All of the breath techniques we use emphasise extended exhales, which play a powerful role in activating your parasympathetic nervous system the branch of your nervous system responsible for rest, recovery, and relaxation. By lengthening the exhale, these practices stimulate the vagus nerve, a key nerve that helps slow your heart rate, lower blood pressure, and calm your nervous system overall.

This calming signal sends a message of safety to your brain, shifting you out of the “fight or flight” response and into a state of ease and restoration. Regularly engaging in these breathing exercises can reduce stress, improve focus, and promote a deeper sense of balance and wellbeing.

We then move into a descending body scan encourages deep rest by gently guiding attention down through the body, typically from head to toe, promoting awareness of physical sensations and releasing tension layer by layer. This gradual focus helps shift the nervous system from a state of alertness to relaxation, quieting the mind and allowing the body to unwind.