THE POWER OF BOX BREATHING: Your Stress Relief Secret Weapon

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BREATHING IN, I CALM MY BODY.

BREATHING OUT, I SMILE.

DWELLING IN THE PRESENT MOMENT, 

I KNOW THIS IS A WONDERFUL MOMENT. 

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.” – Thich Nhat Hanh,

Read more at: https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/breathe-quotes-10-inspirational-sayings-help-find-inner-peace?utm_source=cpp
Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.” – Thich Nhat Hanh,

Read more at: https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/breathe-quotes-10-inspirational-sayings-help-find-inner-peace?utm_source=cpp


The breath serves as a guide communicating the internal state of the body, while breathwork refers to the various breathing techniques or exercises that focus your conscious awareness on your breath, or more specifically your inhales and exhales, for the purposes of improving emotional, physical and cognitive states and decreasing stress.  

PRIORITIZE YOUR BREATH

Your breath is the foundation of life itself. Pay close attention to your breath, your posture, and your breathing patterns. Too shallow? Deep? 

Your breath and breathing patterns create electrical activity within your brain and the rhythm of your breath affects your outlook and well-being. This will become especially relevant and evident when facing high stress circumstances. Anxiety can spike when breathing patterns remain shallow for long periods of time. 

Another way we tend to compromise healthy breathing is through a slumping posture; which decreases the amount of air inhaled. This can result in hindering your body's full capacity to replenish oxygen. Slower, rhythmic breathing is calming to the nervous system. Calmness enhances clarity and homeostasis. There are several breathing strategies that help optimize your nervous system. In this article, I offer BOX BREATHING. (Other breathing strategies are offered in the LIFE IN FOCUS blog.) 

You are always just one conscious breath away from experiencing presence; from being in the moment. 

BOX BREATHING

Box, or square breathing, helps to reduce stress and increase focus. Widely used by special forces, corporate leaders, professional athletes and others in high stress/high performance careers due to its availability and efficacy, it is highly recommended that you become familiar with this powerful practice. 

With consistent practice, meaning scheduling regular breathing sessions (especially when not in a stressed state) will help strengthen your ability to access this deep, restorative breath when stressed. 

Keep in mind that neurons that fire together, wire together so to achieve mastery in anything, you will need to mindfully create these synapses. REPEAT often! 

Begin with short sessions. It will not take long before you increase the duration of this practice and find yourself using it automatically at different times during your day and circumstances in your life. 


How to Box-Breathe

1. Find a quiet location and either sit or lie comfortably.

2. Close your eyes (if it makes sense to do so in your situation). 

3. Inhale for a count of 4; filling up the lungs.

4. Hold for 4 seconds. 

5. Exhale for a count of 4; steadily releasing the air. 

6. Hold for 4 seconds.

7. Repeat (for as many rounds as you'd like or need).

Through the predictability of this 4-hold count, you are offering your nervous system a harmonizing break from stress. Deep breathing transmits a message to the brain instructing it to relax, and then the brain forwards this message to the body, resulting in a decrease in the body's stress response.  The amount of time dedicated to box breathing is determined by you. 


SELF-CARE

Proper breathing should play a large role in your health- and self-care practices. Engaging in a self-care routine has been clinically shown to reduce stress and anxiety, improve focus and concentration, minimize feelings of frustration, irritability, and depression, and improve energy and immune functioning. 

Anything we do to keep ourselves healthy and energized is self-care and therein lies the path to stress management and well-being. 

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS TO BOX BREATHING

While self-care delivers profound advantages, other benefits to box breathing include reducing the effects of a panic attack or extreme feelings of overwhelm, aiding in providing restorative sleep, improving respiratory function through teaching your lungs a rhythmic pattern of breathing, improving immune function, lowering blood pressure and controlling unwanted cortisol spikes. AND BOX BREATHING IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO YOU, since wherever you go, your breath follows. 


PROCEED AS IF SUCCESS IS INEVITABLE


Let's connect:

FACEBOOK: Marie Therese Rogers

 Life in Focus

 LINKEDIN:  Marie T. Rogers, Ph.D. 

 INSTAGRAM: Mariethereserogers

YOU ARE ALSO INVITED TO LISTEN TO THE LIFE IN FOCUS PODCAST ON APPLE AND OTHER STREAMING DEVICES. 

The information presented in this blog is intended for general knowledge and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment. As with most things in life, there isn't a magic pill or "cure-all" but there are strategies to help regain control of your life.




BOOKBABY 

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