Just Breathe

Me-time 101: Self-care in the time of Covid (2 of 11)

Feb 04, 2022

Brent and Jigs demonstrate unconscious breathing.

Welcome back!

I am so happy you have decided to give yourself much needed me-time. We shall start with a fundamental aspect of self-care - proper breathing and helpful breathing exercises. Of course most of the time we all breathe constantly without even being aware of it. Here we will explore unconscious and conscious breathing. I encourage you to practice any or all of the techniques mentioned in this article over the next week. Find out what you enjoy, what is helpful, and what you would like to add to your self-care toolbox. If you already know all of this, consider this a loving and gentle reminder of one of the tools you already possess in your toolbox. Next time we will talk about carving out time - even as little as one minute! But for now, engage with the techniques for as much time as you can.

Belly Breathing

I shall be forever grateful to my high school choir director, Mr. Backlin, for teaching us how to breathe properly. He demonstrated with his newborn child how children naturally know how to fill their bellies and backs with air. He even showed us how baby’s inflate visibly on the backside as well as the front. He said that once we begin to walk we may switch our breathing to our chests but that isn’t as nourishing to the body as diaphragmatic breathing. We spent time during our chorus rehearsals breathing into our diaphragms using a straw, watching our bellies rise and fall. He had to convince us, the girls especially, that while breathing properly may temporarily make one “look fat,” the benefits would far outweigh the deficits.

And he was right. I relearned how to breathe properly in high school and never stopped. You may or may not have been as fortunate as I was to have a “Mr. Backlin” teach you how to breathe. So, let’s review proper breathing and go over various easy and beneficial breathing exercises. I will also provide additional resources at the end of this article.

Upper chest breathing (AKA thoracic breathing) actually reduces the oxygen that finds its way to the rest of your organs and body, thus contributing to or causing health problems. By breathing into the lower area of your lungs, (AKA diaphragmatic breathing) you are properly using your lungs to oxygenate the rest of your body. There is much research that has been done to show the influence of oxygenation (and therefore, breathing) upon our health. Who knew?

How are you breathing?

An easy way to determine if you are breathing into your chest or your belly is to sit straight in a chair at ease for a bit until your breathing has quieted, then put one hand on the belly and one on the chest. Which hand is rising? If the hand on your belly is rising, then you are already one of the 50% of people who breathe properly. But if the hand on your chest is rising, you might want to begin retraining yourself to breathe properly, and naturally improve your oxygenation and overall health.

If the hand on your belly is rising, you may want to begin retraining yourself to breathe properly, and naturally improve your oxygenation and overall health.

The research I did gleaned a few different avenues for changing your breathing from chest breathing to belly breathing. However, the simplest appears to be practicing choral breathing exercises (see “7 Best Breathing Exercises for singing”). Through regular - dare I say, daily - practice you can re-learn how to breathe. You will know you have actually changed your breathing when you unconsciously breathe into your belly. This would be most evident when you are sleeping. (Of course, you would need to enlist someone else’s help to observe you breathing while asleep.) For me, it took months of practice with the choir before I noticed I was breathing naturally from my belly. But once I got it, I never stopped.

Technique: Straw Breathing

Brenda demonstrates belly breathing using a straw.

Now the simplest breathing technique (the one I remember from choir class decades ago) uses a straw. Actually breathe in through the straw while holding one hand on your belly. Think about the air entering your abdomen and back as if you are inflating a balloon. Watch the belly rise. Then breathe out naturally without the straw. Use the straw for the in-breath and then on the out-breath use the nose or mouth. Try counting to four on the in-breath. You may find that the rhythm is 4 in and 4 out. After a while you can do the exercise pretending as if you have a straw. Try this for 5 minutes per day for a week. Keep track of your progress. Keep practicing until belly breathing becomes natural and unconscious. Be aware that if you have been chest breathing for decades, it may take some time to retrain the brain and body. Celebrate when you discover you have switched your natural breathing to belly breathing. What a gift to your body’s overall health!

Entering the Present through the Breath

Another benefit of conscious breathing is that it brings you into an awareness of the present moment. Believe it or not, many of us spend much of our mental energy living in the past or the future. When we reside in the past, we open ourselves to suffering through reliving events or emotions that are long over. When we reside in the future, we open ourselves to worry by playing out scenarios that may never be. Living in the present moment is the place where reality is and where peace resides (Tolle.) For those of us who “live in our heads” life can become quite overwhelming. Ancient masters have always known that separating our intellect from our bodies opens the door to such overwhelm. It only makes sense, then, that reconnecting to your body is one avenue to harnessing an uncontrolled mind.

Three Conscious Breathing Techniques

One simple way to bring ourselves into the present and into the body is through conscious breathing. Find a quiet moment (even just one minute), close your eyes, and put your attention on your breath. Feel the rise and fall of your belly or chest. Keep breathing and keep your attention there. Alternatively, you can put your attention on the sensation of the air entering and exiting your nostrils. The idea isn’t so much to care about breathing as it is to focus your attention on some aspect of the body. In doing so, you are not putting your attention on the chatter in your head. The nice thing about the breath is that it is always with you, so it is always accessible as a means of entering the present moment when you realize your mind has been stuck in the past or the future.

Perhaps you are already familiar with this technique. Do you remember where you were and when you learned it? I do. I believe it was in 2008. I had been in my living room at home listening to a worldwide web class that Oprah Winfrey held with Eckhart Tolle as each week they discussed one of his chapters of The New Earth. I remember him saying to the listening audience, “Let’s just breathe for one minute.” He talked us through settling into our chairs, putting out attention on the breath, and then there was silence for one minute as I breathed. Silence! I couldn’t believe it; I never forgot it.

There are many wonderful online tools for this and other mindfulness practices. I can personally suggest the app Headspace; it is free and easy to use. I have also heard good things about Calm. When I was teaching, I would often begin a class with a conscious breathing technique; it quieted and calmed the students so that they could be more focused during class. After experiencing the benefits of this technique, on especially hectic days students would walk in and request a three-minute breathing meditation.

One-Minute Conscious Breathing

Set a timer for one minute (or two or three. . . ).
Sit relaxed and alert and quiet.
Close your eyes.
Place your attention on your breath, especially the physical sensations of breathing.
Come back to yourself.
How do you feel?

A variation on this is simply breathing deeply for three breaths as you place your attention on your breath and the sensations of breathing. One (in - out) - Two (in - out) - Three (in-out). This is useful if you have just completed something stressful or full-on and need a reset. You can do it easily at home, at work, or on the road.

Three breaths

Place your attention on your breathing.
Count each breath - 1 in - out. . . 2 in - out. . . .3 in - out. . . .
Done.
How do you feel?

A more serious and meditative breathing exercise is a 10-breath exercise. Again, with your eyes opened or closed, place your attention on your breathing. Then breathe deeply and naturally in through your nose and out through your mouth. This technique is a cleansing breath to release worry or concern, calming the mind. Pay attention to the rise and fall of your belly as you count in and out “1”, in and out “2”, in and out “3”, etc. until you have completed 10 breaths. Once you get to ten, you can start again. If you get lost in your mind, you might actually forget where you were in the counting process. Tell yourself that is fine and simply start over. Relax further into each breath. When you finish, take a moment to check in with yourself. How do you feel now compared to when you began?

This exercise has the benefit of learning more sustained focus while cleansing energy and calming you. By placing your attention on your breathing, you are retraining your brain not to run the show all of the time (day and night). This is also a great bedtime technique to help you get to sleep. But we will get into those in another article.

10 - breaths

Sit or stand in a relaxed but alert posture.
Close (or open) your eyes.
Breath deeply and naturally in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Count ten breaths (in and out). (Just start over if you get lost.)
Relax into each consecutive breath.
Repeat.
As you finish, come back to yourself.
How do you feel?

Before you go

Breathing is essential to life. Proper breathing helps to keep your body operative and in good health. Conscious breathing is a readily available tool to place yourself back in the present moment. If you have found these techniques valuable or have already mastered them, good on you (as my Aussi friends say). Perhaps there is someone else in your life who would benefit from these tools, such as a child, a stressed co-worker or a friend. Why not encourage others to join you in learning and practicing self-care?

Feel free to write a note in the comments. Did you try any of the techniques? Are there others in your toolbox that you would recommend to the readers? How have you benefited?

Next up: Making Me-Time

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Writer. Teacher. Gong Player.

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