Breathing Techniques

Why should one practice breathing exercises?

People, especially those who are prone to getting stressed all the time (those with chronic stress), should practice breath exercises for the following reasons:

• To manage and reduce stress: breathing techniques can help people lower their cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone produced when we’re stressed, and too much of it can cause problems like high blood pressure and increased heart rate.
• To manage and reduce anxiety: people who are too anxious and nervous will likely start breathing rapidly, especially if they start panicking. Breathing exercises can calm them down gradually and keep them focused on what they need to focus on.
• To regulate emotions: if a person is overwhelmed by their emotions, they can practice slow, conscious breathing to bring balance to their feelings and control their emotional responses.

Different types of Breathing Techniques

Here's a list of several techniques to practice. Just sit comfortably before practicing them to get the full relaxation benefits each one can provide you.

Deep breathing

Deep breathing (also known as diaphragmatic breathing, paced breathing, abdominal breathing, and belly breathing) is a type of breathing that requires people to inhale slowly and deeply through the nose and then exhale slowly through the mouth.

This type of breathing can help the adverse effects of shallow breathing (e.g., anxiety, tension, fatigue, etc.), ensure the full oxygen exchange our body needs, and regulate our emotions, heart rate, and blood pressure.

The 4-7-8 breathing method

This breathing pattern is a staple in yoga sessions and is recognized for its potential to whittle down angry emotional responses and anxiety levels. It can also improve sleep!

To practice this, people need to do the following:

• They must empty their lungs.
• Then, they must quietly and gently breathe through the nose for 2 to 4 seconds.
• After breathing through their nose, they must hold their breath for 3.5 to 7 seconds.
• After holding their breath, they must exhale forcefully through the mouth with pursed lips for 4 to 8 seconds.

It’s important for those practicing this to lie down or sit comfortably because someone who isn’t used to this might feel lightheaded for a bit, so for safety reasons, it’s best to lie down or remain seated while doing this.

Box breathing

Box breathing is another popular breathing technique. It’s one of the most simple breathing techniques since you only have to do the following:

• Breathe in while counting to 4 in your mind. Make sure to feel the air enter the lungs.
• After breathing in, you must hold your breath for 4 seconds without inhaling or exhaling.
• Then slowly exhale through the mouth for 4 seconds.

This technique should help people re-center themselves whenever they’re being overwhelmed by emotions and stress due to a particular situation they had to go through. It’s encouraged to repeat this exercise until a person feels relaxed.

Pursed lip breathing

This is another simple technique where you only need to breathe through your nostrils for two seconds and then exhale through your mouth for four seconds while your lips are pursed (puckered up as if for a kiss). The only thing to keep in mind is to exhale slowly.

A video created by the American Lung Association states that this breathing technique is helpful for those who have asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other lung problems.

Alternate nostril breathing

This is another breathing pattern that’s often included as part of yoga programs.

For this particular exercise, you must do the following:

• Sit down with your legs crossed
• Place your left hand on your left knee, then lift your right hand up towards your nose
• Exhale and then use your right hand’s thumb to close your right nostril
• Inhale through the left nostril, then close it with your other fingers
• Release your thumb from the right nostril and exhale through it
• Inhale through the right nostril, then close it with your thumb again
• Then, release your other fingers from your left nostril and exhale through it

This is best done over and over again for five minutes.

This breathing pattern is popular because it can improve one’s cardiovascular and lung functions, lower the heart rate, and boost the endurance of the respiratory system.

Resonance breathing

This type of breathing revolves around gentle breathing. To practice this, one should do the following:

• This requires the person to be lying on a bed with their eyes closed.
• They must keep their mouth closed.
• Once they’re in position and their mouth is closed, they must gently breathe through the nose for five or six seconds without fully filling up their lungs
• After inhaling for six seconds, they must exhale gently for five or six seconds

That’s it! It’s recommended to repeat this for 10 minutes.

The benefits of practicing Breathing Techniques

Improves respiratory function

Whether a person practices deep breathing techniques or some other type of breathing exercise, they will have improved respiratory function, breath control, focus, and lung capacity. With improved respiratory function, people can gain all the oxygen their body needs, have more energy to spare, and become more focused, especially when they have urgent responsibilities.

Enhances cardiovascular health

Earlier, we mentioned that high cortisol levels due to stress can lead to cardiovascular problems like high blood pressure. High blood pressure can lead to strokes or heart attacks. Practicing breathing techniques can help regulate a person’s cortisol levels and promote better blood circulation since they can calm down immediately after being stressed.

They can also prevent other problems that high cortisol levels can cause, like fatigue, muscle weakness, headaches, acne, and weight gain.

Improves sleep health

If one is anxious and stressed, they might have difficulty sleeping. By practicing breathing techniques, especially before bedtime, a person can regulate their anxiety and stress levels and gradually lower them in a few minutes.

These techniques can help people relax, and it is easier for them to fall asleep when they are relaxed during bedtime.

Why use Carepatron as your mindfulness software?

Thanks for reading this guide! We hope this was an excellent introduction or refresher to breathing techniques. We hope these techniques work well for you or your clients/patients.

While we still have you, we’d like to ask for your time to check more of the Carepatron platform if you haven’t. We have a wide variety of cool features, such as our telehealth system, that will allow you to teach patients breathing techniques with ease, even when you are miles away from each other.

We also have other nifty features, and we believe they’re helpful enough that you’ll consider us your number-one therapy EHR and telehealth software. We won’t get into them here, but we’d like to highlight one related to this guide: our resource library.

Our resource library houses a massive collection of clinical resources. It covers numerous healthcare fields, topics, and practices, including mental health and, by extension, mindfulness.

We have resources like the Breathing Practice Log for those who would like to schedule breathing exercises and a list of Deep Breathing Exercises. We also have PDFs containing coping skills for anxiety, PTSD, and stress, which contain instructions on how to perform the 4-7-8 breathing method.

What’s great about these resources is that they’re all free, so read as many guides as you want and download as many resources as you need!