A beginner's Guide to breathwork

by Leslie Zanoff

There’s no denying that breath is our lifeforce. We all come into this world with an inhale and we will leave with an exhale. In the wellness world we talk a lot about our brain and heart health, but we may be overlooking the importance of our lungs.

“We take an average of 7.5 million breaths a year and some 600 million in our lifetime, and what goes on in our body each time oxygen is taken in and carbon dioxide expelled is nothing short of miraculous,” writes Dr. Michael J. Stephen, a pulmonologist and author of Breath Taking: The Power, Fragility, and Future of Our Extraordinary Lungs. “Our lungs are the lynchpin between our bodies and the outside world.”

While there are countless wellness techniques out there, sometimes the simplest thing like breathwork, can get overlooked.

So, what is breathwork anyway?

We already know how to breathe; our beautiful bodies do this automatically. It’s involuntary. However, a true breathwork practice is about intentionally manipulating our breath. There aremany studies on the mental health benefits of breathwork from alleviating stress to improving depression and reducing anxiety.

Breathwork can help calm an anxious mind and move your body out of fight-or-flight mode. Even when there is no perceived physical threat, financial stress, the never-ending negative news cycle or family arguments and work deadlines can trigger our nervous systems into feeling like we’re in true danger. When we feel this way, our breathing can become shallow and fast, which actually creates more anxiety in our bodies.

Breathwork can us de-stress and begin to re-align with more positive feelings. There are a lot of different breathwork techniques and each one may have a different effect on the body – relaxation, added energy or simply alleviating anxiety.

Here are three beginner practices to try:

Box Breathing.

How to do it: Picture a box, which has four side. You can mentally follow along, outlining or drawing the box in your mind. Inhale four seconds, hold four seconds, exhale four seconds, hold four seconds. Repeat this cycle for up to five minutes. Traditional Box Breathing inhales through the nose and exhales out of nose too, but if exhaling through the mouth feels better to you, then do that.

Reported effects: Calms the mind and brings you into the present moment.

4-7-8 breathing was made popular by integrative medicine specialist Dr. Andrew Weil.

How to do it: Sit up with your back straight, while lying down. Breathe in through your nose (inhale) for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, and then exhale out your mouth for eight seconds. Repeat at least four times.

Reported effects: Decreased heart rate, which puts may put you in the right state for sleep.

Alternate-Nostril breathing

How to do it: Begin by sitting. Rest your left hand in your lap. Using your right hand, place the tip of your index finger and middle finger on your forehead, between your eyebrows. Your ring finger and pinky finger will close the left nostril, and your thumb will close your right nostril. With your index finger and middle finger resting lightly between your eyebrows, take a deep breath in As you exhale, close the right nostril with your thumb and breathe out through your left nostril Next, inhale slowly through the left nostril, then close the left nostril with your ring and

pinky fingers Breathe in again through the right nostril and then close it with your thumb, breathing out through the left nostril

Repeat this Alternate-Nostril breathing anywhere from five to nine times.

You will gently inhale through the same nostril you just exhaled through. Keep your breathing slow and even. You will breathe out, breathe in, switch sides and repeat.

Reported effects: Brings feeling of relaxation to the body. When you’re new to focused breathing, you may feel a little shortness of breath, but this is

because so few of us aren’t used to focusing on our breathing.

Being able to take a deep, relaxing breath can help us unwind from a stressful situation, or entire day. Anyone who is a runner, yogi, or exercises in general, knows the importance being able to breathe properly. Overall, paying attention to your breathing patterns is beneficial. It can help slow down a racing heart or mind. Breathwork is a good thing to have in your wellness toolbox and there are several

apps and YouTube videos to help guide you if you want to learn more.

Three resources you may want to check out are the book listed above by Dr. Michael J. Stephen or breathing expert and psychologist Dr. Belisa Vranich’s Breathe and Patrick McKeown’s Oxygen Advantage.