Proper breathing techniques to get maximum benefit for mind and body
1. Belly Breathe: Breathe from your belly, like a baby does filling your lungs from the bottom up. Shallow breathing using the upper chest muscles and the neck muscles only cause increase muscular tension and will increase worry and anxiety. People who are prone to anxiety and panic breath shallow and fast, those who are depressed breathe shallow and slow. To increase the depth and relaxation of your breathing breathe from your belly. Put your hand if you need to on the belly like a bio feed back device to feel your belly going in and out. Do this over and over, and again and again.
2. Emphasize the exhalation: Breathe with an emphasis on the out breath or the exhalation. Mental health and physical problems are associated with a lack of control of emotions, body sensations, and your thoughts. We have more control over pushing and squeezing air out of our lungs then sucking it in. to gain control practice pushing and squeezing air out of your lungs, and let the air come back in passively, that is just let I flow in, rather then sucking it in, which just causes more tension and more anxiety, and more loss of control.
3. Make your breathing have these four qualities, slow, deep, regular and quiet. Breathe more slowly, more deeply, with a more regular pattern, and quieter. First become aware of these qualities and then practice doing them as you breathe from your belly and pay special attention to squeezing the air out, like a sponge with the water being squeezed out, and then letting the air just, in a relaxed manner being , allowing it to flow in.
4. Feel the breathing sensations and allow your thinking to go to the background of your mind.
5. Stay only in the present, allowing the past and future to go the back of your mind.
6. Don’t react to the emotions associated with your breathing, good , bad or neutral, or judge it in any way, or compare it, or expect anything from it, just allow each breath to come, allow it to be, and allow it to go. Just accept it for what it is, and allow its wave like nature to unfold, as you accept it over and over , again and again.
7. the principle of “Just enough”, not too much, not too little , not to tight, not to loose, stay in the middle.
8. Follow the lead of your breathing, let it control you. Go from automatic breathing, that is breathing on auto pilot with little conscious awareness to autonomic breathing. What is autonomic breathing? When we are sleeping or in a very relaxed state, the part of our brain called the autonomic nervous system take over. This is the life force within us that is always present and knows how to care for us and protects us. How do you do this? Go from thinking about breathing , you breathing with your lungs, to, next you feeling the physical sensations of your breathing, and little by little letting go of the conscious thinking controlling and monitoring the breathing, to just feeling the physical sensations of the breathing, and then as you do this over and over, the feeling will become more and more automatic until you turn over the feeling process to the unconscious mind, where the autonomic nervous system part of your brain lives, and it and your body is now breathing you, rather than you breathing your body. The bottom line is your body though your unconscious mind and the autonomic nervous system is not breathing you, rather than you breathing your body. With practice you will be able to this more and more easily and more quickly and the result will be increased calm and relaxation, as you maintain an awake and alert mind. No drug or medication can do this, like this breathing exercise. There are drugs that can relax you, but you are less alert and awake, and there drugs that can make you more alert and awake, but there are none that can make you alert awake and yet relaxed and calm at the same time.
9. Combine the above 8 steps. Breathe like a baby from your belly, get full inhalations, by getting a full exhalation, slow, deep, regular, and quiet, feel the breath, stay in the present, allow and accept each breath, let it come, let it be, let it go, with “just enough or everything”, and follow the lead of the breath, going from auto pilot to the autonomic life force.