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[Video] Four calming breathing exercises to boost your day
Finding time for yourself can sometimes feel difficult, especially when you feel anxious or stressed. Yet, research shows that taking time out to unwind and calm your thoughts can have a positive effect on your health and wellbeing.
In this short video, I share four calming breathing exercises that take just a few minutes to do. They are based on the ancient pranayama yoga practice of controlling your breath and can help to reduce stress and anxiety.
Four calming yoga breathing exercises
These four calming breathing techniques are based on the ancient pranayama yoga practice of controlling your breath. Adding breathing exercises like these to your daily routine can help to reduce stress and anxiety.
Exercise 1: Connect with your breathing
Let’s start by placing ourselves in a comfortable seated position.
For the first exercise we’re going to connect with our breathing. Take a few moments to close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Start noticing your natural breathing. How does it sound? Is it fast or slow? How does it feel? Is it shallow or deep? Try and connect with the way you’re feeling and breathe in and out.
Now let’s deepen our breath by taking a long’ deep breath in through the nose, and exhale through the mouth with a ‘haaa’ sound.
Breathe in again, and out with the ‘haaa’ sound.
Continue this breathing exercise a few more times, breathing slowly in through your nostrils, and out through the mouth.
Relax and return slowly back to your normal breathing pattern.
Exercise 2: Ocean breathing
This next breathing exercise promotes relaxation. It’s called ocean breathing because each long, deep and controlled breath sounds like the ocean.
Once you feel comfortable try to keep your mouth closed as you exhale, while tightening the back of your throat to produce the sound. You should also be engaging your tummy area. See if you can maintain the sound, even with your lips closed.
Now relax and return back to your normal breathing pattern.
Exercise 3: Alternate nostril breathing
From here, let’s move into alternate nostril breathing. This exercise will aim to help you breath more easily through the nose and mouth, and let go of any stress and tension.
Let your left hand rest on your left knee. Exhale and then press your right thumb against your right nostril to close it.
Now inhale through your left nostril and then close the left nostril with your thumb or fingers.
Open your right nostril and exhale through your right nostril. Inhale through your right nostril and then close this nostril.
Next open your left nostril and exhale through this side.
You have just completed one round. Let’s keep going and repeat a few more rounds, alternating between your left and right nostril, and ending on your left nostril.
Repeat this exercise three times or for longer if you wish.
Relax, and return back to your normal breathing.
Exercise 4: Cooling breath
This last breathing exercise is very calming and great for cooling down the entire body. To do it, you need to be able to curl the sides of your tongue. Not everyone can do this, so If you can’t just skip this exercise.
Fold your tongue, curling the sides to form a tube. Close your mouth and stick the end of your tongue out between your pursed lips.
Inhale slowly through the tube shape of your tongue as if you are sipping air through a straw. Let your breath expand your chest and belly.
Now close your mouth and exhale slowly through your nose.
Repeat this exercise at least five to 10 times. Or try it for longer if you have the time.
Try these calming breathing exercises when you wake up in the morning to prepare you for the day ahead. You can repeat them for up to 15 minutes at other times of the day too, or before you go to sleep, to boost your physical and mental wellbeing.
Benefits of yoga breathing
Practising yoga breathing regularly is great for balancing your body and mind. Researchers have found that the pranayama technique of controlling the breath can:
- promote relaxation
- reduce stress and anxiety
- improve your quality of sleep
- reduce depression
- lower and/or stabilise high blood pressure (hypertension)
There’s also increasing interest in the use of yoga breathing to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But there aren’t many studies looking at how effective this is.
Breathing exercises from the video
Before you start the video, get into a comfortable seated position, and ready to focus on your breathing. Here’s a summary of the four breathing exercises that I will guide you through.
1. Connect with your breathing
The first yoga breathing exercise encourages slow and controlled breathing by getting you to pay attention to your breath, as it flows in and out of your body. With your eyes closed, you’ll start by taking a few deep breaths in and out, and to notice your natural breathing. You will also connect with the way you’re feeling while breathing in and out.
Your breathing will deepen with this exercise. You’ll repeat this a few more times before returning to your normal breathing pattern.
2. Ocean breathing (Ujjayi)
This next breathing exercise promotes relaxation. It’s called ocean breathing (or ocean’s breath) because it involves long, deep and controlled breath sounds – like ocean waves.
During the exercise you will keep your mouth closed as you exhale, while tightening the back of your throat to produce the sound of the ocean. Then you’ll see if you can maintain the sound, even with your lips closed.
3. Alternate nostril breathing (Nadi Shodhana)
Practising alternate breathing can help you breathe more easily through your nose and mouth, and let go of any stress and tension.
Sitting in a comfortable position, you will close your right nostril with your thumb and breathe in slowly through the left nostril. Then, you’ll close your left nostril and release your right nostril. You will then exhale (breathe out) slowly through your right nostril.
This exercise will be repeated a few times on your left and right nostril.
4. Cooling breath (Shiitali Kumbhaka)
This last breathing exercise is very calming and great for cooling down your entire body. To do it, you will need to be able to curl the sides of your tongue, which not everyone can do.
To start, you will fold your tongue, curling the sides to form a tube. Then you’ll close your mouth and stick the end of your tongue out between your pursed lips. Next, you inhale (breathe in) slowly through the tube-shape of your tongue as if sipping air through a straw, and let your breath expand your chest and belly. Then you’ll close your mouth and exhale slowly through your nose.
The last exercise will be repeated a few times.
Take care of your mind and body
Why not build these yoga breathing exercises into your morning routine to prepare you for the day ahead? Or try them before you go to sleep at night to get you into a more relaxed state of mind.
There are lots of other types of yoga too, such as hatha yoga, vinyasa flow yoga, and even chair yoga.
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Sources Sources
- Michael de Vibe, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for improving health, quality of life and social functioning in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Campbell Collaboration. November 2017. doi:10.4073/csr.2017.11
- Vasant Venkatraman Shastri, et al. Investigation of yoga pranayama and vedic mathematics on mindfulness, aggression and emotion regulation. International Journal of Yoga. 2017. doi:10.4103/0973-6131.213470
- Andrea Zaccaro, et al. How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2018. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353
- Mangesh A. Bankar et al. Impact of long term Yoga practice on sleep quality and quality of life in the elderly. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. 2013. doi:10.4103/0975-9476.109548
- Apar Avinash Saoji, et al. Effects of yogic breath regulation: A narrative review of scientific evidence. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. 2019; 10(1): 50-8. doi.org/10.1016/j.jaim.2017.07.008
- Holgar Cramer et al. Yoga for posttraumatic stress disorder – a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry. 2018; 18:72. doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1650-x
- Zaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al. How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psych-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Front Hum Neurosci. 2018; 12:353: doi:10.3389.fnhum.2018.00353
- Jahan I, Begum M, Akhter S, et al. Effects of alternate nostril breathing exercise on respiratory functions in healthy young adults leading stressful lifestyle. J Popul Ther Clin Pharmacol. 2020; 27(1):e104-14. doi:10.15586/jptcp.v27i1.668
- Alternate nostril breathing technique (nadi shodhan pranayama). The Art of Living. www.artofliving.org, updated 11 September 2020
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