Browse
Top articles
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Try free for 7 days.
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
00:00
00:00
Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to share a breathing technique that will help you soothe stress and anxiety and calm your nervous system. So why would we need to calm our nervous system at all? Well, for many of us, daily life is very demanding, busy ,stressful. And so what tends to happen is we get stuck with our nervous system kind of caught in fight or flight mode. And fight or flight mode is the same system that turns on in an animal if it's running from a predator in the wild.
It's a stress response. So the heart is beating faster, breathing speeds up and become shallow, blood pumps out to our extremities so that we can get ready to run or fight. Vision narrows and stress hormones get released into the body like adrenaline and cortisol. In this mode, we're also very reactive and the mind tends to really race, but we can't think all that clearly and objectively. So when we get stuck in this mode of being, it really takes its toll.
So we might get to the end of the day feeling pretty edgy and bleary-eyed we've probably all been there, right? And we may have ways of taking the edge off at the end of the day, maybe a glass of wine, or we zone out in front of the TV. But although these strategies might be relieving in the moment, they don't actually help us reset our nervous system so that we can effectively let go of stress and recover. But the impact of this ongoing stress over time can be quite detrimental to our long-term health. When we don't reset our nervous system remaining in fight or flight, it disturbs our sleep and our ability to think clearly and relax. And it's actually just really unpleasant to live in that kind of wired, but tired state all the time.
So to effectively ease our stress response, we need to activate the body's natural relaxation response. And breathing deeply with a slow, steady, even inhale to exhale ratio, stimulates our nervous system to switch gears into the relaxation response. It calms the body down and that in turn tends to calm the mind down too, and then the stress response switches off. So in this way, deep, slow, even breathing helps us ease, anxiety, fear, and stress, and helps us relax. As our heartbeat decreases, our breathing slows, our racing mind starts to settle and a lot of that inner turmoil just relaxes.
So in today's meditation, I'm going to guide you through a really simple breathing practice called the 'force that breath.' And then once you learn it after today's meditation, you can use it any time you want to soothe your body's stress response. So this is wonderful to use at the end of the day when you want to unwind or any time you're feeling stressed or anxious, or you just want to settle yourself in before a good night's sleep. So I invite you to begin to settle in now for today's practice. And as always thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.
Soothe Yourself With 4-Step Breathing
Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Duration
Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.
Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'm going to share a breathing technique that will help you soothe stress and anxiety and calm your nervous system. So why would we need to calm our nervous system at all? Well, for many of us, daily life is very demanding, busy ,stressful. And so what tends to happen is we get stuck with our nervous system kind of caught in fight or flight mode. And fight or flight mode is the same system that turns on in an animal if it's running from a predator in the wild.
It's a stress response. So the heart is beating faster, breathing speeds up and become shallow, blood pumps out to our extremities so that we can get ready to run or fight. Vision narrows and stress hormones get released into the body like adrenaline and cortisol. In this mode, we're also very reactive and the mind tends to really race, but we can't think all that clearly and objectively. So when we get stuck in this mode of being, it really takes its toll.
So we might get to the end of the day feeling pretty edgy and bleary-eyed we've probably all been there, right? And we may have ways of taking the edge off at the end of the day, maybe a glass of wine, or we zone out in front of the TV. But although these strategies might be relieving in the moment, they don't actually help us reset our nervous system so that we can effectively let go of stress and recover. But the impact of this ongoing stress over time can be quite detrimental to our long-term health. When we don't reset our nervous system remaining in fight or flight, it disturbs our sleep and our ability to think clearly and relax. And it's actually just really unpleasant to live in that kind of wired, but tired state all the time.
So to effectively ease our stress response, we need to activate the body's natural relaxation response. And breathing deeply with a slow, steady, even inhale to exhale ratio, stimulates our nervous system to switch gears into the relaxation response. It calms the body down and that in turn tends to calm the mind down too, and then the stress response switches off. So in this way, deep, slow, even breathing helps us ease, anxiety, fear, and stress, and helps us relax. As our heartbeat decreases, our breathing slows, our racing mind starts to settle and a lot of that inner turmoil just relaxes.
So in today's meditation, I'm going to guide you through a really simple breathing practice called the 'force that breath.' And then once you learn it after today's meditation, you can use it any time you want to soothe your body's stress response. So this is wonderful to use at the end of the day when you want to unwind or any time you're feeling stressed or anxious, or you just want to settle yourself in before a good night's sleep. So I invite you to begin to settle in now for today's practice. And as always thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.
Duration
Play in-app
Scan the following QR code with your camera app to open it on our mobile app
Get Unlimited Access
A Mindfulness Plus+ subscription gives you unlimited access to a world of premium mindfulness content.
Email Missing
We couldn’t detect your email with the SSO provider you have selected.We are here to make a positive impact on the world. We never want to sell you something that hasn’t helped you live a better life. That’s why if you’re unhappy with any purchase from us, you have 30 days to get a full refund and your money back.
If you subscribed to Mindfulness Plus+ and are unhappy with your purchase, please get in contact with us within the 30-day period and we’ll refund your purchase.
Learn more about our Mindfulness Guarantee.
Mindfulness
We believe in a world where everybody has access to the life-changing skills of mindfulness.
Private Browsing
We believe in a world where everybody has access to the life-changing skills of mindfulness.
Annual membership
$0
This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
- Abby
Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
- Babs312
This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
- Abby
Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
- Babs312
This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
- Abby
Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
- Babs312
Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
- Marty
I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
- Marty
I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
- Marty
I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
Thank you for joining us
Dive into the full library and enjoy all it has to offer!
Claim your free access
Create a mindfulness account and we’ll unlock this premium session in your account forever.
7-Days free trial, cancel anytime.
Complete a few quick questions to make your own personalized mindfulness plan.
Sign up or login to your mindfulness account to proceed.
Sign up or login to your mindfulness account to proceed.
Mindfulness
One membership to gain access to a world of premium mindfulness content created to help you live happier and stress less.