Breathing mindfully is paying attention to your breath, usually automatic and forgotten about. It has many benefits for the body like an improved emotional response and decreasing inflammation.
Breathing Mindfully
Breathing mindfully is being fully aware of the fact that you inhale and exhale. It’s paying attention to the path that the air is taking inside your body.
It’s easy to forget that we’re breathing because our body does it naturally, without us thinking about it. Like our heart that beats and we’re not even asking it to do the job.
By breathing you are bringing oxygen to your body and restricting that intake of oxygen can be detrimental.
In recent years, the breath has been a hot topic but it’s not new. It has its foundations in yoga practice and has always been used to release stress and toxins. If you aren’t doing breathing exercises yet, I can only encourage you to start now.
There are many techniques and I won’t go into detail for all of them but I will list some of the most common benefits, and give you my two favourite breathing techniques.
Benefits of Breathing Mindfully
Please know that this is not the full list as we are still finding so much information about the impact of mindful breathing on the body and the mind. But hopefully these will leak to you and boost you to give it a try.
- Manage stress and anxiety: when you’re stressed your breathing becomes shallow. Focusing on breathing deeply will regulate your oxygen intake and bring more calm. Also, when you’re in a state of relaxation, you can’t be stressed at the same time so you’re counter-acting your fight-or-flight response;
- Better immune system, thanks to a better response from the inflammation receptors;
- Balanced blood pressure;
- Better sleep due to more relaxation and less stress during the day;
- Better mental focus;
- Less addictive behaviours.
There are so many reasons why breathing mindfully is good for you, so let’s see how to practice it.
My 2 Favourite Breathing Techniques
4-7-8
I learnt this technique from Andrew Weil, and it seemed like it was his – but don’t quote me on that. The principle is as follows:
Sit up straight, with crossed legs on the floor or your feet anchored in the ground if you’re sat on a chair.
Breathe in for 4 counts (or seconds), hold for 7, and exhale for 8.
Repeat this 4 times, not more.
When I learnt that technique from Andrew Weil, he was specific not to do it more than 4 times, twice a day – one in the morning and one in the evening for example.
Alternate nostrils
This is another technique and is supposed to bring you balance. As you breathe in and out through different nostrils, you rebalance your feminine and masculine sides, your right and left brains, your yin and your yang.
Sit up straight, with crossed legs on the floor or your feet anchored in the ground if you’re sat on a chair.
Take your left hand, put your left thumb on your left nostril, and make sure your left fourth finger (or ring finger) can reach your right nostril.
Block your left nostril with your left thumb, and inhale slowly through your right nostril. Block your right nostril with your left ring finger, and release your left nostril, so you can exhale deeply out of it.
Keeping your fingers where they are, inhale through your left nostril, then block your left nostril with your left thumb, and release your right nostril to exhale through it.
Repeat a few times.
Make sure to have blown your nose before to ensure that you don’t get stuck or out of breath as you practice this breathing technique.
Start Now
All you need now is 3 minutes of your time, a peaceful space, maybe some relaxing music. Sit down and start practising. You can never regret practicing mindful breathing, I promise.
Let me know which one you prefer in the comments and happy breathing !
For more tips on mindful living, read these:
What Does Listening to Your Body Mean?
Digital Wellbeing, or How to Use Technology Mindfully
Why a Self-care Day is Never Selfish
