Breathing exercises

We breathe in and out roughly 25,000 a day, but most of us breathe too rapidly and too shallowly. Experts say that doing a better job of breathing can improve your health and well-being. Specifically, it can help reduce blood pressure, regulate your heart, and lift your mood. You can even reduce chronic pain, stress, depression, and bolster fitness and energy levels. One study found that breath work helped recovering Covid-19 patients return to healthy respiratory rates. Another found that breathing exercises were as effective as drugs to treat anxiety disorders.

At rest, your breathing should be slow and steady—between 12 and 20 breaths per minute. Slowing it to between five and seven breaths per minute at rest provides the benefits listed above. By slowing your breathing down, the parasympathetic system—the ‘rest and digest system—takes over and helps calm you down.

Here are three recommended exercises:

4-4-8 breathing (good for when you’re anxious or scared): Take a breath in for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, then exhale for eight counts. Repeat. The long exhale quickly slows your heart rate and brings your blood pressure down. (Apparently, extending the exhale is something your body naturally does every five minutes or so as a way to reset the breathing rhythm and calm down.)

Alternate nostril breathing (helps improve focus): Close your right nostril and breathe in through your left nostril for a count of four; then close your left nostril and breathe out from your right nostril for a count of four. Apparently the right nostril is connected to the sympathetic system (fight or flight), while the left nostril is connected to the calmer parasympathetic system.

Box breathing (enhances cognitive focus): Breathe in for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of four, exhale for a count of four and hold your breath again for a count of four. This method forces your breathing into a steady rhythm, keeping you alert and energized. The U.S. Navy Seals use this technique before combat.

I’m a believer in this breathing stuff and use the 4-4-8 method when the situation calls for it. For more on why deep breathing calms us, click this link.

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