Breathe- Simple Trick Helps Focus, Energy, Depression, Anxiety, Sleep, and More
Breathe- One Simple Trick Helps Focus, Energy, Depression, Anxiety, Sleep, and More
(Scroll down to see links to supporting research, additional reading, videos demonstrating strategy)
We’ve surely had our share of challenges here in Central Texas. As if the blooming covid numbers and restrictions weren’t enough, now we’ve been frozen in by winter storms the likes of which we have never seen. We have lost power, water, and ability to travel for groceries, school, and work.
Many of our students have struggled with motivation, isolation, and virtual school. Some got anxious, some overwhelmed with school work and perfectionism, some can’t resist the temptation to play video games or watch YouTube during instructional times. Others just got down, lost their motivation. These are some of the ways we have struggled in coping with the added stresses.
What is one simple thing we can all do to help ourselves? We can breathe. But wait. That’s not completely it. We can learn to breathe better. We can engage in mindful breathing practices and learn to breathe properly. Find out the Breathe- Simple Trick Helps Focus, Energy, Depression, Anxiety, Sleep Read on, and be ready to be surprised by how a few simple breathing techniques can restore mental and physical health. Isn’t breathing something we do naturally without thinking? Yes, but modern man has lost their way with one of the simplest, most elemental aspects of our living and, well, breathing.
What if I told you that one simple trick, learning to breathe only through your nose, could help with anxiety, depression, insomnia, sleep apnea, crooked teeth and the need for extractions, athletic performance, acid reflux, fatigue, ADHD, dizziness, allergies, asthma, and more? I know, this sounds like a sales pitch for a “miracle cure.”
Except this is not a sales pitch, because I’m not asking for money, not trying to sell you anything except some ideas you and your kids can try for free with no risks or bad side-effects. You don’t have to leave your house, you don’t even have to work hard. Are these ideas supported by any research? You bet, and I will give you some links at the end so you can see for yourself. I also published a more comprehensive sophisticated guide for student loss of motivation and joy for virtual school, and will place a link to that at the end of this article as well. Don’t worry, that’s free too.
My Dad is 84 and is a health and fitness fanatic. He’s not a doctor, but I learned in the community that in the running world, he is known as “Dr. Keith,” for his eagerness to share his breadth and depth of knowledge about the human body, wellness, athletic performance, and links between physical and mental health. He gave me a book called Breath, by James Nestor. Being shut in for a week with spotty internet by a winter storm in a place that seems to have no snow plows, I picked it up and started reading.
Sure I’ve done breath work, mindfulness, meditation for myself and in my counseling practice to aide in calming anxiety and develop a focused, organized state of mind. I see quite a few children, teens, and adults who are bright, gifted, and also have ADHD, autism, and/or anxiety. Some get so wrapped up in their thinking they overwhelm, disorganize, and wear out one of their greatest assets, their smart brains. Then they have difficulty sleeping, socializing, and working. Finally, they begin to doubt themselves, feel defective, get emotionally dysregulated, have anxious/angry outbursts or withdraw, and may even start thinking they don’t want to go on or be here anymore.
These are the people I’m writing this for, and why I’m excited about what I’m learning from this book Breath, and the research it has inspired me to do. I hope you will be inspired and do some research too. What follows is a synopsis of what I have learned so far, and the applications for the population I serve.
It turns out there are explicit descriptions and references to the importance of proper breathing practices, especially to breathe through the nose, across cultures, geography, religions, ethnic groups, and time. I placed links for you below that show the research findings and technique demonstrations in videos to help create a more organized, coherent state of mind, sense of well-being, and respiratory health.
In addition to nose breathing, we can also learn to breathe less. Less is more, so they say. How can this work? It raises the level of carbon dioxide in your body. This helps you absorb more oxygen with less breathing. It also forces the body to engage in aerobic energy conversion, decreasing painful lactic acid buildup, and the fatigue some overbreathers get along with nausea and dizziness from exercise. This has also be used to successfully treat allergies, snoring, apnea, asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory conditions. It also restores proper ph to the bloodstream, so the kidneys don’t compensate by pulling bicarbonate out of the body into the urine. Over time this also leaches minerals like magnesium from the body creating a need for supplements.
So if this learning to breathe in less and exhale more completely and slowly is so great for performance, why don’t Olympic athletes use it? Well, turns out they do, and they have. Emil Zatopek, called the greatest runner of all time by Runners World magazine, claimed 18 world records and four Olympic gold medals. He was laughed at for using this technique. Coach Counsilman for the US Men’s swimming team used this method and his team in the Montreal Olympics took 13 gold medals, 14 silver, and 7 bronze.
Those guys worked hard at it, but you don’t have to in order to restore your respiratory system and get a variety of health benefits, by practicing a few minutes a day on your couch. You don’t even have to get up! 5.5 breaths per minute. That’s 5.5 seconds inhaling, 5.5 seconds exhaling. Exactly what happens when you say the Rosary. Buddhist monks’ most popular mantra, Om, Mani, Padme, Hum takes six seconds to sing, with a pause of six seconds to inhale. Kundalini yoga; sa ta na ma chant, six seconds to chant, six seconds to inhale. Breathe in through the nose. Slow it down. Breathe less. Increase your health, mental well-being, and longevity. Modern westernized versions of this technique can be found by googling “resonant breathing,” or “Coherent Breathing.”
Want to live longer and slow aging? Increase your lung capacity. Independent researchers have conducted longitudinal studies on thousands of people to determine that it is lung capacity, not genetics, or diet, or exercise, that best predicts lifespan.
Here are some simple exercises to increase lung capacity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Tibetan_Rites
Some just breathe exercises:
https://www.drweil.com/health-wellness/body-mind-spirit/stress-anxiety/breathing-three-exercises/
What to do with your mind while you breathe- six simple meditation techniques to help you learn this “Breathe- Simple Trick Helps Focus, Energy, Depression, Anxiety, Sleep.”
Mouth breathing and ADHD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4047298/
https://www.kimriouxdds.com/wp-content/uploads/Does-Childhood-Mouthbreathing-Cause-ADHD.pdf
Trouble sitting still? What you can do with your body while you breathe- a simple follow along video if you don’t have a routine? Try a yoga or stretching routine video from YouTube.
Nose breathing vs mouth breathing and allergies, asthma, sleep problems, mental health:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319487
https://www.healthline.com/health/mouth-breathing
Some quotes from medical and religious texts- sorry for all those I didn’t find and list below, I know there are so many, and don’t intend to endorse any one in particular!:
https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Breathing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong
https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/blog-the-banyan-insight/details/science-of-pranayama/
Free divers- this is what they do to go 200 feet underwater on a single breath and can hold it 8-12 minutes.
Try this: pant like a dog, breathing fast and shallow, for one minute. Notice how you feel. Next try breathing all the way in, pause, all the way out, pause again until you feel like you need more air, for one minute. How do you feel now? I watch people breathe in my practice. I notice when they stop breathing, hold their breath. Can you stop breathing without feeling anxious?
There may be many things we can’t do right now, but we can all breathe, and we can learn to do it better. That way we can open up, improve our physical and mental health, our quality of life and personal experience, and be ready to go when things open back up. Plus with covid hanging around, we want our lungs and respiratory issues cleared up, right?
I hope you enjoyed this article, Breathe- Simple Trick Helps Focus, Energy, Depression, Anxiety, Sleep.
Here’s the link to my free Guide for Student Loss of Joy and Motivation for School During Covid Restrictions
I’ve been experimenting with some of these strategies myself, and I notice the difference already. I’m planning to continue and do more research, if you would like a follow up article to find out what I’ve learned, shoot me an email at
bradmasonlpc@aol.com
and I will put you on the list.
Stay safe and warm!
Brad Mason
Book Breath
I want to create healthy happy life
It can be hard to work with a mind that keeps going to the problems and worries. It's time to teach children their power over thoughts and feelings.
I would like teachable exercises for; replacing thoughts that are not helpful, reasonable, or true, creating joy and emotional resilience, Mindgarden metaphor illustrating power and choice in thoughts, Dream Book strategy for identifying clear goals and building motivation, a video explaining how NOT to let others or situations have the power to bring you down!