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Breathing Exercise: Benefits and Techniques

Breathing Exercise: Benefits and Techniques

Breathing is basically almost synonymous to existing. It is one of the components that makes human beings up and about, basically a fundamental skill to exist.

Since this action has become our second nature, it comes very easy and it doesn’t even need an introduction, since it’s a bare minimum for humans to survive. But, like any other habits that an individual can do, breathing exercises are created for a reason, one of which is this: so, we can do it better.

Sure, breathing needs no training or some sort of practice since we basically do it in a heartbeat (yes, definitely just like a heartbeat, it’s that simple). However, there’s more to that.

Something beautiful comes with doing it the right way. Breathing exercises are developed, examined, and studied over a long period of time to establish benefits and improve the overall quality of life. It builds a healthy state of well-being that medicines and other modalities may or may not repair.

Besides, if you’re doing your respiratory system a wonderful favour of practicing breathing exercises to promote its optimal health, then, there’s more to gain, right?

Why is it so important to do breathing exercises?

Breathing Exercise: Benefits and Techniques

It hasn’t been that clear to some why breathing exercise has to be done on a regular basis. This area where breathing exercises are approached on a brighter side has become dynamic and even beyond helpful for most people. Why? Since it basically covers not only the physiological aspect but even the psychological side of health.

Over the years, there are deliberate factors that cause breathing to be compromised. These factors may come as inevitable, but it is undeniably something a person can overcome. Only if the right techniques are established beforehand.

Here are the two main important factors why breathing exercises are now very valuable:

1. Stress Management

To begin with, simple breathing helps increase your heart rate. However, after releasing the air by breathing out, it deliberately slows down your heart rate, allowing your whole nervous system to stay relaxed and calm.

Breathing exercise techniques, when done in a conducive place, have the characteristic of improving the body’s oxygen level. Deep breathing, specifically, helps in evenly distributing an adequate load of oxygen to distant parts of the body like the brain. This creates a balance in the body and mind where the person feels calm, relaxed, and relatively collected after doing deep breathing exercises repeatedly.

It’s quite clear by now why most exercise regimens would include window time to stretch and practice mindful breathing. This habit, on its own increases the serotonin hormone that induces relaxation and a feeling of calmness which overpowers the hormone cortisol which on the other hand is in charge of giving so much stress to the body.

By now, you might associate the benefits of breathing exercises with anxiety management, and that is absolutely on point. It follows that anxiety brought by a wave of stress hormone, a.k.a, cortisol will eventually follow through, once deep breathing exercises have been part of your routine.

Moreover, experts have been declaring that breathing exercise can further be taken advantage of in the aspect of anger management. Mindful breathing creates a relax and calm surrounding where an individual can systematically gather thoughts and eventually navigate emotions that go beyond rage and anger.

Of course, like any other recommendations that revolve around health and wellness, nothing comes easy. With this being said, breathing exercises need to be done repeatedly, as part of your daily routine. In this way, you get to train your body and mind how much difference it makes when these techniques are in place.

2. Lung Health

Breathing exercise in itself is already a lung exercise. It develops the lungs’ capacity to breathe healthily by establishing the right interval, pause and duration while doing the right techniques. The combination of these components can do great improvements in your lung’s capacity, overall.

When lung health is tackled, it’s already right there on the table that its aim is to relatively increase oxygen uptake through the body. Why is this so important in this playing field? Well, oxygen, when it’s highly available inside the body, alongside the right execution of breathing exercises, distributes the right amount of oxygen in the brain that promotes balance in stress, mood, and even modulates sleeping patterns.

This aspect is not complicated, it explicitly explains one thing. Breathing exercises promote more capacity for the lungs to do their job, without burning it out. Why do the lungs need to be healthy? Of course, it’s pretty much established that maintaining high-functioning lungs is a vital component of overall health.

Well, this organ is unique because of its character. Think of your lungs like a vacuum. It literally collects a good load of oxygen and allows a smooth passage through the lungs before it gets to be used in the body. Next, it gathers carbon dioxide from within, to be transported out of your system. As overwhelming as it sounds, but that’s the design of the lungs.

This cycle gives more value on how we should maintain and keep the lungs healthy or even as close as high functioning. Breathing exercises does exactly how it’s supposed to be. And it’s to effectively utilise a good amount of oxygen to be used up by the body, with one common goal, which is an improvement of breathing itself, plus its direct effect on overall health.

What is the best breathing exercise?

What is the best breathing exercise?

As the saying goes, there’s no one size fits all. The same thing goes for breathing exercises. There might be a bunch of techniques that are proven to be effective and vital to the goal you are aiming for. In general, these breathing exercises would encourage you to gradually build a healthy habit which is centered in the respiratory system.

Here are some of the most common techniques for breathing exercises you can try:

Before anything else, these techniques can be as dynamic as a person would wish to. Since these approaches are generally aiming for a common goal, which is to identify its distinct benefits!

1. The 4-7-8 technique

This deep breathing exercise is the one most talked about over the past years. For one, it’s easy to sneak in if you have started exploring how breathing exercises fundamentally work.

In a nutshell, this technique focuses on deep breathing in a timely manner for it to be effective in managing anxiety, stress and even be more mindful of your emotions and overall physiological and physical state. More so, it’s known to have a positive outcome as s breathing technique for sleep. The whole concept of 4-7-8 technique is to completely clear out air from the lungs by:

  • Breathing in through the nose for 2 seconds
  • Hold your breath for 3.5 seconds
  • Exhale through the mouth for 4 seconds

After doing this technique 1-2 times a day, chances are, the known benefits would gradually be more and more noticeable. Of course, consistency would always go a long way. Embracing this as part of one’s habit can be of great help in the long run.

There are other breathing techniques you might want to explore. In general, the idea of these techniques brings you to one goal, and this is to mindfully train your body to practice deep breathing and maximise the so-called benefits leading to overall improvement with health.

2. Pursed Lip Breathing Technique

The aim of this technique is simple, to slow down your breathing pace and accustom your lungs with the idea of putting “effort” in each breath.

In doing this technique, it’s important to stay on a very cosy position. While your mouth’s closed, slowly breathe in through your nose. The key in conducting a successful technique as such is the gesture of pursing your lips, it’s as if you are about to whistle, then slowly release the air through your mouth.

This sounds so simple since almost everyone has done this technique, one way or another. But this might be a game-changer in having to see significant relief with breathing and release of stress and anxiety if you do this technique several times daily.

3. Alternate Nostril Breathing Technique

Also known as “Nadi Shodhana”, it’s done while trying to have slow deep breaths by covering one nostril using your thumb. This pattern needs to be done alternately with the other nostril.

Evidently, this breathing exercise technique stimulates normal delivery of oxygen throughout the body. In effect, it can lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Combined with the right posture, and adequate duration of this technique, it can definitely be part of the intervention plan for people with the same condition.

4. Lion’s Breath

Lion’s breath is a breakthrough of what breathing exercise is known to be of help of. With the routine of sticking your tongue out while roaring like a lion, most tutorials would encourage you to spread your fingers as wide as you can, while screaming “HA” with every exhale through the mouth. This technique requires a deliberate change in movement or posture as well.

Interestingly, this technique improves the muscles, particularly the jaw. Hence, it provides comfort for people whose pain area happens in those localized areas of the body. Why is this important? Since the body works cohesively, pain in this area of the body may cause stress hormone or cortisol to jump up as well.

5. Breath Focus Technique

This technique is for people who can closely associate healthy breathing exercise with positive emotions. It uses positive words to enable focus on breathing. Words or phrases that stimulate happiness, stillness, and calmness.

Like some of the breathing techniques, it can be practiced in a lying down or sitting position while mindfully focusing on deep breaths. The idea is to integrate the emotions that the person feels with breathing to eventually perceive its positive effects. The duration may vary, however, 10-20 minutes per day would be ideal at the start. 

6. Equal Breathing

As the word implies, the intention of this technique is to breathe in and breath out, relatively at the same duration. Like any other techniques mentioned, it needs enough space to be mindful of the time with each practice. This technique is pretty flexible as well in terms of which physical activity you would want to combine it with. Though it’s very important to avoid rushing it, to successfully stimulate a positive outcome afterward.

There are countless breathing techniques available. Some may be combined in a more interventional way like yoga, conventional stretching, and even traditional work outs. In general, these techniques are designed to work simultaneously with your desired form of physical activity.

These approaches improve endurance and stamina to sustain any form of physical activity and achieve better health. A handful of techniques may come in very handy and doesn’t require huge movements in terms of execution.

Looking at the bigger picture, choose the techniques that you think will work best for you given the dynamics that you have. Limiting yourself to a couple of techniques for you to try may not be ideal especially when you’re only starting to explore this area of health and wellness.

Also, it pays a lot when you ask health experts, mindful breathing coaches, communities, or groups with the same objective so you can get closer to success!

To add, here are the other breathing techniques:

  • Diaphragmatic breathing
  • Humming bee breath
  • Progressive muscle relaxation

Altogether, these techniques are not caged inside the box where you’re restricted to try only one. Remember that the objective of these practices is to breathe easy and bring out their therapeutic benefits. And with that in mind, you have the luxury to try, feel and further navigate your way through which technique works best for you.

Also, it can be performed freely. Meaning it’s free-flowing in a perspective wherein as long as your intentions are met with a variety of breathing exercises, then safe to say that it is effective!

What else do you need to perform successful breathing techniques?

What else do you need to perform successful breathing techniques?

Nothing can go wrong in knowing the positive effects of breathing exercises. But it gets better when it’s something you can do sustainably, right? Having said that, let’s try to go an extra mile and look at the other side of the coin, what does it take for these techniques to work? What other healthy routines should be attached to your daily life to attain success and further achieve overall health.

Before anything else, avoid making it too complicated on your end. To begin with, breathing alone doesn’t cost you a penny for you to enjoy. So, these additional components need not be glamorous as well.

And here it goes:

1. The Right Space for Breathing Exercises

Creating a conducive environment to help achieve your end goal is an understatement. In doing breathing exercises, it works pretty well if you delegate a corner, space, or even just a spot in your own area where your mind is completely set to stay still, calm and focused.

For most people, the idea of having a mat or a pillow which prompts their subconscious that breathing exercise is about to take place is already therapeutic in itself. It doesn’t require a flashy tabletop or an expensive candle to set the mood. Breathing exercises are far from that, it is a state of mind.

Bear in mind that the way our minds are wired, we happen to be very visual and sensitive. We respond to sudden changes in the environment. A simple or subtle change in lighting, scent, or even colour of space can create a huge difference in how we perceive stress and relaxation. This can be very critical if breathing exercise is something new to your current way of living. It has to be done mindfully and purposefully.

In addition, sound plays a critical role in this area. Since the mind works in a very dynamic way, we normally associate the sound with emotions. Creating a vibe where it is completely silent, or playing music where a positive outlook will be stimulated might do the trick as well, especially to people with limited spaces!

2. Timing of Breathing Exercises

Undeniably, we are all creatures of habit. And for us to embrace a habit that’s fairly new, it needs to be done repeatedly, in a systematic manner. For a starter, breathing exercises may be done at a single time, every day. This creates a headspace where you intentionally delegate a time of the day to practice mindful breathing.

It may be for a number of reasons like relaxation, sleep management, the release of anger and frustration, even improving lung capacity. In short, the reasons may be endless. But the idea of you having to allot a sacred time of your day where you would do breathing exercises with the intention of making it a habit, would be very helpful over time.

For some people, the time of the day plays a huge role in when breathing exercise has to take place. For one, since these techniques are crucial in navigating stress and mood, it has to be part of a person’s morning routine. This allows a more positive rhythm throughout the day, making it more bearable when these feelings are sorted out early on. Meanwhile, there are people who keep their breathing exercises at the end of the day, relatively around the time their about to rest and relax, to cap off their day and stimulate deep sleep. In this approach, it happens to roll over the next day, since mood and energy are both at the right place as well.

Whatever time of the day you wish to incorporate these techniques, what’s important is that it brings an upward trend with how your quality of life is going to be.  

3. Eat Right

Nutrition is never a bad thing in any area of health and wellness. What good does it do in breathing exercises to begin with?

Well for one, it fuels your body to actually get up and literally do the act. Having to throw in unhealthy stuff inside your body like refined sugar, highly processed food, and the likes will most likely make you feel sloppy and sluggish at the same time. To add to this fact, chronic consumption of these food items builds up a pretty bad snowball effect in terms of how a person can focus on a task. This alone can be magnified as a sole reason to start quitting on these foods.

Moreover, you’re doing yourself a favour by putting in whole, nutritionally dense meals. Why? It’s because doing otherwise will most likely make you throw mood swings, unsettled sleeping patterns and even difficulty in breathing once your weight starts to go out of your control.

Remember, synergy is everything in the aspect of health. Everything that you do to your body and how approach it is intertwined or inter-connected, one way or the other. So, it makes a lot of sense if you stick to healthy and sensible meals, and of course, stick into them for a long period of time.

4. Quit Smoking

This is a total deal-breaker when we speak of the effectiveness of breathing exercises. By now, almost every individual knows how smoking is deemed to be harmful for health. To further extend its bad effect, it dramatically damages your lungs and its capacity to function by scarring the airway where the flow of air and oxygen pass through the body for it to pass in and out of the body.

More so, cigarette smoking hampers the absorption of important micronutrients, that collapse overall health. It blocks the body’s capacity to utilise the vitamins and minerals that as we know, are very important in the body’s optimal function on a daily basis. It is also common knowledge that smoking is habit-forming. In that aspect, people struggling in this area would more likely need more time to detach and eventually achieve complete healing.

By completely freeing yourself from cigarette smoking, you allow an increase of lung capacity to maintain respiratory health. In addition to that, the long-term effect of having to do successful breathing exercises can come a long way, not only physiological but also psychological.

5. Support System

If you think about it, breathing techniques are almost a no-brainer since it’s basically a simple enhancement of what we normally do, which is breathe. This is absolutely correct. However, the other habits attached to conducting these techniques would be more encouraging to do if you have the right people to help you power through.

On the other hand, forming a habit is never linear when we speak of progress. You might see the possibility of success more than failure when you have key individuals that are very accessible as your accountability partners, so success is within reach.

In the era we now live in, it’s not impossible to look for a community with like-minded goals, one of which is living with the habit of healthy breathing exercises or techniques. Before you know it, these same sets of individuals will fasten your progress in such a way that your healthy disposition is already achieved!

Conclusion

As natural as it sounds, there’s really more to know about the most basic skill we all grew to live which is the basic act of breathing. There are loads of studies, evidence and whatnot that are worth unpacking since it has been taken for granted for as long as we all know. To your surprise, it can be of great help what breathing exercise can do to your overall mental and physical health.

To further establish its importance, it might be crucial to consider that this basic skill may be enhanced at an early stage of a person’s life. Breathing techniques may be part of either therapy, treatment plan or even other forms of intervention to actually heal and repair the body and mind at a reasonable possible time.

On the other hand, if breathing exercise is something you would want to consciously carry as a form of habit, time is of essence. With whatever goal you have put in place, it’s important to set a realistic timeframe where you expect to see relevant improvements, not only outside, but also the improvements from within.

Lastly, the knowledge of how breathing exercise can impact health is made to develop consistency and patience in its process. Significant results will only be noticeable if these principles and approaches are done repeatedly with the right focus, right time and space. For some, this alone requires a paradigm shift. Of course, because of obvious reasons that the pace of our living conditions, in general, are really demanding and moves very fast, then consistency and discipline are both integral components attached to breathing exercises.

With all these new perspectives that breathing has imparted, it’s never too late to start injecting these techniques. May it be yoga, meditation, even as a starter for light to moderate physical activity, it will precisely bring significant results long term.

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Ghamdan, Wellness Coach
Ghamdan, Wellness Coach

I am on a mission to transform lives through personalised wellness coaching and support. I help people discover wellness and the power of possibility to live a better life and achieve a healthy lifestyle by supporting them in reaching their wellness goals and making sustainable lifestyle changes.

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