Don’t Forget to Breathe!

Our breathing is a fragile vessel that carries us from birth to death (Leboyer 1976)👃💨

If you have ever explored how to improve any psychiatric symptoms you are experiencing, how to feel calmer, or even how to improve your performance, you have almost certainly come across advice to breathe! I know from experience that this advice can be fairly confusing for most people🤯. You might have thought "Breathing? But that's something we do 24/7.🧐". You're right, breathing is something we do every day, but most of us put little thought into it. But if we do, we can experience some great benefits! 👏

Is There Evidence Breathing Works?🤔 👉 I understand that many people can be sceptical about something as seemingly simple as breathing being able to make an improvement to your mental well-being, so first, off let’s take a look at the evidence…

🔶 Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing has been demonstrated to reduce stress/anxiety and depression symptoms in multiple studies (Brown & Gerbarg 2005 and Marshall, Basilakos, Williams & Love-Myers 2013). 🔶 Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing has been shown to help reduce negative emotional states such as depression, stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and insomnia (Descilo et al. 2010, Gerbarg 2005 and Agte & Chiplonkar 2008). 🔶 The practice of pranayama breathing has been shown to result in significant stress reductions in medical students over two months (Bhimani et al 2011) and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in 60 to 70-year-olds (Gupta 2010). 🔶 Pranayama breathing has also been shown to reduce stress and anxiety levels as well as improve test performance (Nemati 2013). 🔶 Deep breathing exercises have been shown to reduce symptoms of PTSD and normalise abnormal cortisol levels (Kim et al. 2013). 🔶 The degree of depression was reported to significantly reduce (68-73%) in participants with clinical depression after practicing Sudarshan Kriya breathing every day for three weeks (Janakiramaiah et al. 2000). 🔶 A central component of many relaxation techniques such as yoga or guided meditation is breathing retraining (Greenberg 2004).

There is an abundance of research and evidence demonstrating that practicing different breathing exercises can effectively reduce symptoms of various mental health disorders including anxiety and depression ✅.

✍️How to Get Started?💨 🔷Think about a time in the day that you are able to set aside to comfortably practice your breathing exercises. Then set an alarm on your phone to remind yourself. 🔷 It can be difficult to find the motivation to get started. But, this is down to you. You have to commit to yourself and your desire to improve your mental well-being. You have to hold yourself accountable to make a change. Be kind to yourself and take small, manageable steps. 🔷 If you are finding it difficult to muster the motivation, then a possible solution is providing yourself with a reward after completion such as a nice hot chocolate. Something you will look forward to. 🔷 Start off small. If practicing breathing is something you've never done before or struggled with in the past, deciding you're going to do 20 minutes isn't reasonable and is less likely to be achieved. Start off with a minute or two and then gradually increase the length of your practice over time. 🔷 You might not like breathing exercises. That’s valid and that is ok. But, it can be useful to think of it as a necessity. Brushing your teeth isn’t fun or pleasurable but it's something you need to do. 🔷 Remind yourself of the benefits!! 🔷 In stress and anxiety states, people can lack the motivation to practice breathing. But, if you practice when you are at baseline then when these emotional states occur your breathing techniques can work better. 🔷 Negative thought processes might reduce compliance with regular practice. That is normal. But, try and make it a habit and then you may find it easier to stay engaged. Remember, if you miss a day that is ok, just try again tomorrow.

👉 How Can Happio Help You With Breathing? We have some excellent breathing resources available here on the Happio app. Take a look in the Self-care section under the Breathing heading. These breathing exercises are designed to help you in everyday scenarios that occur. These include: ✅ Calm your mind (1-minute duration). ✅ Panic Attack and Anxiety Relief (3-minute duration). ✅ Fall Asleep (1-minute duration). ✅ Focus (1-minute duration). ✅ Reduce Stress (1-minute duration). ✅ Energy (1-minute duration).

👉The Science ... There is a lot of research demonstrating that many mental health disorders are characterised physiologically by an autonomic imbalance (Berntson and Cacioppo 2004 and Mussgay and Ruddel 2004). This imbalance of your body's fight or flight response is arousal in your sympathetic nervous system (your stress response) and decreased activity in your parasympathetic nervous system (your relaxation response) (Berntson and Cacioppo 2004). Generally, when you are exposed to a stressor this will increase your activity in the sympathetic nervous system but exposure to methods that induce relaxation will increase your activity in your parasympathetic nervous system.

Slow diaphragm breathing has been shown to reliably reduce the stress response and increase heart rate variability (Strauss-Blasche et al. 2000; Tripathi 2004). This is important because low heart rate variability is associated with high scores for anxiety and depression symptoms, fatigue, sleep quality, and autonomic dysfunction (Escorihuela 2020).

✍️ Deep Breathing exercise 👃 INHALE. Breathe in slowly through your nose for four seconds 👃. ⏸ PAUSE. Hold the air in for four seconds⏸. 👄 EXHALE. Slowly breathe the air out through your mouth for six seconds. (You can pucker your lips like you're sucking on a straw to help you with exhaling for longer)👄. 🔵 REPEAT. It is recommended you repeat this for at least two minutes but five to ten minutes is ideal 🔵. ❗️TIP - Count the seconds in your head to avoid doing the exercise too quickly❗️.

👉 Take Away Message… Breathing exercises can seem like an unnecessary and boring chore😴. But, the more you practice it and the better you get at it, the more you’ll like it and the easier it will become 🙌. Start small so your practice is manageable and easily incorporated into your life ✅. Don’t give up if you are struggling with it. Stay motivated by reminding yourself of the science behind breathing exercises and the research that demonstrates their effectiveness.👏

🤗 Remember Happio is here to help 🤗. You are not alone! Let me know what you think about breathing exercises in the comments below….