Lesson 1: Breath Awareness Technique
Becoming aware of which part of the body you are breathing into is an important measure in retraining the body to breathe properly.
The below breath awareness technique is a great place to begin to retrain the body from shallow breathing to diaphragmatic breathing which relaxes the central nervous system.
Breath awareness is a technique that can be practiced in many situations, especially stressful or challenging situations enabling you to identify when you are breathing shallowly. Identifying when it is happening is the start to retraining your body to learn to calm itself during moments of stress.
- Put your right hand on your abdomen, and your left hand on your chest.
- Inhale through your nose, exhale through your nose
- On your next inhale, take notice as you inhale which hand rises and as you exhale which hand falls.
- Becoming aware of your breath and which area of the body you are breathing into, inhale through the nose. Exhale through the nose.
- On your next inhale, feel the air fully fill your nose, glide down your chest, and into your lungs filling your lungs with fresh oxygen as your abdomen rises.
- And as you exhale you fully release all of the air, feeling your abdomen fall and your body begin to relax.
- Inhaling through the nose as your abdomen rises and your lungs expand with air.
- Exhaling through the nose as you fully release and let go.
- Great job.
Practicing this exercise in moments of stress/overwhelm relaxes the central nervous system and reduces fight or flight reactions in the body, thus relaxing your body’s response in the moment.
Becoming aware of triggers and immediately adapting to breath awareness shifts mood, emotional state, and nervousness within the first 5 to 10 deep inhalations and exhalations.