Breathing

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When you experience stressful thoughts, your sympathetic nervous system triggers the body’s ancient fight-or-flight response, giving you a burst of energy to respond to the perceived danger. Your breathing becomes shallow and rapid, and you primarily breathe from the chest and not the lower lungs. This can make you feel short of breath, which is a common symptom when you feel anxious or frustrated. At the same time, your body produces a surge of hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), which increase your blood pressure and pulse rate and put you in a revved up state of high alert.

With deep breathing, you can reverse these symptoms instantly and create a sense of calm in your mind and body. When you breathe deeply and slowly, you activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which reverses the stress response in your body. Deep breathing stimulates the main nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system—the vagus nerve—slowing down your heart rate, lowering your blood pressure, and calming your body and mind.

In addition, with deep breathing, you engage the abdominal muscles and diaphragm instead of the muscles in the upper chest and neck. This conditioning of the respiratory muscles results in improved efficiency of oxygen exchange with every breath by allowing more air exchange to occur in the lower lungs. It also reduces strain on the muscles of the neck and upper chest, allowing these muscles to relax. In short, deep breathing is more relaxing and efficient, allowing higher volumes of oxygen to reach the body’s cells and tissues.

As well as reversing the physical stress response in the body, deep breathing can help calm and slow down the emotional turbulence in the mind. Breathing can have an immediate effect on diffusing emotional energy so there is less reactivity to our emotions.

4 Deep Breathing Techniques

Beyond the practice of simple deep breathing, the ancient yogis described different types of rhythmic deep breathing techniques that can have differing effects on the mind and body. In fact, many studies document the beneficial effects of yogic breathing in treating depression, anxiety, PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), COPD (chronic destructive pulmonary disease), and asthma. (3,4,5) There are also theories that support the notion that by slowing down and controlling the breath, we can improve our longevity.(3)

The basis for all deep breathing practices originates in the science of yoga, specifically the branch of yoga known as pranayama. The word pranayama is derived from two Sanskrit words: prana (life force) and yama (control). By controlling the breath, you can influence every aspect of your life. You can train yourself to breathe in a way that has a positive influence on your health.

Each of the following simple yogic breathing techniques has specific effects on the mind-body physiology.

Complete Belly Breath: With one hand on your belly, relax your abdominal muscles, and slowly inhale through the nose, bringing air into the bottom of your lungs. You should feel your abdomen rise. This expands the lower parts of the lungs. Continue to inhale as your rib cage expands outward, and finally, the collar bones rise. At the peak of the inhalation, pause for a moment, then exhale gently from the top of your lungs to the bottom. At the end of exhalation, contract your abdominal muscles slightly to push residual air out of the bottom of your lungs.

Alternate Nostril Breathing: When you are feeling anxious or ungrounded, practice Alternate Nostril Breathing, known as Nadi Shodhana in the yogic tradition. This will immediately help you feel calmer.

• Hold your right thumb over your right nostril and inhale deeply through your left nostril.
• At the peak of your inhalation, close off your left nostril with your fourth finger, lift your right thumb, and then exhale smoothly through your right nostril.
• After a full exhalation, inhale through the right nostril, closing it off with your right thumb at the peak of your inhalation, lift your fourth finger and exhale smoothly through your left nostril.
• Continue with this practice for 3 to 5 minutes, alternating your breathing through each nostril. Your breathing should be effortless, with your mind gently observing the inflow and outflow of breath.

Ocean’s Breath: When you feel angry, irritated, or frustrated, try a cooling pranayama such as Ocean’s Breath, or Ujjayi (pronounced oo-jai). This will immediately soothe and settle your mind.

• Take an inhalation that is slightly deeper than normal. With your mouth closed, exhale through your nose while constricting your throat muscles. If you are doing this correctly, you should sound like waves on the ocean.
• Another way to get the hang of this practice is to try exhaling the sound “haaaaah” with your mouth open. Now make a similar sound with your mouth closed, feeling the outflow of air through your nasal passages.
• Once you have mastered this on the outflow, use the same method for the inflow breath, gently constricting your throat as you inhale.

Energizing Breath: When you are feeling blue or sluggish, try Energizing Breath or Bhastrika. This will give you an immediate surge of energy and invigorate your mind.

• Begin by relaxing your shoulders and take a few deep, full breaths from your abdomen.
• Now start exhaling forcefully through your nose, followed by forceful, deep inhalations at the rate of one second per cycle. Your breathing is entirely from your diaphragm, keeping your head, neck, shoulders, and chest relatively still while your belly moves in and out.
• Start by doing a round of ten breaths, then breathe naturally and notice the sensations in your body. After 15 to 30 seconds, begin the next round with 20 breaths. Finally, after pausing for another 30 seconds, complete a third round of 30 breaths. Beginners are advised to take a break between rounds.

Although Bhastrika is a safe practice, stay tuned in to your body during the process. If you feel light-headed or very uncomfortable, stop for a few moments before resuming in a less intense manner.

Contraindications: Do not practice Bhastrika if you are pregnant or have uncontrolled hypertension, epilepsy/seizures, panic disorder, hernia, gastric ulcer, glaucoma, or vertigo. Use caution if there is an underlying lung disease.

A regular daily practice of deep breathing is one of the best tools for improving your health and well-being. Performing one of these breath techniques twice daily for only three to five minutes can produce long-term benefits. You can also use them any time you are feeling stressed or notice that your breathing has become constricted. By training your body with a regular practice of deep breathing, you will begin to breathe more effectively even without concentrating on it.

“Healing is every breath.” ~Thich Nhat Hahn

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BELLY BREATHING

The first thing you need to learn to do is what’s called Belly Breathing. This is the most basic of the breathing methods we have at our disposal, and therefore is the one you should master before trying out the others. It’s very simple, and requires just a few steps:

1. Sit down comfortably, or lay down on a yoga mat, depending on your personal preference.
2. Place one of your hands on your stomach, just below your ribcage. Place the second hand over your chest.
3. Breathe in deeply through your nostrils, letting your first hand be pushed out by your stomach. You should find that your chest stays stationary.
4. Breathe out through your lips, pursing them as if you were about to whistle. Gently guide the hand on your stomach inwards, helping to press out the breath.
5. Slowly repeat between 3 and 10 times.

You should begin to feel relaxed as soon as you have repeated the Belly Breathing exercise two or three times, but keep going for as long as you feel you need to. After you have mastered this breathing exercise, there are four additional methods for you to try, ranging in difficulty.

4-7-8 BREATHING

The method which we call 4-7-8 Breathing also requires you to be sitting down or lying comfortably. Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Get into the same position as you did for the Belly Breathing exercise, with one hand on your stomach and one on your chest.
2. Breathe in slowly but deeply. Take 4 seconds to breathe in, feeling you stomach move in the process.
3. Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
4. Breathe out as silently as you can manage, taking 8 seconds. Once you reach 8, you should have emptied your lungs of air.
5. Repeat as many times as you need, making sure to stick to the 4-7-8 pattern.

ROLL BREATHING

If you are looking for a breathing exercise which you can do comfortably sitting down, try the Roll Breathing method. Its aim is not just to relax, but also to encourage the full use of your lung capacity. Beginners are advised to lie down, but after your first time you should find it just as easy to sit and complete this exercise. Follow these steps:

1. Position yourself with your left hand on your stomach, and place your right hand over your chest. Your hands should move as you inhale and exhale.
2. Take a deep breath from your lower lungs; breathe slowly, ensuring that the hand over your chest doesn’t move as you take the breath. Make sure you are using your nose to breathe in, and then exhale using your mouth.
3. Repeat the deep breath up to 8 times. On the ninth repetition, once you have filled your lower lungs, take a breath which will move your chest up, as you would normally breathe. This will fill your entire lung capacity.
4. Gently exhale through your mouth, being sure to empty your lungs as you do so. While you exhale, make a small whooshing noise. You should notice that both of your hands are moving back towards your body, as your stomach and chest fall.
5. You should practice this method for between 4 and 5 minutes. When you exhale, you should be able to feel a tangible difference in your stress levels.

MORNING BREATHING

While the above three exercises can be completed whenever necessary, the next method is called Morning Breathing and, as the name suggests, should be practiced once you have woken up. It aims to relax your muscles after a good night’s sleep, and will help you to minimize tension for the remainder of the day – so you can start as you mean to go on. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Stand up straight and, slightly bending your knees, bend your torso forward from the waist. Your arms should be hanging close to the floor, limply.
2. Take a breath in slowly, returning to your original standing position. You should look like an inflatable ghost you may see at Halloween: your head should be the last thing to straighten up.
3. Exhale, returning to the position of being bent forward by the end of your exhale. Stand up straight once you have finished, stretching your muscles as required.

DEEP MUSCLE RELAXATION & BELLY BREATHING

Finally, the Deep Muscle Relaxation technique is the most time-consuming but can also be the most rewarding for your body. This works best when combined with the Belly Breathing that I mentioned earlier, and is a great way to attain the relaxation response. You will exercise each major muscle in turn, but pay most attention to any muscles that are causing discomfort or ache. To start, sit down in a comfortable position and focus on your Belly Breathing, closing your eyes if need be. Then do the following

• To relax your face, knit your eyebrows together and release.
• To relax your neck, tilt your head down towards your neck, and push your chin to your chest, then release.
• To relax your shoulders, make a shrugging motion, then release.
• To relax your arms, push both arms away from your torso, stretch them out, and then relax them by your side.
• To relax your legs, point your toes as far away as they will stretch, and then relax.

All of these stretches should be conducted at the same time as the Belly Breathing we covered earlier. Breathe long and deep, and take your time with each stretch.