“You know when you wake up in the night? You have so many thoughts come into your mind you can’t sleep because you’re think[ing], you’re stressed out, oh I have to do this or this or this. And you know once you start breathing your thoughts all go away, you’re concentrating on your breathing and you just fall asleep.”1
Breathing exercises are often reported as one of the most valued tools of yoga as they are easy to apply to everyday situations – to manage stress before giving a presentation or help soothe anxiety when waking up in the middle of the night. In our research with a wide range of people taking part in yoga programmes (from teens to people with health conditions), they frequently discuss the benefits of yoga for managing stress and existing mental health issues, such as anxiety. In particular, our participants reported the many ways in which they applied the breathing techniques learned during their yoga programmes, feeling they underpinned many of the longer-term benefits to their wellbeing. They also talked about how this helped them to change their responses to stress and feel more in charge of their circumstances.
“I have learnt to breathe properly and to use this mechanism to combat my stress levels…that moment of stress will pass and life goes on.”2
“when you do deep breathing your mind is somewhere else, you forget about your worries or whatever”1
Here are a few suggestions for breathing techniques you could try to help you feel more balanced, manage stress and regulate your nervous system – look at our previous blogs for more on the physiology of stress and yoga. Regularity is important, like many positive health behaviours, as the benefits of controlled breathing build cumulatively over time. But unlike many things that are good for us, it doesn’t take too much effort!
The simplest technique of all is simply deepening our breath through diaphragmatic breathing. When we feel stressed, anxious or overwhelmed, our breath tends to become more shallow and primarily focused in the upper chest (tune into your breath next time you feel anxious, place one hand on your belly and one on your upper chest and notice the quality of your breath and whether you feel it primarily in your chest or abdomen). If we focus on breathing more deeply into our abdominal area, then it helps us feel calm, slows down our heart rate and blood pressure and relaxes our muscles. The easiest way to get familiar with diaphragmatic breathing is by lying down (or sitting) comfortably, placing your hands on your abdomen, and feel the belly rise as you inhale and fall as you exhale.
If we want to slow things down a little more, then we can lengthen the exhalation. For example, you can breathe in for the count of 4 and out for the count of 6. You can gradually increase the length of the exhalation to suit your own breath cycle and as you become more familiar with controlling the breath. Never force the breath, sometimes we have a tendency to ‘over-breathe’, so instead find a natural relaxed rhythm to the breath, allowing the abdomen and muscles of the face to remain soft and relaxed.
For a more pronounced effect on your parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and relax response), you can add some gentle ‘ocean breath’ or resistance breathing (‘ujjayi breath’) on the exhalation. We found that this was really popular with young people for its soothing effect. Ocean breath involves gently contracting the upper throat muscles creating a sound rather like ocean waves. This activates the vagal nerve and is very helpful for worry or anxiety (see my blog for more about this). You can add in a simple visualisation to help you feel even more relaxed, imagining yourself by the sea, hearing the gentle flow of waves (or visualise any other place where you feel safe and grounded).
If you’d like to practice these techniques together, in this 12 min video.
Can’t go to sleep or wake up in the night? I recommend the 4-7-8 breath (breathing in for count of 4, holding for 7 and exhaling through the mouth for 8). It only takes a few minutes and is super easy but effective (my 13 year old son uses it to help him sleep and says it makes him feel ‘relaxed and peaceful’). Begin by first exhaling audibly through the mouth, then practise a total of 4 rounds. Try it when you go to bed or if you wake up in the night. For broader benefits, practising twice a day is recommended.
Join me now to practise the 4-7-8 breath.
Breathing in I calm the body and mind
Breathing out I smile
Dwelling in the present moment
I know this is the only moment
Thich Nhat Hanh
Further resources
HEALTHFLIX: An online community built by experts in the field of health and wellbeing to help us get through the stress and isolation of the COVID-19 crisis. https://www.youtube.com/c/HealthFlix/
References
1Cartwright, T, Cahill, M. & Sadana, V. (2020). A mixed methods evaluation of an individualised yoga therapy intervention for rheumatoid arthritis: Pilot study. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 50, 102339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102339
2Cartwright, T, Richards, R, Edwards, A, & Cheshire, A. (2019). Yoga4Health on social prescription: A mixed methods evaluation. University of Westminster. https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/qz6v1/yoga4health-on-social-prescription-a-mixed-methods-evaluation
