When is the last time you felt relaxed? Are you breathing correctly? Let me reframe that, how are you breathing today?
Have you noticed how your breath changes depending on how you’re feeling? If you answered no, don’t worry most of the population don’t pay much attention to their breathing pattern due that is a natural thing our body does to keep us alive. Your breath can tell you so much. For example, have you noticed how shallow your breath is when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or feeling pain, or feeling happy. Whenever you’re feeling any discomfort in your body or mind, your breath will be coming mostly from your chest, which makes it very shallow and difficult for your body to relax. As oppose to when you feel relax, your breath tends to be open and coming from your belly.
Have you noticed a baby sleeping? You’ll noticed that their breathing is slow, but coming from their belly. Just watching a baby sleep can relax you, due that your own breathing will get intune to that same deep breathing. Deep breathing allows your body to relax from the high speed lifestyle and gives your body the opportunity to stay in balance.
As mindfulness practices become more popular, breathwork is coming back in popularity. Breathwork can be traced all the way back to ancient traditions in India where breathwork is best know as Pranayama (Shunya, 2017).
Currently, you can find other forms of breathwork practices that might have come from any of the three most popular types of breathwork: Pranayama, Holotropic, and Rebirthing (Healthline, 2019). When you take a look at all the different breathwork techniques, you’ll find that all share the same effect to keep you relax and healthy. No matter what kind of breathwork practice you do, by the end of a session you’ll feel restful and rejuvenated. Let me explain to you how breathworks supports your overall health. At the physical level, you’re adding more oxygen into your body, which helps detox your organs (Drackert, 2019). By detoxing your organs, your body will start its natural process of self -healing and rejuvenate your body.
When you connect with your breath, your brain will automatically slow down and send signals to the rest of your body to relax (Colquhoun, 2019). Relaxing deep breathing is an effective way to relax the sympathetic nervous system and take your body to homeostasis (The Essential Life, 2015). Think of homeostasis as relaxing your body at the spa. When your body feels at peace, your emotions follow. This is how breathwork brings benefits to your body, mind and emotions.
Although breathwork has so many benefits, it shouldn’t be so complicated for you to experience the power of the breath. Let me share with you an easy but effective breathing technique.
Quick and Easy Breathwork Technique
This is an easy breathing technique that only takes one minute.
1. Sit comfortably with spine erect.
2. Close your eyes and start feeling your breath.
3. Take one of your hands and place it on your belly.
4. Breathe in and feel your belly expanding.
5. Exhale and feel your belly coming back as if wanting to touch your spine.
Repeat for one minute.
After doing this simple breathing exercise, you’ll notice that your breath feels more expansive and your body more relax. These are just a couple of the benefits of deep breathing. The more you practice this simple breathwork exercise, the more you’ll start connecting with your body, mind and emotions.
The beauty of breathwork is that it has so many benefits for you and its free. You don’t need expensive tools, or specific clothing. You already have all you need to practice breathwork, yourself. You already know the basics of breathwork, because you’re breathing every single day. All you need to do is to connect with your breath for at least one minute per day to start ripping such healthy benefits from breathwork. As you continue to practice breathwork, you’ll find yourself getting the benefits of a clearer mind, balance emotions, and more energy. So next time, you’re feeling stress and tired, give breathwork a try. Start with the breathwork exercise in this article and start feeling more relax and rejuvenated.
