Breathing Exercises

Breathing Exercises Max Utter Breathing exercises have a dual purpose. Proper breathing allows the body to get more oxygen with less effort, making every physical and mental activity more efficient throughout the day. Breathing exercises also help the body, mind and soul relax when under stress or when clarity is needed. Stress can be literally blown away with the breath and your breath is the safest of all places to focus your consciousness. Breathing exercises can be done just about anywhere at anytime. Choose a quite place where you can sit or stand comfortably with your spine straight. Make sure you keep your eyes and chin on level with the horizon. You should be in relaxed, loose clothing. You can do the exercises with your eyes open or closed.

Learning Breathing 1. Just pay attention to your breath. Don’t try to change it, just observe it. If your attention wanders, just gently bring it back, one breath at a time. Increase by a few seconds every day the length of time you can do this and you are making great progress. 2. Sit on a chair with your head bent down toward your knees, sort of folded in half. Inhale through your nose the deepest breath you can, making sure your belly presses into your legs and your body rises up. Your rib cage should get very wide. Exhale through your nose. Repeat twenty times. Sit up slowly, as you may be slightly dizzy. 3. Squeeze more air out on exhalation by using the muscles in between your ribs (the intercostals muscles). Exhale, then squeeze more air out, now squeeze more air out. Do this whenever you think about it. This will eventually lengthen the exhalation so that it matches inhalation and will encourage the body to draw in more and more air. 4. Focused exhalation will encourage your body to bring more breath in. Observe your breathing normally for a minute. Now change your perception to view your breath as a continuous circle, exhalation begins your breath and is the top half of the circle; inhalation finishes the breath and is the bottom half. Make sure to squeeze your rib muscles and push all the air out of your lungs. Then breath in to “reset” and begin the breath cycle again.

Stimulating Breath Use this exercise to wake yourself up in the afternoon or other times you’re tired and to increase your physical and mental energy. Put your tongue in the yogic position, on the ridge of hard tissue behind palate of your teeth. Yoga says that the energy systems of the body, positive and negative, connect at those two positions – the tongue and roof ridge. The technique is to breathe rapidly in and out through the nose with the mouth lightly closed. This should be as fast as possible and both your inhale and exhale should be noisy. Progress starting at 15 seconds and increasing by 5 seconds per day until you reach 1 minute.

Quickly Calming Breath This is the technique you want to draw on any time you are upset and want to clam down quickly without having to think much. Observe your breath for a minute. Don’t try to change it, just pay attention to it. Now focus on making your breath deeper, quieter, slower and more regular. Be apply to both your inhale and exhale. Keep going until you are at ease.

Relaxation Breath This is the best relaxation, craving resistance and anti-anxiety technique I know of. Do it anytime someone says anything harsh to you, you are upset about circumstances or events or are having a craving for something you know is not good for you. Put your tongue in the yogic position, on the ridge of hard tissue behind the palate of your teeth and leave it there throughout this exercise. You are going to inhale through your nose quietly and exhale through your mouth noisily. This means you are going exhale around your tongue. It helps to purse your lips. Try just exhaling this way a few times before beginning. First exhale completely through your mouth, then inhale through your nose for a count of 4, hold your breath for a count of 7, and exhale through your mouth for a count of 8. Repeat for a total of four breaths. Perform this exercise at least twice per day. After a full month of exercise, increase to 8 breath cycles. The important aspect of this exercise is the ratio of 4-7-8, just keep your counting constant. The limiting factor will be how long you can hold your breath. You should start by counting fairly quickly and progress by slowing down your counting, keeping the 4-7-8 ratio steady. As you practice you may find that you begin to find a different state of consciousness as you perform this exercise. Try to hold that state as you come out of the exercise and view the world around you. Any lightheaded sensation will disappear as you gain more practice.

Combining the Stimulating & Relaxing Breath This is a great way to prepare for something stressful or anytime you really want to clear your mind. I do this combination as a prelude to meditation. Do the stimulating breath for one minute and then do 4 or 8 relaxing breath cycles.

Be Breathed Do this exercise each day as you are waking up and/or falling asleep. Lie down and relax with your arms resting beside you. Observe your breath. Imagine it’s not you exhaling, the universe is withdrawing breath from you, you are not the one inhaling; the universe is blowing breath into you. As the universe breaths into you feel the breath penetrate every area of your body, your brain, fingers and toes, heart and eyes. Create imagery in your mind - you are doing nothing, the universe is breathing into you and drawing breath out of you.

Balanced Breathing This neuro-respiratory exercise is designed to make the respiratory rhythm more regular, which in turn has a soothing effect on the entire nervous system. The brain is divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres. The right side is intuition and feeling, the left is rational thought and organization. Balanced Breathing “talks” to both sides, and brings them into balance. After performing this exercise for a time your body will automatically switch between left and right nostril breathing when you need the capacity of either side of your body or brain more. Have a friend look and they will probably see you If you have a sinus cold or other type of nasal blockage don’t do more than blow your nose once to do this exercise. Simply skip it until you can breath easily though both nostrils. During the exercise don’t try to count or otherwise monitor your breath. Some yoga books and instructors suggest this, but it the goal of this exercise is to let your body balance your natural breathing rhythm. Now for the exercise: As always, get in a comfortable position with your spine straight. Place the thumb of your right hand next to your right nostril and the two middle fingers next to the left nostril. Now: 1. Close the right nostril with your thumb and breath out through the left nostril. 2. Breath in through the left nostril, close it with your fingers and exhale out the right nostril. 3. Breath in through the right nostril, close it with your thumb and exhale out the left nostril. 4. Repeat for 3-5 minutes twice per day One you know what it feels like to breath through each nostril you can purposefully change their dominance during the day. If you are attempting to solve a logical problem and need more rational power, turn on the right nostril, for an upcoming emotional encounter turn on the left. The way you do this is simple, although you need a little space. Just lie down on your side, with the nostril you want dominant toward the sky and breath for 5 minutes. That’s it; you’ve changed your brain dominance. Think about breathing through the nostril you made dominate in order to maintain it.

Laughter Therapy This is great to do in your car, especially right before you go into work, pick up the kids or go to an important social function. The shower is also a great place. Just draw in a huge breath through your nose and really fill up your lungs, feel your belly go way out. Now kick back your head and laugh. Laugh as loud as you can, for as long as that huge breath will last. Repeat at least one more time – laugh as big and loud as you can. Enjoy it! There is not much you can do that will improve your life more than laughter. The average 4 year old laughs out loud over 100 times a day, the average adult “sort-of-giggles” 4 times in the same period. There are so many physiological, mental and emotional responses to laughter that it really can’t be challenged as “the best medicine”. If you are only going to one breathing exercise a day, laugh, especially right before your appointment with me!

Finding Your Bliss After you’ve done the Laughter Therapy few times, pay close attention to the feeling you have when you’re laughing. Once you think you know that feeling, you can find your bliss in disciplines such as meditation.