Do you find yourself in the middle of a crazy day, dealing with so much bullshit that your head is buzzing and you wish you could disappear? What if we told you that in a moment, you can breathe this escape into existence? Want to learn how to introduce more calm into your day? Keep reading.

With 24-hour news and social media cycles and work-from-home experiences breaking down long-established professional/personal boundaries, our brains are managing through unprecedented amounts of stimuli.

As dialogues around mental health have become more prevalent, practices once camped in the world of “hippy-dippy” have crossed over to the mainstream. At the forefront of the current self-care practice trends is the practice of breathwork.    

Breathwork affords us the opportunity to instantly withdraw from the frenetic pace of the day. 

There are dozens of approaches and practices but to simplify things, we’ll start with the difference between focused mouth breathing vs. breathing through the nose. Mouth breathwork tends to be shorter and shallower. This can activate your fight or flight response. Think about how you breathe rapidly to cope when you step into a cold shower.

Nose breathing more effectively delivers oxygen throughout the body and breathing slowly through the nose can immediately chill you out. 

Breathwork is naturally associated with yoga and meditation but also stands alone.  

We love it as a part of any daily self-care practice, as it improves attention span, happiness, and ability to manage stress.

So how can you get started? An easy way is to jump-in with a two-minute practice (time this if it makes you more comfortable). Close your eyes and singularly focus on the tip of your nose and your breathe coming in and going out. That’s it! If your mind wanders, congrats because you’re just like everyone else. Quickly bring your attention back to the tip of your nose and leave self-judgement out of this.  

If you want to try a different technique, you can try box breathing.  Like four sides to a box, box breathing includes:

  • 5 seconds of inhaling
  • 5 seconds holding the breath
  • 5 seconds of exhaling
  • 5 seconds holding the breath … and repeat

This is a great way to begin your day as you get out of bed and close it as you turn off the lights. And if you know that certain times of the day present more experiences with stress, schedule some breathwork time-outs throughout your day. As you practice more, you can extend the duration and take note of how deepening the practice benefits you.  

Who would’ve thought that breathing, focusing on just the tip, of your nose, would be such a gamechanger? We’d love to see your breathwork in action. Capture a video of your work, tag us @feelgoodaf and we’ll properly celebrate you and your Feel Good work.  

Namaste-lit.  Love Team Feel Good.