May is Mental Health Month, and as such all month long here at MMW, we’ll be talking about the mental aspects of wellness.
In my last post about using our breath as part of a self care routine, I covered how to observe breath. Just the simple act of tuning in for a few minutes every day and simply listening to the clues your breath can give about overall wellness has many benefits. Today, I’d like to take this idea a step further and talk about ways we can actively use our breath and breath patterns to change our mental and physical states.
Breath and breath pattern might, quite simply put, be one of the easiest ways we have of changing our state. Breath is one of many types of biofeedback. Biofeedback is information we receive from our bodies that indicates relative health or wellness status. Biofeedback information allows us to assess what is going on and make changes if necessary.
Two simple examples: our body temperature and weight. Both are ways our bodies give us information that we can use to either continue on our course or make changes if needed. If we have a fever, we take some medicine, rest, and get fluids to help our bodies fight infection at the root of the fever. When we step on the scale, we use the number to track trends in our health. If the number is trending up or down and that isn’t what we want, we make tweak our diet and exercise habits.
Actively changing our breath patterns and focusing on those changes for a few minutes every day can be part of its own biofeedback loop. If you have observed your breath and you noticed that your breath was being held, restricted, or was choppy, you can focus on changing the pattern to bring about both relief of tension and anxiety in both the body and mind. And the good news: it isn’t hard.
Labeling
Labeling is one technique that can be used to tap in to the breath biofeedback system. Each inhale will receive a word as a label, as will each exhale. The two words you choose should be different. Ideally, they should be opposites, but that isn’t strictly necessary. In a quiet place, get yourself comfortable in a seated or lying posture. Take a minute or so to just center, or bring your attention to your breath. Once your attention is firmly focused on your breath, go ahead with your labels. Mentally brand your physical inhales with its word and do the same with your exhales. Continue in this manner for 3-5 minutes and then slowly bring your awareness back to the world at large.
Here are a few examples of label pairs that I have used: The actual words inhale and exhale. Simple and straightforward generally works well if you are new to any sort of meditation practices, which this is, by the way. If I am in a nerdy place I like to use oxygen for the inhale and carbon dioxide for the exhale. Rising (inhale) and falling (exhale) is a set that I really enjoy. Not only do these labels connect with your breath, but they also connect with the physical sensations of your chest cavity. They also invoke a calm, rhythmic sort of feeling (like watching or listening to waves) that is very relaxing.
Counting
Just as there are many different word pairs you can use for labeling your breath, there are many different ways to count breaths. I’m going to cover just a few with their reported benefits. For any of these counting techniques, you’ll start the same way as outlined above. Find yourself a quiet place and get comfy. Take a minute or so to center and then jump in to whichever counting method strikes your fancy. Continue for 3-5 minutes (set a non-ticking timer) and then bring your awareness slowly back to the present.
One to Ten: This method is as its name implies. Choose an inhale to start and count 1. On the exhale count 2. Continue with the odd numbers for the inhales and evens on the exhale breaths until you reach ten. Then start over with the next inhale. Counting to ten is simple, the challenge with this method is keeping focus. It is easy to lose focus and forget which number you are on, or to end up at 27 not quite sure how it happened. This is a great method to use if you need to clear your mind of distractions or prep for something that requires concentration.
Equal Pacing: This method refers to any count where the amount of time taken to inhale matches the exhale. Most times, teachers will use a four-four count with this method. It allows for nice, full breaths without being too strenuous on the lungs. Again, choose an inhale and allow air to come in for a count of four. Allow four counts for the exhale and continue on. This method is great if during breath observation you noticed that your breath phases weren’t approximately equal. With this method, you are concentrating on moving air and giving each phase equal consideration.
Victorious Breath: This method is similar to Equal Pacing in that each inhale and exhale is assigned a given amount of time. It is different, though, in that the exhale phase is twice as long. So here, a four count inhale is followed by an eight count exhale. This will seem uncomfortable at first as the lungs are trying to empty out more air than is taken in, but the body will relax several cycles in. And this biofeedback method is by far the best if you are dealing with mental stress or anxiety. I mean, we are constantly told to take a deep breath when we are stressed, right? The thing is most of take a deep inhale and then forget to let go, which causes more stress. Here, the focus is the release, allowing tension to leave.
Square Breathing: Nothing too radical here than what we’ve already seen. But now, we are going to add counts to the spaces between inhales and exhales. And a square has four equal sides, so we are using equal counts here. Four counts to inhale, four counts to hold, four to exhale, and four more to hold until the next breath cycle. This is called square breathing because it can actually be helpful to draw a square in your mind while you count. This method is great if you noticed any unconscious holding, gasping, or choppiness during breath observation. Square breathing reminds our bodies that there is a time for our lungs to move and a time to hold. Putting those pauses in the appropriate places is just as important as breathing fully.
Again, this by far is not a comprehensive list of all labeling and counting techniques. I encourage you to check out what is out there and try a few out. Like me, you will probably find that having a stable of these is handy as not every method works for every mental situation or state. Do you have a breath counting technique you like? Tell us about it in the comments!
Until next time, be well friends!
