Your breath is the most amazing tool for balancing your body, mind and emotions. And one of the best things is that it is always available, no equipment required.
Using some of these breath techniques can be a great way for you to feel greater calm and wellness in all aspects of your life. Start with the simplest, and then deepen your practice.
Deep Abdominal Breathing
Deep abdominal breathing is a simple yet profound exercise. Learn to breathe while keeping your body relaxed, so that your abdomen expands on your inhale, and releases back with your exhale.
This helps ensure that your breath is relaxed and flows in a healthy way, to properly oxygenate your body and brain.
Coherent Breathing
Coherent breathing is a very simple yet profound practice. By balancing your in and out breaths, preferably around the six second mark, you put your body and mind into a state of coherence.
Breathing in this way allows your heart not just to beat smoothly, but for the heart beats to be very regular. This is measured in your heart rate variability. So, for example, if your heart is beating at 60 beats per second, those beats will all be evenly at 1 second apart, rather than one being at 0.9, the next at 1.05 and so on.
What this means is that both your body and mind work optimally. Your body is in a state of homeostasis, where your organs all function well and together. Your heart rate modulates the cycles of all your other organs, and keeps them running smoothly as a team.
This breathing also helps you to be more in tune with yourself. You will feel calm and alert, able to connect with your rational mind, your memory and your intuition. So, you can be more focused and also make better decisions by combining different kinds of wisdom.
Altogether, this is a great breath pattern to use at any time to allow you to think more clearly and feel calmer. As with any breathing practice, you'd be amazed the times you can give it a go. Little and often helps train your body to do this more, so you are in a better state all the time. So, why not give it a go while in the bathroom, or while doing the dishes, or when making coffee, or whatever else?
4-7-8 Breathing
This is one of the most effective techniques for calming your body and emotions. You can use it anytime, anywhere. And the more you use it, the easier it is to have it to hand in times of need.
As the name implies, the breath is made up of three parts. You first breath in on a count of 4, through your nose. Then you hold the breath for a count of seven. Finally, you breath out on a count of eight. The outbreath is normally done through pursed lips, or with your tongue tip touching the back of your top teeth and your lips pursed over it.
However, these are subtle nuances. Just breathing in, holding the breath, and then exhaling more slowly than you inhaled will already give you lots of benefits.
Balancing Breath
This is an exercise taken from energy psychology, especially as propagated by Dr. George Pratt and Peter Lambrou. Balancing breath is a powerful technique to bring equilibrium to your body, mind and emotions. It can be used before a tapping or meditation session, to get yourself into a powerful state of calm. You can also use it afterwards, as a way to instal positive emotions and goals.
Collarbone Breathing
Collarbone breathing is an excellent technique for shaking things up when tapping isn’t achieving the results you want. You can use it for releasing emotional blockages. You can also use it for installing positive emotional states.