Here's How To Make It Simple To Connect To Your Breath More Regularly Throughout The Day
Your boss just adds another stack of paperwork to your desk. Your phone buzzes with a news release that piles even more stress and anxiety on your plate.
Much of the world we live in today is completely stressing us out.
One of the simplest ways that we can feel better is through checking in with our breath more regularly throughout the day.
The reality is that most of us do not breathe well or check in on the status of our bodies regularly enough and it leads to a whole range of issues from higher stress and anxiety levels to compromising our immune system.
Training yourself to breathe differently from what you’re used to can be a great challenge. Something that we do 25,000 times per day is deeply ingrained and requires a lot of conscious effort to adjust.
How To Breathe Properly
It sounds silly to have to go over this until you realize that the majority of people have terrible breathing patterns that lead to issues like higher stress levels and weakened immune systems.
When we properly breathe we engage our diaphragm which allows us to breathe more deeply and counteract the sympathetic nervous system that stresses our body and makes us sick when chronically activated.
When we are tense or in an anxious state we breathe just into our upper chest, often taking the air in through our mouths. This activates the sympathetic nervous system and can keep us in a chronic state of stress, eventually leading to illness and burnout.
A proper breath for calming our nervous system is taken in through our nose with the exhale being longer than the inhale. This allows for a more proper exchange of carbon dioxide to oxygen in our bodies. With the frequent practice of calm breathing, we become more effective at managing our stress levels.
Calm breathing induces the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system for greater relaxation.
4-7-8 Breathing For a Calm State
Dr. Andrew Weil has come up with the 4-7-8 technique as an easy way to extend that exhale and drop you into a calm state. To use the 4-7-8 technique, focus on the following breathing pattern:
Empty the lungs of air, breathe in quietly through the nose for 4 seconds.
Hold the breath for a count of 7 seconds.
Exhale forcefully through the mouth or nose for 8 seconds.
Repeat the cycle up to 4 times to significantly reduce anxiety levels.
So let’s talk about how we can connect with our breath more regularly throughout the day to create stronger patterns for healthy and calm breathing.
These practices are built around the habits that we already have in our lives which will simplify the process and make it highly intuitive and automatic to complete with no added effort.
1. Set Up a Phone Alarm
The first strategy that you can use is to set up trigger alarms in your phone, or if you have a smartwatch, use an app like Breathe to remind you multiple times per day to check in on your breath. It’s a good idea to start with at least 3 or 4 times per day. So you could have your alarms set for first thing in the morning or just after breakfast time, late morning or early afternoon, after work, and before bed. Experiment with whatever times of the day are most realistic for you to practice catching your breath and calming it down for a minute.
2. Anchor It To Other Habits
Another way to make checking in with your breath more automatic is to anchor it to habits that you already have. This is known as habit stacking. As an example, you can spend a minute slowing your breathing through your nose each time you finish washing your hands after going to the washroom.
Another habit to stack to is anytime you refill your water throughout the day.
We all have unique habits but think about what habits you have every day that can serve as a starting point for checking in on your breath.
3. Certain Times of Day
Just like creating a trigger alarm for your breathing, the other strategy around the time of day is to simply create a hard set rule for yourself that you will check in on your breath at certain times of the day so that it becomes ingrained as automatically when you will practice. This could include times like during your morning commute, at your lunch break, or before you get out of your car and head back into the house after work.
4. Phone Wallpaper
The closest thing to getting the word “breathe” tattooed on your wrist without having to go that far is to create a wallpaper for your phone that has the word on there as a reminder. This little trick can help in addition to the other strategies above but is not as salient so I would suggest that you add this in addition to the other ones instead of depending fully on it.
It can serve as a nice little trick reminder for you though and once you’ve already started working on the habit, every time you see the note on your phone it may help you to also question what purpose you are checking your phone for so that you’re also approaching your devices with more mindfulness.
It Takes Time To Make The Change
Just as you’ve been breathing in your current pattern for a very long time, you won’t automatically start breathing like a meditation guru overnight so be patient with yourself and work on this consistently for a couple of months. You’ll slowly start to see changes in how calm you are and your overall stress levels.