How To Do Breathwork For Relaxation, Focus, And Overall Wellbeing

Have you ever tried breathwork exercises? They’re a simple and natural way to help relieve stress and bring about feelings of relaxation and almost anyone can do them. Read here to learn a few of the most effective breathwork techniques you should try today.

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Transcript

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 0:01

How to do breathwork for relaxation, focus and overall well-being. Have you ever heard of breathwork? This is a type of breathing exercise where you change the patterns of your breathing. And it sounds simple, it is. But it can also have really great benefits for your health and well-being. You don't have to have any particular beliefs or religion to enjoy these benefits. These exercises can be very helpful for issues like mood disorders, grief, anger, chronic pain, emotional unrest due to illnesses. And breathwork isn't just one thing and it doesn't just have one benefit. It can be adjusted according to your needs and your goals. And that's why it's being used to decrease stress, improve emotional equilibrium, reduce negative thoughts, aid in self-development, help with emotional processing and pain and develop life skills. It also can help improve relationships of all kinds, and boost creativity. And lastly, increase happiness. So apart from its flexibility, one of the best things about breathwork techniques is that they are natural and incredibly safe. And you should always still talk to your doctor before trying them especially if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, taking medications or have a condition that can be affected by these techniques. If done correctly, breathwork can be very beneficial. But if done incorrectly, and if you're very sensitive due to adrenal fatigue or you have a sympathetic nervous system imbalance, then breathwork can actually cause symptoms like heart palpitations, or dizziness or tingling in your extremities. If you breathe too much and too fast, clouded vision, decreased blood flow to your brain, cognitive issues, muscle spasms and ringing in your ears. So, make sure you're not overdoing it and make sure you listen to your body. You should probably not try breathwork if you have any lung or breathing issues, or severe psychiatric conditions, or a history of aneurysms or vision issues or bone loss. And so, if you're cleared to try some breathwork techniques, there's lots of options to choose from. But the best approach is to try them and see if they work for you. You're looking for an easy way to start. Here are some simple breathwork exercises that you can try. Box breathing, where you breathe in for four seconds, hold for four, and then breathe out for four. And then hold again for four. So that's why it's 4-4-4-4. There's also a second type of 4-7-8 type of breathing. This is when you breathe in for four, hold for seven, breathe out for eight, making a wooshing sound whenever you breathe out. And there's also pursed lip breathing, where you breathe in normally through your nose and out through pursed lips. There's diaphragmatic breathing, which involves deliberately using your stomach as you breathe, the diaphragm comes down and the vagal nerve which is in charge of the parasympathetic nervous system actually runs your diaphragm. So when you breathe in, the diaphragm comes down and then when you breathe out, the diaphragm goes up. Along with that is that abdominal breathing so the abdomen comes out when you breathe in, and the abdomen goes back in and when you breathe out. And there's also another one called alternate nostril breaths where you block one nostril and breathe in and then block the other to breathe out. So there's many different types of breathwork. Some other specific types are like clarity breathwork. This type of breathwork involves controlling your breathing by practicing circular or continuous breathing. It is said to help clear blocked emotions and focus your awareness on the current moment. Holotropic breath, is another type of controlled breathing technique that involves music, art and discussion. And it's meant to help you with your personal growth and emotional resilience. Transformational breathwork. This technique helps to clear and integrate trauma by using deep diaphragmatic breathing. It works in a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level with benefits for all three. Rebirthing breathwork. This technique should only be performed under the guidance of a properly qualified and experienced instructor which involves circular breathing to help you work on uncovering and processing blocked emotions that can occur as a result of trauma or conditioning. Thank you for listening today. We've talked about so many different types of breathwork and how you can use it to relax, focus and help your overall well-being. If you'd like to hear more great tips, make sure to click the subscribe button, like and share this video so that we can help other people improve their health. Also, remember we're here to empower you to take control on your health!