencing anxiety, or for one that just needs to slow down from a stressful day. This practice had a slight pause in between the in breath and out breath which is great for calming the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) thereby activating the parasympathetic branch. This process helps my ANS to slow down, along with those pesky anxiety or stress symptoms.
I appreciate how this instructor gradually went up on both the in breath and out breath, keeping them at the same level for much of the meditation. To me, this is a more efficient practice than having a short in breath and longer out breath (i.e. 4-7-8 breath practice). Why? The meditator is not focused on breathing in enough air to pause, and then, have an extensive out breath. I will definitely come back to this one!