Mindfulness Practice: Deep Breathing Exercises
Bone up on breathing.
Breathing: literally the first thing you “learn” to do. Yet all it takes is a smart watch ping (pssst...you’re holding your breath), a yoga class (did you know: you can exhale for a *long* time) or a meditation attempt to remind us we haven’t quite mastered the basics. As a five-year-old you may have threatened to hold your breath, and now as a grown-up you’re making good on that promise if, like us, you spend your fair share of time stuck in that fight-or-flight zone of your sympathetic nervous system. Like any neglected muscle, your diaphragm—the power behind respiration—loses range of motion to all that shallow breathing. But also like any neglected muscle, there’s memory there to help you rebuild it.
Yep, there’s an app for that. Remember when strength & conditioning coach Joel Sanders told us about our stress superpowers? He also shared this exercise app. With appealing visuals, intuitive instructions and different breath types (from alert to falling asleep), the exercises range from two to five minutes based on your stress response. A customized workout targeting breath, not burn.
Work it into your workout.On the other hand, trainer Jordan Couture helps his clients feel the burn...then harness the power of breath with box breathing during recoveries (pro tip: exhale through pursed lips). The benefits are two-fold: the method promotes a speedier recovery from exertion as it brings down your heart rate, while honing your ability to breathe properly throughout the day. Better yet, incorporating breathing exercises into a workout you’re already doing makes it feel less like one less box to check.
Breathing means business.Need to have a difficult conversation or nervous about a big meeting? You know what we’re going to say—pause and take a few breaths (the box breathing above will do). But did you also know that breathing is key to being more confident and persuasive? We enjoyed this Harvard Business Review article by a former opera singer and communications specialist about using breath to our full advantage—to increase the fullness of our voices and make our point. (Point taken.)
