This week we’re focusing on a simple but powerful practice:

Creating A Compassionate Breath Ritual

Breath is a fabulous nervous system tool because it adapts to what our body needs.
It can calm you, awaken you, ground you, or guide you into deeper awareness.
And it’s accessible with — no equipment, no timing, no pressure.

But sometimes we forget.....

Our breath doesn’t need to be controlled.
Often it is asking us to meet it with compassion.

Here’s some example of what compassion toward our breath looks like - I invite you to see which one(s) resonate:

✨ Noticing your breath without judgment — shallow, tight, shaky, held, open… all of it makes sense.
✨ Letting breath guide you instead of forcing it — there is nothing to “fix.” (even when we really want there to be something)​
✨ Using breath as a conversation with your nervous system — what is your body saying right now?
✨ Allowing sensation along w/story — breath brings you into your body, noticing self-criticism, kindness, apathy or something else.

When in fight or flee, breath can calm your system. When in fawn, freeze or dissociation, breath can wake it up.
It can help you meet overwhelm with softness, meet numbness with gentle activation, meet anxiety with witnessing....and so much more.

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🌿 Why Ritual Matters

A compassionate breath ritual isn’t just a “nice idea.”
It’s a somatic tool.

A personal ritual is a way of signaling to your body:
“We’re safe enough to shift.”

When we repeat a soothing action — like compassionate breath, grounding touch, or orienting — our body begins to associate that action with safety and calm.​
Over time, the ritual becomes a bridge out of over or under reactivity and into regulation,
because the body learns through repetition, not pressure.

This is why even 90 seconds to 3 minutes of intentional breath can create small shifts, profound changes and/or a range in between.

I invite you to try this Compassionate Breath Practice and see if using it as a ritual feels healing and helpful for you.

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Step-by-Step Compassionate Breath

1. Arrive (3 breaths)
​ Sit or stand comfortably.
Let your breath do whatever it’s already doing.
No changes yet.

2. Notice (2 breaths)
​ Where is your breath living today?
Chest? Belly? Throat? Back ribs?
Simply observe it as information, not a problem.

3. Invite Softness (5 breaths)
​ Inhale gently through your nose.
Exhale through your mouth with a soft “haaa” or sigh.
Imagine your exhale melting tension — even just 2% softer.

4. Offer Compassion
​ With your next three exhales, say internally:
“I see you.”
​ “I’m here.”
​ “Thank you for trying to protect me.”

Your breath is a messenger.
Your compassion is what allows the nervous system to shift.

5. Close With Somatic Awareness (30 seconds)
​ What do you notice now?
Warmth? Softening? Tears? Space? Nothing?
All of it is welcome.
Compassion makes room for whatever shows up.

Breath can offer even more healing as we learn to have a little more of a compassionate relationship with our breath — instead of a performance based relationship.

If you try this ritual this week and something shifts for you, I’d love to hear about it.

Remember, ❤️

You Matter. Your Healing Matters. You Are Worth It!

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P.S. I do these right alongside you. And when I got to step 4 I was yawning, burping, swallowing, and had a lot of big sighs. All ques that my nervous system was regulating. It felt very cleansing. The last time I did this practice, it felt enriching. And the time before that it felt like I was waking up - so no experience is wrong or right, rather it is what our body wants us to see and understand in that moment.