As someone who will start hyperventilating on any given day over the smallest stressors, I’ve come to realize that my breath is essential to my overall health.
This was recently confirmed scientifically (again:) through an amazing book Breathe, by James Nestor. He estimated that probably around 80% of humans aren’t breathing as we should and we are majority mouth breathers– which it turns out truly is one of the worst insults because mouth breathing is horrible for your overall health!
Check out his book to learn more and be utterly horrified, but in the meantime, I wanted to give you some hope through 3 very simple breathing exercises that can help you calm your anxiety and they can also help with your overall lung function and strengthening. As I mentioned earlier, breath is essential to overall health, particularly breathing through your nose. So, let’s get started!
How can we help heal our minds, our anxiety and our lungs overall health? Here are 3 easy breathing techniques (including videos) to help you ease your anxiety. And they can even help you ease into sleep at night too. Breathwork is truly life changing!
Breathing Exercise 1:
The 4-1-4 method
This is the simplest version of breathwork and its easy to remember. If a 4 count is too long, start out with a 2 or 3 second, ex. 3-1-3.
Step 1: Inhale slowly to the count of 4
Step 2: Hold for one second
Step 3: Exhale slowly to the count of 4
That’s it! There are some important things to remember about these techniques though:
Important reminder #1: Breathe through your nose!
Important reminder #2: Notice if you are clenching your jaw or holding your shoulders up tight. On the exhales try to relax down any areas of tension you are holding in your face and your body.
Important reminder #3: These nostril breaths should come from your belly, not your chest. When you inhale try to let your belly rise and on the exhale, your belly deflated back towards your spine. It involves your diaphragm as well, but I will let you Google that info. That’s it’s own rabbit hole. A good one though!
Breathing Exercise 2:
The 4-7-8 method
This breathing technique is used by marines and professional divers to calm anxiety and increase lung capacity, so don’t worry if it’s tough at first. You can build up your lung capacity and overall mental and physical health by practicing this technique.
Step 1: Inhale slowly to the count of 4
Step 2: Hold the breathe for 7 seconds
Step 3: Exhale slowly to the count of 8
Remember, these are deep belly breaths through your nose. It’s okay if you have to work up to these counts! Just start with where you are and practice for just 5 minutes each day. Before bedtime is a great time to practice these exercises!
Breathing Exercise 3:
Alternate nostril breathing – no counts involved. Simply go with the natural rhythm of your breath.
This is an ancient breathing technique that dates back thousands of years. Almost all ancient cultures have taught and written about the power of the breath and the importance of nostril breathing (instead of mouth breathing!) So, I will write out the steps below, but please check out the video below on this one for further demonstration.
Step 1: Use your right hand thumb to close your right nostril
Step 2: Through the left nostril, breathe out fully and slowly. Then, through the same left nostril, breathe in fully and slowly.
Step 3: Plug the left nostril with your right hand ring finger.
Step 4: Exhale fully through your right nostril. Inhale fully through that same right nostril.
Step 5: Repeat steps 1 – 5
Check out the video to get a better example. And please find me on IG @thepinksage if you want more breathing tutorials, positive mental health tips and mindset coaching. You can always DM me with any questions you have as well. Thanks for reading this and Happy Breathing!