O ur instructor repeated her mantra again, walking among us as we attempted the bow pose: “If you’re not breathing, you’re not doing yoga!” Breathing is something we all do without thinking, so it’s easy to take it for granted. But it can make a huge difference in your life, even when you're not doing yoga. We’ve learned some simple breathing techniques that can calm you down, wake you up, and help you manage pain.
Calm yourself down
We’ve got personal problems. We’ve got global problems. And we’ve got everything in between. Life is always offering us lots of opportunities to lose our cool. Smartphones give us 24/7 access to overstimulation. What we need is a sure-fire way to calm the heck down. A portable tool that’s also free. Something we can take with us anywhere, and use anytime.
Calming breath techniques to the rescue. These two are super easy to learn:
#1. Exhale a little longer than you inhale
Nothing simpler. To relax your body and mind, just count while you inhale, and make sure your exhalation is a little longer. You could breathe in for four counts, and breathe out for six. The varied breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system. As we discussed last month, getting out of fight-or-flight mode, and into the parasympathetic rest-and-digest mode, is a key part of the healing process.
#2. Four-seven-eight breathing
This one can calm you down fast:
Exhale through your mouth completely, making a whoosh sound.
Inhale quietly through your nose, count to four.
Hold your breath, count to seven.
Exhale through your mouth completely, making a whoosh sound, count to eight.
Inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times.
Wake yourself up
Is it a food coma, the 21st century blues, or just a random case of the Mondays? When you’ve forgotten how to get out of bed, or whenever you need a pick-me-up, skip the coffee and reach for the breath of fire. Have fun with this one:
Manage your pain
Breathing exercises are a well-known, proven way to help women manage pain while delivering their babies. And since stress is often a major part of how people experience pain, you can use slow, deep breathing to activate the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, which eases stress and promotes healing. Here’s a quick how-to:
Lastly, awareness of your breathing is a common part of mindfulness training, which has been shown to help with pain. You can just breathe naturally and enjoy a few moments of peace and quiet.
“These benefits don’t end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and may help you manage symptoms of certain medical conditions.”
Pain is complicated by mood, anxiety, expectations, the patient’s attitude, and more. In some studies they’ve found a brief mindfulness training effectively reduced participants pain ratings and anxiety scores. Another study’s participants reported that their pain was just as intense when practicing mindfulness, but that the experience of the pain was less unpleasant. Give breath meditation a try and see how it works for you.
Took us a while, but we found a mindful breathing instructor with a great accent:
Come visit us at Parkside
These breathing techniques can be an effective addition to your chiropractic and massage sessions. Come see our expert team at Parkside Clinic where we tailor our care to your specific condition and tap into your body’s natural healing ability. Make an appointment, or if you have any questions, contact us.