Starting mornings right is crucial to maintaining energy and brainpower through the rest of the day’s activities. It’s a well-known fact, and it’s worth it constantly tweak your daily routine to make sure you maximize your energy returns from a well-earned rest.
One element of a healthier and happier morning comes from how you use breathing to capitalize on your improved health. Taking the time to learn the best breathing exercises goes a long way to improve your heart and brain, as larger quantities of oxygen are allowed to fill your bloodstream and reduce blood pressure for the heart while also enhancing the amount of oxygen is going to the brain.
In today’s blog, we’ll be going through some of the best techniques that you can use today to ensure you have a brilliant start to your mornings and have greater energy and improved heart and brain health throughout the day.
Read on!
Starting the New Day
This exercise is perfect for getting the most out of your mornings and reducing the severity of morning grogginess. It relaxes your muscles while also clearing your respiratory tract simultaneously and can be practiced anywhere, making it perfect for an empowering daily routine.
The exercise goes as such:
- Stand up get comfortable in your stance while bending forward from the waist. Keep the knees slightly bent and let your arms hang naturally and loosely.
- Inhale slowly and deeply.
- As you inhale, lift your upper body slowly, lifting your abdomen, chest, and shoulders before your head. Take care not to stand up quickly or with your head first.
- Continue inhaling as you stand completely upright before holding your breath.
- Now begin to bend forward again while exhaling slowly.
- Repeat this exercise several times until you feel sufficiently loose and less stiff.
This technique utilizes deep breathing as a motion tool for the rest of the body and employs a very light workload that encourages the body to shake away the cobwebs from a night of sleep and get to work more efficiently.
Midday Energy Renewals
Originating from yoga practices, this exercise is perfect for stimulating the body and giving your brain an added oxygen boost to help you through the midday grind.
- Sit down comfortably in a chair.
- Keep your mouth closed before inhaling and exhaling rapidly through your nose. Keep your breaths as short as possible. Don’t worry if you make a lot of noise.
- Try to breathe in and out in rapid succession three times in one second. This forces the diaphragm to work harder. After each set of three, breathe normally for a few seconds before trying again.
- Be careful only to complete this exercise for only 15 seconds when you first begin.
This exercise is all about forcing your body to react quickly, engaging the flight or fight response more effectively, and making you more active as a result. Though this is arguably the opposite of deep breathing, learning to control your breathing in all aspects is beneficial and will allow more granular control of your body as well.
The Four-Seven-Eight
We’ve spoken about the benefits of the 478 technique before, so we’ll keep this one brief if you haven’t heard of it before.
- Breathe through your nose while counting to four, making sure to keep your tongue at the top of your mouth.
- Hold that breathe for seven seconds.
- Exhale through your mouth for a count of eight seconds.
This technique is commonly taught in yoga and is incredibly useful at helping your body relax while improving your overall effective sleep patterns, leading to a more restful sleep in the process.
For more information regarding how to manage your breathing for a more effective lifestyle, visit our other blogs here at The Exhale to get the latest tips and tricks. For free guided breathing exercises that you can take anywhere, try out the Breathwrk app here.
And remember: Breathe Better, Live Better.
Ciao!
