Simple Breathwork

A brief guide to breathwork.

As we experience trauma and difficulties in life, we can learn to chest/shallow breathe. Then when we feel anxiety or fear, the shallow breath can trigger a physiological response and take us into fight or flight. Therefore, it is useful for us to retrain our body to proper breath, deeply and slowly.

If you want to give this a try and see what different it makes, each morning when you wake up, before you get out of bed and each evening when you go to bed but before you fall to sleep, lay on your back in bed and place your hands on your abdomen. You might imagine a balloon in you belly. Each time you inhale, slowly and deeply, all the way down into your belly, see that balloon fill with air - and each time you exhale see that balloon deflate. So as you inhale, your belly should rise, and as you exhale, your belly should fall. Practice this breath for about 5 minutes each morning and evening. It is our natural breath and our body has cellular memory, so within about 2 months, the body is typically back to breathing slowly and deeply naturally.

This is very helpful in decreasing feelings of anxiety and fear and in fact when we feel those feelings, our first, most helpful response is to start breathing slowly and deeply, all the way down into the belly, “Smell in the roses, Blow out the birthday candles.”