“Waiting to Exhale.” (Learning to Breathe)
Start slow, start small, and work your way up. Perhaps set a timer for one minute and increase the time as you get used to breath work.
Deep breathing comes from your diaphragm; your shoulders and upper chest should move very little. Place a hand on your belly and practice pushing it in and out as your abdomen fills and empties.
Keep in mind, you can’t really “breathe wrong.” Anytime you pay attention to the breath you are engaging your parasympathetic (“relaxation”) system. You can’t mess that up!
How?
Get comfortable, sitting or lying flat. Rest your hands on your belly, just below the navel. As you inhale, let your belly soften and expand like a balloon. When you exhale, let your belly sink toward your spine.
Next, place one hand on your ribs and the other on your belly. Breathe in slowly, let your belly soften, and feel your ribs expand.
Finally, move the hand that was on your ribs to your upper chest, just below the collarbone. As you inhale, allow your belly to soften, your ribs to expand, and upper chest to broaden. As you exhale, let everything go.
When?
Take three-to-five (more, if you feel it) of these deep breaths every morning before you get out of bed, again anytime during the day when you’ve noticed your breathing has become shallow and stressed, and again before you go to sleep at night. Do this daily and over the course of a couple weeks you’ve created a very simple, and incredibly beneficial habit…
…or check out one of our Friday Breath sessions.