A Light, Slow, Deep (LSD) breathing meditation

Our breathing often becomes shallow, tense, or restricted during the day and we don’t even realize it. Try this light, slow, deep breathing technique to soften, relax, and re-expand.

Thanks to our autonomic nervous system, life-sustaining processes like our heartbeat, digestion, and breathing happen without us noticing. But our environment, stress levels, and other factors can certainly affect the health and efficiency of these processes.

For example, hunched over our desks and staring at Screen This often means that our breathing becomes shallow and irregular – which certainly affects things like focus, energy, cognition and attention.

This week, Shamash Alidina is leading a guided breathing practice called Light, Slow, Deep (or LSD), designed to reset the breath in a way that opens the chest, reduces stress, and calms the nervous system.

Most of us breathe backwards: too hard, too fast and too much. We stop breathing without knowing. Inhaling LSD is an invitation to do the opposite.

• lights It means breathing with softness, gentleness, as if the breath is barely disturbing the air around you.
• slow This means elongating each breath, giving your nervous system time to settle like a pendulum that is slowly swinging wildly and finding its still point.
• deep This means breathing slowly into your lower abdomen, not into your chest, but down where the lungs have the most room and are most efficient.

Together, these three qualities activate your parasympathetic nervous system – the calm, rest, and digest part of you that often gets crowded out by the noise of the day. Think of it like turning down the volume on a very loud radio. You’re not turning it off, you’re just bringing it down to a gentler, more natural level.

A Light, Slow, Deep (LSD) breathing meditation

Read the guided meditation script below and practice, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio exercises.

1. Start by finding a comfortable position. You may be lying down, cross-legged, on a chair, or on the floor. You can move slowly even while standing. Whatever allows your body to feel supported and relaxed.
2. The breath pattern we will use today is simple. Inhale for four times, pause slightly and then exhale for six times. It is important to exhale briefly. The prolonged exhalation directly stimulates the vagus nerve, which signals the entire system that you are safe. So you don’t need to force anything, you just allow.
3. Let’s get started. First take a natural breath. There is no need to change anything right now.
4. Now place one hand on your lower abdomenJust below your navel. This is your anchor and as you breathe in, you want to feel the hand rising like the tide. As you exhale, the hand drops, the tide goes out.
5. Keep going with that easy breathing. Inhale slowly through the nose, feeling the lower abdomen expand. In two, three, four, stop. And exhale slowly. Two, three, four, five, six. And then stop. In, two, three, four, and out two, three, four, five, six
6. Breathe lightly and steadily, like a warm mist rising from calm water. Exhale, the breath is merging. Softening of the body.
7. There is any tendency to hold or control if you are breathing right nowSee if you can loosen your grip on the breath by a few percent. The lower part of the stomach is rising while breathing. Your chest is barely moving, your shoulders are down.
8. Remember to exhale longer than inhale. Till the end. As you exhale, receive the breath instead of taking it in. Breathe out and release. Not pushing, just allowing the air to come out naturally.
9. Now let the breath find its natural rhythm. Your job now is to simply notice it as a witness, not as a controller. If thoughts arise, and they do, treat them like clouds passing through a calm sky. The sky doesn’t chase the clouds, it doesn’t argue with them, it just holds them. Allows them to be there, and they pass.
10. Feel how each complete breathing cycle calms you a little more, just a little bit. more relaxed. Just like sediment slowly settles at the bottom of a glass of water. Water doesn’t try to clean itself, it just rests. And some clarity comes naturally. Breathe in, slow, light, slow. Exhale slowly. There is nothing to gain and nowhere to get. The breath is just happening – as if it has been happening, without any effort, throughout your life, long before you had any thought about it.
11. One way to breathe lightly is to breathe calmly. See if you can breathe so quietly that you can barely hear your breathing. As you do this, you may feel a hunger for a small amount of air, a slight desire to take in more breaths. And this is absolutely natural. In fact, this is a good sign. You are rebalancing the oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body. When you breathe lightly, more oxygen is reaching your cells and brain.
12. When you don’t put too much pressure on yourselfYou’ll notice a little more saliva in your mouth, maybe a little more warmth in your hands and feet. This is a sign of engaging the relaxation response, a sign that you are going in the right direction.
13. Start paying attention to the quality of your mind right now as we approach the end of the practice. Is it quieter than when we started? Is it more detailed? LSD breathing does not create this peace, but reveals it. There was always peace beneath the movement. The breath simply clears the way. Breathing light, slow, deep. And exhale with a final effort.
14. Remember that you can return to this breath at any time in your day-On the train, at your desk, before a difficult conversation. No special equipment required. Just a few moments.
15. When you are ready, slowly allow your eyes to open, if they are closed. Take the outside world back in and bring this quality into your day. Well done, you have given yourself 12 minutes of real rest. Thanks for adding me.