8 Exercises To Practice Mindful Breathing

The breathing is an automatic process that began with the birth and is not interrupted until the last breath of life. It nourishes the cells of the body with oxygen, but if we do it in the right way, the body is “recharged” at all levels.

Unlike the heartbeat, we can “play” with the breath (holding it, lengthening it …) and these games become a powerful tool available to everyone to achieve well-being and awareness.

“Being aware of the act of breathing is of great physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefit,” explains Michael Sky, author of Breathing. Expand your power and your energy (Ed. Edaf).

We breathe 23,000 times a day, let’s take advantage of it by making our breathing more conscious!

The conscious breathing is not just a fad that runs yoga rooms. Some specialists like Belisa Vranich, clinical psychologist and author of Breathe (Ed. Hay House UK), teach breathing techniques to firefighters and people in risk professions so that they can manage stress.

Wim Hof ​​has patented a method in which breathing (along with cold showers) helps resist infection and fight inflammation. Researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands) have confirmed this .

Conscious breathing is used to relieve pain, insomnia, digestive problems, high blood pressure, and most of all, low energy. Also to improve concentration, creativity and cognitive performance.

You can check its power by just practicing with these 8 mindful breathing exercises:

1. Breathing to center your mind and eliminate tensions

This exercise proposed by Michael Sky is perfect to start a set of breaths : it makes the attention focus only on the breath.

• Breathe as gently as possible, calmly.
• Take long, shallow breaths through your nose in and out while imagining that your lungs just below are a tray full of ash. You can only breathe carefully and gently so as not to raise the slightest draft of air or produce the slightest sound vibration that could scatter the ashes.
• Let the body relax : imagine that the slightest tension could disperse the ashes.
• Allow the mind to settle and the thoughts to quiet : imagine that the slightest mental agitation could scatter the ashes.
• Continue taking long, slow breaths that do not produce agitation, that generate peace, while your eyes close gently.

2. Breathing to stimulate memory

Use this exercise when you have forgotten something (a name, an information …). It will come to your mind as if by magic!

• Fill yourself with air and hold it.
• Let your belly relax and inflate.
• The shoulders lose tension and loosen.
• Hold the air for as long as you can.
• Then slowly release it and repeat three times.
• If at any point you find it distressing, let go of it and start over.

3. Breathing to fully relax

• Breathe in through your nose and expel the air through your mouth.
• At the end of the exhale, pause and wait patiently for the body to initiate the next inhalation.
• Each breath through the nose is slow and calm.
• When you reach the maximum point of inhalation, slowly release the air through your open mouth.
• Then, without closing your mouth and with your jaw relaxed, pause and consciously wait until your body needs to breathe again.
• After two or three breaths, allow the time between one breath and the other to be a moment of total relaxation for your body.
• Then breathe for a specific area of ​​your body that especially needs to relax.
• Breathe in this rhythm several times.

The key to pausing between two breaths is to stay aware and focused, because if the mind is distracted it easily reverts to its contracted pattern.

4. Breathing to control stress and sleep well

Dr. Andrew Weil advises repeating this exercise twice a day.

• Place the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth, behind the upper incisor teeth.
• Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds.
• Exhale through your mouth, pursing your lips and making a noise (as if you were blowing) for 8 seconds.
• Take four breaths.

5. Exercise to oxygenate each cell

This exercise is a proposal by Wim Hof to cleanse the body of accumulated carbon dioxide and oxygenate, above all, the nervous system. The only drawback when the body is not used to so much oxygen is possible hyperventilation. If this happens, just go back to breathing at a normal rate.

Do this exercise when you wake up or on an empty stomach.

• Sit comfortably with a straight back.
• Inhale through your nose and out through your mouth in short, but powerful bursts, as if you were blowing up a balloon.
• Repeat 30 times with your eyes closed. Be cautious because you may feel slightly dizzy.
• Then inhale and fill your lungs without forcing.
• Let the air out and hold on for as long as you can without feeling uncomfortable.
• Then, take in as much air as possible again and, feeling the expansion of your chest, hold your breath for about 10 seconds.
• With this you have completed a whole cycle. You can repeat the entire cycle three times, starting with the batch of 30 in which you inflate the balloon and ending with inspiration with a 10-second hold.
• Finally, breathe calmly and quietly.

6. Lion’s breath to do with children

Practice it if you tend to strain your voice or when you have a sore throat.

• As you inhale, tilt your head slightly back.
• When you breathe out, you bring it forward, open your mouth as wide as possible, and stick your tongue down. Exhale making noise.

The yogic version of this breath:

• It is done sitting on the calves or in a chair and placing the hands on each knee with the fingers apart.

• He breathes in and, when he breathes out, he opens his mouth to the maximum, sticks out his tongue, opens his eyes wide with his gaze towards the sky and stretches his fingers towards the ground.

7. Breathing to balance the mind

Clear your mind before an exam.

• Cover one of the nostrils with your thumb and breathe slowly through the other for a count of 8.
• Hold the air for 4 seconds, cover the other nostril and exhale up to 8.
• Pause for 4 seconds.
• Practice for a few minutes.
• Change nostril after each exhalation.

8. Breathing to reconnect with the past

This practice is known as “circular breathing” and it is very powerful (it can cause hyperventilation). After a few minutes you may remember images from your childhood that you had forgotten. It is used in supervised rebirthing techniques .

You breathe in a flowing stream without pauses or interruptions for a few minutes.

• It is inhaled and, without stopping or holding the air, the exhalation begins.
• The end of the exhalation links directly with another inhalation.
• One and the other connect seamlessly and create a dynamic circle.