Ask yourself how am I feeling?

Set a timer for 5 minutes.  In a comfortable seated position, soften your eyes, unclench your jaw, relax your throat.

Observe your breath moving in and out of your nose.

Breathe in slowly through your nose, intending the inhale all the way down into your belly (while appreciating roundness). Exhale even more slowly through your nose. No need to add force.

The inhale is long, slow. The exhale is even longer. You might consider counting with your breath – it does not matter at all what you count to, just make the count a bit longer for the exhale. Observe the sensations of your breath in your body, where you feel expansion, shifting, shrinking…no sensation is too small.

Sit breathing like this for 5 minutes. Simply 5 minutes.

When you are done, check in again: Ask yourself how am I feeling?

Breathing Techniques for Stress Reduction

We take our first breath when we are born.  We breathe all of our lives. Generally speaking, we breathe in and out approximately 22,000 per day, with little to no thought at all.  Pretty cool, right?

All the respiratory viruses and other challenges impacting so many these days have certainly given breath-awareness center stage. What’s (thankfully) coming out of the studies and into our lives is a greater understanding of how we breathe and the impact of respiratory challenges on lung function, energy levels, mental health and our overall well-being.

On the flipside of understanding the negative impact of shallow breathing on health; can you imagine how good you might feel if your respiratory diaphragm muscle (the major muscle of your respiratory system) was even stronger, more supple, with more space to move?

The list of benefits is long including ease in good posture, improved sleep quality, better digestion…but what I’d like to highlight right now is breathing as a practice for stress reduction.

Optimizing Your Breathing Techniques

Beginning with the celebratory statement that breathing practices are universally accessible, scalable and cost-free, the recent systemic review of research literature: Breathing Practices for Stress and Anxiety Reduction lead by Tanya Bentley at The Health & Human Performance Foundation, identified these criteria as optimizing outcomes of breathing practices for stress reduction:

• Any slow breathing
• Guided training
• Sessions ≥5 minutes
• Multiple sessions
• Practice time

There are so many things we can do for our health, but this one particular one seems within reach. Simply 5 minutes.

In-Person Breathing Series

If you are interested in joining the March 2025 Simply Breath series, hosted by KIHC, please contact me at [email protected] or register here (and click on courses).

To learn more about Pam and her approach, please visit her website, or explore her other articles on our KIHC website.