Grounding Yourself: Breathing

Have you ever said you need to learn better coping skills? Have you ever felt so overwhelmed you couldn’t think straight? Keep reading.

I have some invaluable breathing techniques you can start practicing today that can use your body’s natural responses to help you calm down and manage stress. All you have to do is practice.

Let’s launch into a bit about the science behind breathwork. The brain-body or mind-body connection is a way to describe the bidirectional relationship between the two. The vagus nerve in your body is one great example of how the mind and body are connected: this nerve runs from the brain, down the spine, and branches off into several organs in the abdomen. The vagus nerve initiates the relaxation response and tells the brain to calm down when it’s activated (see: ‘parasympathetic nervous system’ if you really want to nerd out). A quick and powerful way to create this calming effect is through diaphragmatic breathing (breathing through your diaphragm–also known as belly breathing).

You can practice diaphragmatic breathing by placing your hand on your belly and focusing on pulling air into your nose and expanding the breath through your stomach. Exhale slowly from your mouth, feeling your belly compress. If you feel dizzy or lightheaded after a few breaths, take a break and try again later. The diaphragm is a muscle and it takes practice to build up strength!

Once you have diaphragmatic breathing down, you can begin using these breathing techniques to quickly calm your brain and body down during stressful or emotional moments. See the videos at the end of each section to help you master these life-altering techniques.

Ocean Breath

This exercise can be done standing, lying down, or sitting; you can close your eyes if that feels comfortable. Practice for five minutes multiple times a day to get the best results.

• Inhale and exhale through your mouth taking long, slow deep breaths.

• Feel the back of your throat as the cool air flows.

• Gently constrict or tighten the muscles near the back of your throat and your tongue will slowly raise up and down as you flex those muscles.

• You will notice a change in the sound of your breathing; sounding almost like white noise as you breathe.

• Then, as you breathe through your diaphragm, close your mouth and switch to breathing through your nose.

• This will create a sound almost like the ocean.

• Continue this breathing for about five minutes, paying attention to the sensations you feel.

Here’s a helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8-auclIjsA

Five-Count Breath

This exercise can be done standing, lying down, or sitting; you can close your eyes if that feels comfortable. Using diaphragmatic breathing, practice this technique for several minutes to get the best results.

• As you begin your diaphragmatic breathing, focus on the sensations you feel.

• Inhale slowly and fully for a count of five.

• Hold that breath for another five counts at the same pace.

• Finally, slowly exhale for another five.

• If you would like to add structure to this exercise, imagine an upside-down triangle in your mind’s eye. Start at the bottom point, and inhale as you go up the left side of the triangle, hold that breath as you work across the top, and slowly exhale as you slide back down the right side of the triangle back to the starting point.

• If the count of five is challenging or making you light headed, decrease the count to three and keep practicing!

Here is a helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA7iQBWXSQI

Balanced Brain Breath

This technique focuses on the left and right hemispheres of the brain. To balance activation of each hemisphere, you can intentionally alternate breathing through each nostril and alternate hemispheric dominance activity. This exercise can be done standing, lying down, or sitting; you can close your eyes if that feels comfortable.

• Begin diaphragmatic breathing and focus on the sensations you feel.

• Start with our five count breath technique above and repeat a couple times.

• Begin balanced brain breath by taking your left thumb to close your left nostril for a count of five (or three) as you inhale.

• Hold that inhale for a count of five.

• As you hold your breath, release your left nostril and use your left ring finger to close your right nostril and slowly exhale.

• Inhale through your right nostril, hold for five, release and switch, exhaling through your left nostril now.

• Inhale and switch, continuing this process for a few minutes, gently bring your mind back to counting when it wanders.

Here is a helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8xIEzX40bA&t=23s

5-5-8-2 Breath

This is a more advanced breathing technique once you are really comfortable with diaphragmatic breathing and the five count breaths. This exercise can be done standing, lying down, or sitting; you can close your eyes if that feels comfortable. The longer you are able to exhale, the more relaxed you will feel.

• Begin diaphragmatic breathing and focus on the sensations you feel.

• Inhale slowly and fully for a count of five.

• Hold your breath for another count of five.

• Begin to slowly exhale for a count of eight.

• Finally, hold the breath for a count of two before repeating the sequence.

I don’t have a video for this one, but, by now, I know you’ve got it.

These are some great techniques to begin using the tools our body naturally has to keep us calm and stable in moments of stress and even crisis. These breathing exercises can be used whenever and wherever you are, plus, they set us up for more targeted breathwork that I will introduce soon. Happy breathing!

From your fellow human,

Allison

References

Sweeton, J. (2019). Trauma treatment toolbox: 165 brain-changing tips, tools & handouts to move therapy forward. PESI Publishing & Media.