Your breath is the fastest, cheapest way to change your state. Wrong ways to breathe, right ways to breathe, and three structured practices to try.
Hello friends,
Sometimes it's not the other people's fault. One of the reasons you might be stressed can be the quality of your breath, not the annoying person in the supermarket. On a more serious note, there are a lot of real reasons to hold our breath right now. Most of the people I work with tell me how overwhelmed they feel, and how anxious they are before even opening their news app.
We don't live to constantly be afraid. We live to enjoy life and be present. Today I want to share a way to find relief: changing your breath.
Your breath is actually the best mirror of your mental state. Think back to the last time you felt anxious, reading the news or presenting in front of people. Your breath was probably shallow. Now compare that to a relaxed Saturday afternoon on the couch, napping away. Deep and slow.
Take a moment right now to check in with yourself. Notice how you're breathing as you read this. Are your belly and chest moving up and down, one after the other? Or do you mostly breathe into just your chest, or just your belly? That second pattern is called paradoxical breathing, and from a medical perspective it's the wrong way round: not enough oxygen reaches your brain. From a performance or health point of view, that kind of breathing fuels the stress response and keeps your body in fight-or-flight, independent of what's actually happening around you.
Wrong ways to breathe
- shallow breathing
- mouth breathing
- imbalanced breath: only into the belly, or only into the chest
The breath influences our mental and emotional state, and the reverse is also true: change the breath, and the state changes with it. It might be the cheapest, most accessible, quickest, and most natural anti-stress tool there is. Correct breathing uses the full capacity of your lungs, distributes oxygen through your cells, and relaxes your nervous system into rest-and-digest mode. Breathwork can help you perform better, or complement treatment for anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress. That means calm is available to you independent of your circumstances, just by calming your breath.
Right ways to breathe
- long, deep breaths
- nose breathing
- balanced breath: inhaling stomach then chest, exhaling stomach then chest (or the other way, as long as both areas fill with air one after the other)
Breathwork is, as the name says, work. To most of us it doesn't come naturally, it takes practice. I remember one of my first yoga classes, where the teacher told me to focus on my breath and breathe "properly." I walked out thinking that was complete nonsense. After a while I started noticing the actual effects of the breath on my state, first during classes, and later during the rest of my day too, as I got more conscious about using it deliberately.
Three structured practices to try
Box breathing. Inhale for 5 counts, hold for 5, exhale for 5, hold for 5. Refocuses and calms the mind.
Alternate-nostril breathing. Inhale through the left nostril, exhale through the right. Inhale right, exhale left. Close the other nostril gently with your thumb and ring finger as you go. Calms the nervous system and helps with sleep.
Breath of fire. 20 to 50 forced exhales while pumping the stomach, letting the inhale happen reflexively. Activating, a bit like natural coffee.
Many of these techniques come from the thousands-year-old tradition of yoga, where they're called pranayama, but there's really nothing mystical about any of it. For many people, breathwork is a good alternative to meditation. It gives the mind something concrete to do, with a direct effect on how you feel. No matter whether you need more relaxation, focus, or energy right now, I'd genuinely encourage you to try it.
Have a lovely day,
P.S. Breathwork as a regulation tool is one of the practical pieces of Module 6 in our 8-week Emotional Intelligence in Action programme. Discovery Call is at cal.com/sophie-bachmann/discovery-call when you're ready.