How well do you know your breath?
BREATHING RATE // We are living through some really stressful times. At the moment there is lots of uncertainty and unpredictability. The ground beneath our feet keeps shifting. It’s tiring. And many of us are feeling exhausted and somewhat defeated.
But here’s what I know. In this anxiety provoking time, there is a lot we can actually control - and for many of us it can be helpful to start with the breath. So if your anxiety feels overwhelming, try this two step process: ASSESS and RETRAIN.
This is a view that I love up in the high country of Victoria.
You might have places where you feel more grounded too? It’s not surprising that being in nature or in places where we feel calmer, can have a positive impact on our stress levels, and therefore our breathing rate.
“The true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having fresh eyes.”
ASSESS: Be curious and get to know your own breathing style and rate. Start with identifying whether you’re a belly or chest breather? To assess this, place one hand gently on your chest and the other on your Belly. Don’t try to change your breathing. Just notice whether your top or bottom hand is moving. If you notice that your top hand is moving (chest) you might be chest breathing. Chest breathing can increase tension and anxiety, so if this is your breathing style, you can focus on retraining your breathing style to belly breathing
Next, put a timer on for one minute. Sit comfortably and count your breath. How many breaths do you take in a minute? The important thing here is that you don’t try to change your breath, you’re simply being curious and counting how many breaths you take in a minute.
The normal rate of breathing is 10-14 breaths per minute – what’s your breathing rate? Don’t be alarmed if your breathing rate is a lot higher than 10-14 breaths per minute - a lot of us might find that our breathing rate is higher at the moment - due to heightened anxiety.
Anxiety can cause our breathing rate to increase, as part of the physical fight or flight response to a perceived threat. When this happens and our breathing rate increases (without physical exertion) we breathe out too much carbon dioxide. If the body cannot quickly return carbon dioxide levels to the optimal range, we can experience further symptoms such as dizziness, light-headedness, headache, weakness and tingling in the extremities and muscle stiffness. So this is why understanding our breathing style and rate can be beneficial for us all.
RETRAIN // Once you have an awareness of your breathing style and rate you can focus on retraining.
Deep belly breathing encourages full oxygen exchange — that is, the beneficial trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide. Not surprisingly, it can slow the heartbeat and lower or stabilize blood pressure. But for many of us, deep breathing seems unnatural - and learning to be aware of when we’re chest breathing and retraining our breathing style is a beneficial skill we can learn.
By using breathing retraining we can learn to slow our breathing rate down and reduce our general anxiety level. With enough practice, we can become confident in connecting and anchoring to our breath. This can help us to better cope, not only with anxiety, but also when we are faced with stressful situations.
When I ran groups in pain management - this is one of the first exercises we do. In groups of 7 to 10 people there is always a diverse range of breathing styles and rates. And that’s completely ok. The higher our rate, the more it can be helpful for us to prioritize a couple of minutes each day (5-10 minutes) to focus on simply slowing our breathing down and making sure we take our breath all the way to the belly. This is how we learn to retrain our breathing.
Here’s something else about stressful times - the more we can build our resilience, the better equipped we are to rise to challenges and meet them with flexibility, and a sense of inner groundedness, and strength. So let’s start with our breath and be reminded of the it’s power - it’s power to help us to relax and release tension.