While it’s easy to extol the benefits of breathwork in the home and office, it’s another thing entirely to know what you’re aiming for and what constitutes a successful session.
Breathwork can be easy to try out but is as challenging as any other daily habit to form. If it’s not clear why you may do the things you do in an exercise, it becomes that much harder to feel motivated to continue and form a habit.
In today's blog, we’ll look at the critical components of Breathwork techniques and how each session element can be worked on to maximize its effectiveness. This blog entry could be vital if you're running a breathwork group in the office or doing a session yourself during your work break.
Read on!
Know Yourself & Your Breath
Understanding the individual components of breathing and how they work together can be a crucial way to better focus on the desired outcomes of any session. Breathing practice is arguably the most effective when we take action to control our breathing deliberately; this is most commonly done by regulating one or more of the following parts:
- Exhalation
- Suspension of Breath
- Inhalation
- Retention of Breath
When practicing your breathing, take note of how your technique is requiring you to focus on each of these elements.
Improve Posture
One of the more visible components of breathing practice is how we inform our posture as we breathe. When looking at how your breathwork can be improved, always consider how your posture is enhanced or maintained both during and after a session.
Breathing With Your Nose
While some techniques will call for alternating breath between the nose and mouth, an excellent way to measure the success of a breathing technique is how it improves your nostril breathing. Breathing through your nose is ideal for breathing practice, as the nose can filter out allergens and boost your oxygen intake at the same time.
Inhale & Exhale
The relationship between how we inhale and exhale is a critical part of our fundamental breathing rhythm. We learn to observe this relationship more closely when we engage in breathwork practice. Lengthening the time between inhale and exhale can be helpful in techniques designed to calm the body.
Lengthen Your Breathing
As you continue to practice, consider extending your breathing process as you improve. Much like any muscle group we exercise, our bodies become better at breathing as we practice. Lengthening your breath by stretching your inhale and exhale can be a key way to improve your conscious breathing and get greater returns for your investment.
Strategize Your Practice
As many breathing exercises focus on the relationship between mindful breathing and our sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system, experimenting with the inhale/retention/exhale process can be crucial. Find the right practice for you and decipher at what stage the method is most effective in helping you reach a calm state of mind.
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 enjoy a FREE 7-day trial with access to everything we have to offer!
And remember: Breathe Better, Live Better.
Ciao!
