This year it seems everyone is talking about breath. From the skilled breath holds of the actors in Avatar Way of the Water, to thousands exploring the Winter with Wim Hof's cold water immersion and breathwork challenges. Here, meditation teacher, Judy Claughton from BalanceTime explores why breath is such a core foundation to your wellbeing.
We don't need to focus on our breath for it to happen, yet it's a curious function - as by focusing on it, we can change and control it, and that brings about a range of different health impacts.
For thousands of years people have explored the benefits of controlled breathing through yoga (Pranayama - being the focused study of breath) and as the basic foundation of meditation and mindfulness across a host of cultures and traditions. All which have now been proven to have positive impacts on our health and wellbeing.
Breath and the Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for regulating our bodily functions, such as heart rate, digestion, and breathing. It is divided into two branches: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The SNS is responsible for our stress (or fight or flight) response, which activates during times of stress or danger (often as simple as getting upset on the drive to work, by an email or letter or by sharp words from someone you care about). The PNS, on the other hand, is responsible for our relaxation ("rest and digest") response, which is activated when we are relaxed.
When we take slow, deep breaths, we activate the PNS, which can lower our heart rate and blood pressure, reduce anxiety and stress, and improve digestion. When we take shallow, rapid breaths, we activate the SNS, which can increase our heart rate and blood pressure, and create feelings of anxiety and stress.
Explore what your breath is right now as your read this article to notice if you are in a resting or stress breath 'mode'.
Just pause and notice how many counts it takes for you to breathe in and how many for you to exhale.
Do you pause between your in and out breath?
And do you notice your breath being short and shallow (in your chest) or deep and calming (in your diaphragm and thus bringing a slight movement to your belly as your inhale and exhale).
It is useful to notice how your breath changes at different points of your day. What triggers a more stressful, shorter breath rhythmn? And what helps you feel more relaxed, calm and focused.
Two minutes to calm
This breathing exercise can help you regulate your nervous system and move it into the PNS, i.e. relaxed (rest and digest) state.
Take a timer and notice how many breaths you take in a minute, simply counting one as a complete breath in and complete breath out. At this stage, try not to change or force your breath, just take this minute to observe and count. Try to avoid feelings of judgement about what you are noticing.
Perhaps you are quite calm and you only take a few breaths in a minute, perhaps you are busy and you find you are at about 10 or 20 breaths in a minute, or maybe you are feeling anxious or have just been exercising and you are taking a higher number of breaths a minute.
In your second minute, gently inhale and exhale with a controlled rhythmn that will regulate you to approximately 5 and a half breaths in one minute.
Breathe in for a steady count of one, two, three, four. Exhale, one, two, three, four (and repeat once more)
Increase the count to five (and repeat once more).
Increase the count to six. Breathe in, as you count in your mind up exhale steadily as you count and try to avoid holding your breath, (repeat just once).
This will have taken around a minute and seen your breath help your body begin to enter a relaxed state.
Breathe for emotional regulation
Changing your breathing rhythmn doesn't just change what happens to you physically, it can also impact your emotions as deep breathing helps to increase your natural mood boosting endorphin levels in the brain. When stressed or anxious, your breathing instantly becomes shallow and rapid as anxiety triggers your fear centre in your brain, and your body is flooded with stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. By noticing this, and then taking a moment to consciously slow your breath, you activate the relaxation response to help these hormones dissipate, reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, and trigger positive endorphins in their place.
Breathe for physical health
Breathing exercises can help to improve lung function, increase oxygenation in the body, and strengthen the respiratory system. These can also improve circulation, reduce inflammation and promote healing and of course help reduce pain (both well-known in child birth - and the lesser-known pain reduction impact on 'any' sensation of pain. (I say 'any' as some pain really does need medical intervention - although even in these situations - like when I cut my hand open it was great to be able to reduce the pain while I waited for surgery/pain relief just by breathing).
Breath and the mental space this creates
Mindfulness is the practice of being present and fully engaged in the current moment and is one of the goals we seek through meditation. Breath is one of the core foundations of meditation and mindfulness practice due to its ability to help us become grounded in the present moment, through both the relaxation that is physically triggered and mentally created by changing our thought patterns. By focusing on the sensations of the breath, you are helped to become more aware of your physical body rather than the racing of thoughts and worries. Creating this mental space of calm then further pulls your awareness away from distractions and negative thoughts.
There are thousands of breath techniques for wellbeing and they explore a range of factors:
The power of the held breath
- and the somatic breathing movement - explores how we challenge our fear by increasing how long we hold our breath, after a period of active 'hyperventilation', i.e. breathing in a rhythm to force additional oxygen into our lungs and cells.
The held breath is also linked to breathing for reducing panic. In this way, breath exercises explore a long held breath after a deep inhalation. This time, the breath hold aims to temporarility starve the fear centre of your brain of oxygen to stop generation of stress hormones and force the oxygen held in your body to be sent to all the other organs first. Caution over how long you practice this for.
The power of the coherent breath
- the opposite of the above, this technique avoids any hold in your breath and encourages you to create a natural coherent breath that flows like a wave in and out. This rapidly activates the relaxation response for your mind and body, and can help to release held pain and trauma within the body - when supported through guided practices.
The power of the nasal breath - can help you to reduce snoring and sleep apnea and clear sinus blockages - but it's not a quick fix - its about shifting away from mouth breathing and completely using your nose.
The power of the mouth
- and while nasal adovates say don't breathe with your mouth - there's a whole school of breath science that explores how nasal inhalation and followed by exhaling through the mouth, can have an impact on reducing muscle tension, and even be used to create holotropic breath patterns that stimulate a natural 'high' in the body.
The best way to explore the impact of breath on your mind and body is to start with some simple exercises and see how you feel! You may like to
check out our next masterclasses in breath on our events page for online and in real life ways to explore the power of breath. You can also start by just becoming more aware of your breath.
They say - "Life is about the moments that take our breath away" but I say it's also about discovering life in the ways you breathe - and how your breath can shape and trigger feelings of happiness, calm, focus and euphoria.
Explore more breath techniques at our blog on the
top 5 breath exercises for calm.
