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The benefits of breathwork are boundless. Proper breathing can deliver more oxygen and nutrients to muscles ensuring they function properly. It can also lower blood pressure without medication and improve lung health. Even reduced gastrointestinal symptoms, like acid reflux, bloating, constipation, and abdominal pain, is a benefit of regular breathing exercises. Just as aerobic exercise improves your heart function and strengthens your muscles, breathing exercises make your lungs more efficient.
Another main advantage of proper breathing is reduced stress. According to John Kennedy, M.D., a board-certified cardiologist and medical director of preventive cardiology and wellness at Marina Del Rey Hospital in California, breathing can help regulate your “fight or flight” response.
“Breathing exercises, especially those that emphasize extended, controlled exhalation, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which causes equal and opposite changes to the stress response,” says Dr. Kennedy. “Deep, controlled breathing with extended exhalation stimulates the vagus nerve, causing a fall in heart rate and blood pressure and, when practiced regularly, feelings of calm and relaxation.”
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Slow, deliberate breathing can calm the nervous system, reducing stress and anxiety. This creates better blood flow and lessens stress hormones. With less stress hormones in the blood your body can clear germs and viruses more quickly leaving you with a strong immune system. Overall breathing exercises can help create a happier, healthier you.
With that said, everyone, kids to adults, healthy to healing, can benefit from implementing a breathwork routine. The great part is these exercises will only take 10 minutes of your day. What’s even better? They can be done anywhere – in your bed, on the living room floor, or in a comfortable chair.
Here are three breathing exercises you can implement today to help reduce stress:
4-7-8 Breathing
This technique was created by Andrew Weil M.D., founder and director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. It is proven to help calm your nervous system quickly and can be performed either sitting or lying down.
How to practice the 4-7-8 technique: Place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. Count to four as you take a deep, slow breath from your belly. Hold your breath for seven counts. Breathe out for eight counts. Try to get all the air out of your lungs by the time you count to eight. Repeat three to seven times or until you feel calm. Take a few minutes to sit and feel the sensations in your body and mind before returning to your day.
Modified Lion’s Breath
As you do this exercise, imagine that you’re a lion. Sit comfortably on the floor or in a chair.
How to practice Modified Lion’s Breath technique: Let all of your breath out with a big, open mouth. Breathe in through your nose. Fill your belly all the way up with air. When you can’t breathe in any more, open your mouth as wide as you can. Breathe out with a “HA” sound. Repeat several times.
Pursed Lips Breathing
When you feel short of breath, pursed lip breathing helps to bring more oxygen into your lungs and calms you down, allowing you to have more control over your breath.
How to practice the Pursed Lips technique: Breathe in through your nose. Breathe out with pursed lips as if you were going to blow out a candle. Try to breathe out longer than your inhale. Repeat five to 10 times, stopping if you feel light-headed.
