Box breathing is a quick and simple technique to help calm ourselves down in stressful situations.
It's so effective at calming people that it's not just practiced by yoga and meditation types,
But it's also recommended by US Navy Seals.
And you can guess that their high pressure situations are likely more stressful than yours or mine.
Before we start,
Something to note about breathing in general.
It's generally better to favor breathing through our nose rather than our mouths and to breathe more into our belly than our chest.
And why is this?
Well,
The nose is a better natural air filter than the mouth,
Meaning that dust and other particles in the air don't get into your lungs.
And breathing into your belly uses the diaphragm,
Which is more efficient way to breathe than using all the muscles in your chest.
So take a moment now to place your hand on your belly and look down at how you're breathing.
Can you feel your belly rising and falling under your hand?
Can you see your chest rising more?
For this exercise,
See if you can breathe more into your belly than your chest.
Right,
This technique is called box breathing,
And it's called that because it has four parts.
We inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
And hold,
Each for a count of four.
Make each breath nice and deep,
And you can have your eyes either open or closed.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Hold.
Continue for a couple more rounds,
Counting for yourself.
This technique helps us draw air deep into our bodies,
Slowing down the breathing rhythm and stimulating the vagus nerve,
Which runs through the central nervous system.
The vagus nerve affects heart rate and digestion and releases neurotransmitters that activate the parasympathetic nervous system,
Which has a calming effect.
And as mentioned before,
You can use this technique when you're alone or in public without anyone knowing what you're doing.
