When you think about breathwork, you may immediately think about yoga or meditation, but intentional breathwork has so many more applications for your health and happiness.
Here are 3 ways you can harness the power of your breath for balance and wellness:
Breathwork for Stress: Countless studies have proven the benefits of breathwork for managing stress; I won’t repeat them here. Trust me when I say that focusing on your breath as part of a morning or evening practice can help you manage long-term stress and give you more resilience to manage in-the-moment stressors.
To get started, try box breathing: Breathe in for four seconds, hold it at the top of your breath for four seconds, slowly breathe out for four seconds, then hold at the bottom of your breath for four seconds. Repeat for several minutes every day.
Breathwork for Grounding: In their acclaimed book “How We Choose to be Happy,” authors Greg Hicks and Rick Foster outline their 9-step system for finding happiness.
Step #1, the foundation for the entire program, is intention. When we approach our lives intending to find happiness, we inevitably discover more happiness. They recommend taking a split second before every single task to choose your intention.
I’d like to extrapolate that out a bit to suggest taking a few deep breaths every time you begin a new task. These deep breaths give you a moment of clarity to recenter and redefine your intention. It’s a simple way to become more present and grounded every day.
Breathwork for Health: The benefits of breathwork go far beyond stress relief and meditation. Regularly practicing breathwork is linked to boosted immunity, improved self-esteem and confidence, more self-awareness, better sleep, improved digestion, and even relief from chronic pain. Deep breathing can also help expel toxins and keep your body in optimal shape.
There are many ways to practice breathwork. Take some time to experiment and find what works for you.
Looking forward to seeing you at the (virtual) studio soon!
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