You do it up to 22,000 times a day. But as it happens, most of us spend our entire lives breathing the wrong way, which can have some surprising negative effects on our health. Now that science has finally caught up to what yogis have been preaching for years, we know that proper breathing can help ease an overstressed mind, as well as play a big role in averting or alleviating heart disease, allergies, and weight-gain.Breathing is so simple - and free! People can’t believe it works as a healing and preventative tool. Here are some breathing techniques that might work for you…
Anxiety
“When you’re anxious, you limit your breaths,” says James S. Gordon, M.D., founder and director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington. “When you confine your breaths to your chest instead of using your diaphragm, you increase the anxiety.” The key to chilling out lies in calming your sympathetic nervous system (your body’s fight-or-flight engine, which releases adrenaline and stress hormones) and triggering your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls your rest and digest functions and helps your muscles (and your mind) unwind.
Try This: The Soft-Belly Technique
Most people take about 15 breaths per minute, but when you’re fretting, you should aim for six or seven slow, deep ones. Gordon suggests a technique that involves inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, while keeping your stomach relaxed. To help yourself focus, slowly say the word soft in your head while inhaling, and speak the word belly as you breathe out. This technique can stimulate your vagus nerve, a central part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which runs through your abdomen and chest, and back to your brain stem.
Heart Disease
We’re bombarded with sights, sounds, and emotions that put our nervous systems into overdrive. The result? Long periods of heightened blood pressure, adrenaline production, and heart rate, all of which are linked to heart disease. Breathing better can squash high blood pressure and elevated heart rate by activating that same relaxation response via your parasympathetic nervous system.
Try This: Alternate Nostril Breathing
This technique lowers your pulse rate and diastolic blood pressure, according to a study at Nepal Medical College. (The higher a young woman’s diastolic blood pressure, the greater her risk for heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure.) David Magone, founder of the breath-oriented PranaVayu yoga practice, explains how to do it: Sit cross-legged and close your eyes. Use the thumb of your right hand to block your right nostril, and inhale deeply through the left for about six seconds. Now, cover your left nostril with the fourth finger of your right hand, release your right nostril, and exhale slowly for six seconds. With your left nostril blocked, breathe in through your right side for six seconds; then cover your right nostril again, release your left, and exhale for six seconds. Repeat the entire sequence for at least two minutes.
Weight gain
If you’ve put on a few pounds, it might have as much to do with what’s in your head as what’s on your plate. “Emotional stress can cause weight gain,” says Dean Ornish, M.D., president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California. “It speeds the conversion of calories to fat because you’re more likely to overeat or make unhealthy choices when stressed.” Manage the stress, and you’ll manage the weight. A great way to do that: Focus on slowing down your breathing, which will help reduce stress hormones.
Try This: The Pursed-Lip Breath
Slow, practiced breathing makes you more aware of your actions, so you’re better able to lower your stress level and get a handle on overeating, McGonigal says. She suggests a four-second nasal inhale followed by an eight-second exhale through puckered lips (as if exhaling through a straw). Another option: the Hindu breathing method called Ujjayi. Inhale through your nose for six seconds, then exhale through your mouth for six seconds as if you’re trying to fog up a mirror, making a “hahhhh” sound while pulling in your abdomen. On your next breath, try making the same noise with your mouth closed. It should sound like a seashell against your ear, McGonigal notes. If you sound more like Darth Vader, you’re probably doing it too forcefully ;- )
