The Power of Breathwork

The ideal breath should be Rhythmic,  Diaphragmatic (or belly focussed), through the nose, slower and deeper than you are used to, and mindful. Lets go through all 6 of these steps: 

1. Rhythmic – this is probably the most important step in setting up an ideal breath. The cadence or rhythm of the breath should be fairly regular between breaths, for example, if you are choosing to do an equal inhale and exhale, you could start with 5sec inhale and 5sec exhale. But you can also choose to make your exhales longer – for e.g. 4sec inhale and 6sec exhale. Whatever you choose, be sure to be able to  maintain this breathing rhythm consistently for the duration of your practice – say for 5-10 minutes twice a day. A second component of the rhythmic breath is to make the rate of flow of air through the breathing cycle the same at the beginning of the inhale and and of inhale (or exhale). This means that the rate of flow of air coming through your nostrils or lungs should be the same during the 1st second, 3rd second, or 5th second of the breath. The consistency of practice is more important that the specific timing of breathing in and out. In time, you will be able to prolong both the inhale and exhale (but ensure you are breathing with similar rate of air flow throughout the cycle).

2. Diaphgramatic or belly breathing. To understand this more clearly, stand sideways facing a mirror and place a hand on your belly and another hand on your chest. When you take a breath in, you should notice your belly expand outwards, and when you exhale, you should see your belly button moving towards your spine. The chest may make minimal movements during a true belly breath, or perhaps only move at the extremes of your breath (deepest inspiration for example). Warning ! You may not be able to do this easily if you have been “stuck” in a paradoxical breath pattern for a long time. Don’t worry, continue to practice daily and be mindful – and you will be able to train your diaphragm to start working well again.

3. Nasal breathing: This means taking the in-breath through the nose. This slows the airflow, and may increase nitric oxide production, a compound that helps dilated blood vessels, and improve oxygen delivery to the tissues. Breathing out can be either through the nose or mouth.

4.Slower breathing: Mindfully attempt to slow the breath down. Some tips here are to listen to a music track and count bars, to match your in and out breaths. Alternatively, count in your mind to start off with, or listen to a mindful breathing podcast to get into the flow of breathing more slowly. 

5. Deeper breathing: Mindfully attempt to deepen the breath. This may well come naturally when you are able to slow the breath down. 

6. Mindful breathing: Try your best to observe thoughts and chatter in the mind without judgement. Let these thoughts pass. As a bonus, once you have been able to “still” the mind, try to bring in a positive emotion to anchor down the breathwork practice with a positive emotion such as gratitude, compassion or love, and this combination of breathing and generating a positive emotion will shift your autonomic nervous state to a more vagally shifted state (i.e shifting away from sympathetic or fight or flight dominance)