BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BREATHING EXERCISES - REDUCING STRESS AND PROMOTING SELF-HEALING

Breathing exercises are powerful tools that are often ignored. Our ability to control our breath and actively alter our breathing patterns can give us a greater control of our stress response, anxiety, and promote our body's natural self-healing abilities. Below are four breathing exercises to help get you started. 

Belly Breath 

• Put one hand on your belly and one hand near your collar bones, open your mouth, close your eyes and take a couple of breaths, notice which hand moves Is your top hand moving up and down slightly or is your bottom hand moving out? Is one moving more than the other or a combination of both?
• Change your breathing so your upper chest doesn’t move and try it the other way to feel the contrast. 
• Get a stitch when you're breathing? That’s OK! 
• Practice in front of a mirror with visual cues of the belly moving if you are having a hard time finding your belly. 

Diaphragm Extensions 

• Lie on your back and place a stack of books or weight right above your belly button. 
• Take a belly breath and try and make the books raise as you inhale. 
• As you exhale, slowly lower the weight back down and see how far you can let the weight sink down. (20 reps) Try the following progressions. 
  • Exhale progression: See how far you can narrow your waist. 
  • Don’t brace your body. (No hands!)
  • Add a kegel with exhale.
• Graduate to a kettlebell! Hold with one hand and move to different parts of your tummy. (20 reps)

 Rock and Roll Breathing 

• Sit on a chair or cross legged on the floor. On the inhale, expand your belly as you lean forward. 
• On the exhale, lean back as if you are slumping on the couch and contract your abs to push the air out, hollowing out your belly. Repeat this 10 -15 times. 
  • Note: This is the exaggerated version that will be more subtle with normal breathing.
• Moving the hips helps coordinate the breath with lower body movement and gives you some good spine movement.

Cat and Cow 

• Start on your knees. 'cat in a hissing posture' 
• Head up like you are mooing. (Be the cow!)
• Exhale audibly and arch up blowing air out toward belly button.
• On the inhale drop your body, relaxing your belly toward the floor.
• Do this for 10 reps.​