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Three life-changing breathing techniques that will significantly improve your well-being

However you are affected by the menopause – insomnia, hot flushes, palpitations, lack of energy, etc., sometimes it doesn’t take much to feel better.

One proven remedy is short breathing exercises that you can easily incorporate into your day.

We’ll show you how to integrate three life-changing breathing techniques into your daily routine.

Regular practice will help you to manage stress, improve concentration and promote general wellbeing.

Did you know that there are also breathing techniques that you can use to increase your energy? Why is this possible?

Our breathing affects both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Every inhalation stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, while every exhalation activates the parasympathetic system. With this knowledge, we can consciously use our breath to calm or energise ourselves.

Before we show you specific breathing techniques, we would like to ask you if you have ever paid attention to how you breathe at all. Right now, or when you’re reading a book, or when you’ve just finished something annoying. Due to our increasingly fast-paced daily lives, many of us have forgotten how to breathe properly. We breathe shallow and focussed on the chest instead of deep and diaphragmatic. This shallow breathing can lower our energy levels and even contribute to feelings of anxiety.

So let’s start by discovering our natural breathing pattern.

Lie on your back and place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your stomach. Breathe in and out calmly. If the hand on your chest moves with your breath while the hand on your belly remains still, you are a chest breather.

The following three breathing techniques will help you to breathe significantly better again.

Belly breathing

Abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing helps us to breathe more slowly and deeply. It expands your lungs so that you can breathe in more air. This technique stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which can relieve the feeling of breathlessness and help to alleviate physical symptoms of stress and worry. Here’s how it works:

• Lie on your back or sit upright with good posture.
• Breathe in and out through your nose and observe the movement of your hands.
• After a minute, concentrate on keeping your chest still while your belly rises and falls with each breath.

Let’s go one step further. One of the best calming breathing techniques is called box breathing.

Box breathing

Box breathing helps you to slow down your breath and calm your mind at the same time. It involves deep breathing and counting to help distract the mind. Try it out:

• Start again right away: Sit on a chair, or lie on your back and place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach.
• Now shift your breathing to your stomach and pay attention to your breathing rhythm.
• As you inhale, count to four, then take a short pause and exhale to four, then take another short pause.
• From here, move on to box breathing: breathe in for a count of four, pause for a count of four, breathe out for a count of four and pause for another count of four. Just imagine the four sides of a square.

Do you have trouble falling asleep or do you wake up in the middle of the night? Then try this breathing technique:

4-7-8 breathing:

This technique helps with problems falling asleep or staying asleep. It helps to prolong the exhalation and trigger a relaxation response. This is how it works:

• Close your eyes and place your tongue behind your upper front teeth.
• Breathe in slowly through your nose and count to four.
• Hold your breath and count to seven.
• Breathe out slowly through your mouth and count to eight.
• Adjust the counting speed if necessary, but please make sure to maintain the full range.

Most people use breathing techniques primarily to calm down. However, these techniques can also be used to energise when needed.

Here’s a simple breathing technique you can use when you need a quick energy boost:

• Breathe in deeply through your nose, counting to four. Make sure your chest and stomach fill with air.
• Breathe out quickly through your mouth, counting to one.
• Repeat this sequence several times.

At the end of today’s newsletter, we would like to say something about mouth breathing. Since the publication of James Nestor’s book «Breath», there has been much discussion about the correct breathing technique. While most people naturally breathe through their nose most of the time, some people develop the habit of breathing through their mouth, especially during physical activity.

Again, take a moment to observe your own breathing habits.

Breathing through your nose has many benefits: It helps regulate air temperature, humidifies the air you breathe in and filters out foreign particles. Plus, you can actually smell the air you breathe in. Mouth breathing, on the other hand, can dry out the gums and oral tissue. It can also disrupt the natural balance of bacteria in your mouth and, in extreme cases, lead to facial and dental deformities.

Breathing properly is a skill that can be learnt. That’s why it’s all about practising, practising, practising! Find moments throughout the day when you can take a break and do deep breathing exercises. You can also be creative. Red traffic lights, for example, are an excellent incentive to take a few deep breaths.

These 3 life-changing breathing techniques have the potential to significantly improve your wellbeing and bring a sense of harmony into your life.

As always, we are here to support you every step of the way.

Enjoy the summer despite the heat and see you next time!

Get in touch if you need help. We are here for you.

Katharina, Joëlle & Adrian

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