The Power of Breath: Three Quick Techniques to Help Calm the Mind and Body
Like most of us living in today’s fast-paced society, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, and a constant sense of urgency. Whether it's due to work pressures, social expectations, or personal responsibilities, the intense pace of our lives can take a toll on our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. In each day adults take some 22,000 breaths, and most times we do it without even noticing it.
Our breath is what physically, mentally, and emotionally powers us each day, yet we often do not harness the power of our breath for our benefit. The benefits of practicing breath work have been well established in our society, and many of these techniques can help bring about a relaxation response, which may help you feel less stressed, anxious, and urgent in a moment. Numerous studies have demonstrated that diaphragmatic breathing had a positive effect on lowering physiological and psychological stress
However, a challenge for some people is that often, just breathing alone is not as effective or difficult to bring awareness and attention to. One positive method to help use breath to improve your relaxation response is to pair breath with a physical movement or sensation, like the benefits of doing Yoga sequence. Yoga means ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’. As per Yogic scriptures the practice it is references a perfect harmony between the mind and body.
By cultivating the connection between our breath and our body movement, it helps one to bring more awareness to the physical sensations in our body and how our breath can benefit us. If you are someone who struggles to use breath as relaxation, do not have the time to attend a yoga class every day, or just want a few more coping strategies for times of stress and anxiety, below are three breathing techniques that incorporate movement to help you harness the power of breath. And the best part is, all of these can be done seated and in three minutes or less!
1. Seated Cat Cow
Come to a seated position either in a chair or on the floor. Your legs can be bent or cross legged if seated on the floor.
Place the palms of your hands on the tops of your knees.
As you inhale and arch the back starting at the base of your spine working towards the top, opening the chest, and lifting the chin slightly.
Draw forward using the tops of your knees as resistance.
As you exhale, starting at the base of your spine round the back, drawing the chin toward the chest.
Push away with the palms of your hands on the tops of your knees.
Repeat slowly.
2. Stretching of your Intercostal Muscles
Come to a standing or seated position. As you inhale, stretch both of your arms over the head take hold of your right wrist in your left hand.
On your the exhale, stretch your arms to the left side, pulling your right wrist over towards the left side with your left arm.
Take a deep inhale in this position and imagine you are filling the space of your rib cage.
Exhale here.
Take another inhale in this position and imagine you are filling the space of your rib cage.
As you exhale return yourself back to upright position
Repeat on the other side switching your hand grip.
3. Skull Shining Breathing Technique
Come to a seated position either in a chair or on the floor. Your legs can be bent or cross legged if seated on the floor.
Place the palms of your hands on the tops of your knees.
Take three regular breaths, focus on relaxing the muscles of the face, drawing the shoulders away from the ears, and sitting up right.
Take a large inhalation through your nostrils.
Begin continuous quick exhalations through the nostrils with force (1 second), creating the sound with every exhalation (the sound should sound like a “huff”).
With every exhale you should feel your abdomen contract and relax as you go through this.
After a few rounds, staying seated, take a deep inhale and exhale through the mouth.
Notice the relaxation of the body as you let go.
Canadian Lung Association (2024) Breathing, Breathing | Canadian Lung Association. Available at: https://www.lung.ca/lung-health/lung-info/breathing (Accessed: 13 May 2024).
Hopper, S. I., Murray, S. L., Ferrara, L. R., & Singleton, J. K. (2018). Effectiveness of diaphragmatic breathing on physiological and psychological stress in adults: a quantitative systematic review protocol. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 16(6), 1367-1372.