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The 5 Breathing Techniques You Have To Do

Why Breathing Is A Powerful Tool

The typical adult can take between 14,000 to 20,000 breaths a day. How many do we notice? I can say with confidence probably not an awful lot. The system works perfectly so we don’t even have to take much notice of it. I would even say we take it for granted that it works so well, especially as it’s the process that’s keeping us alive. Depending on our mood or physical state our breath can be smooth when we are calm and very intense when we are fearful. That’s why it’s important to take control of our breath when our body is in demanding situations.

A Great Form Of Meditation

Breath-work for me has become a great way of meditating by taking control of my breath I can therefore take control of my thoughts and emotions. Doing any of these 5 exercises below has helped me feel at peace with my self. Where now I feel more calm, focussed and happy within my life. I hope 1 of these techniques below can help you feel the same.

The 5 Breathing Techniques

4 7 8 Breathing

This technique is great when you’re on the move. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 7. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of 8. This is helpful when you’re surrounded by people in a stressful situation or you feel anxiety while walking or in daily life. This has helped me tremendously is taking control of my stress and anxiety and reverting it to my normal state.

Wim Hof

This is probably the most famous breathing technique around with millions of views on YouTube currently. Wim has been pushing his bodies boundaries for over a decade breaking world records along the way. Now he teaches his methods and the breathing technique he uses. It’s intense breathing through the nose and out the mouth for 1 minute then taking 1 last deep breath in and on the exhale hold for either 1min or 2min then breathe in then hold again for 15 secs before repeating the exercise 3 more times. Wim claims that people do a lot of slim breathing and deep intense breathing can have positive impacts on endurance and strength conditioning.

Box Breathing

The reason its call box breathing is because it focuses on all 4 corners of the breath. The inhale, breath-hold, the exhale, and breath-hold. The preferred use of this is by following the pattern of inhaling for 4 seconds, followed by a four-second hold, then exhaling for 4 seconds and then followed by a 4-second hold. This should all be done breathing through your nose for a minimum of 5 rounds. This is preferred to be done early in the morning or of course when your feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed.

Nadi Shodhana

I first came across this with Breathe and Flow. They tend to do this after a Yoga session. This is alternate nostril breathing so first with your right hand get your thumb and wedding ring finger and place it on your nostrils. Then with your pointer and middle finger place those between your eyebrows. Followed by closing your left nostril with your thumb and breath in then out and back in one more time and then close the right nostril to breath out through the left nostril the breath in through the same nostril. Then repeat for 5 to 10 cycles allowing your mind to follow the cycles like a wave in the sea. I feel amazing after doing this and my mind and nostrils defiantly feel clear.

Kapalabhati

This is an intense breath-work which consists of alternating short, explosive exhales and slightly longer, passive inhales. Exhales are generated by powerful contractions of the lower belly which push air out of the lungs. Again this is used after my Yoga practice.

Final Thoughts

These are the 5 techniques that I have practised. My personal favourite is the Nadi Shodhana but all have their positives. I tend to go through them all each month to keep me on my toes and not to get too comfortable doing just 1 technique. I recommend if you haven’t already just to give it a go for 1 month and evaluate your experience and whether you have gained anything from it. For me and a lot of people, I’ve read or come across it has helped them a lot. So let’s get back to basics and get in touch with breathing. It’s what’s keeping us alive.

I hope enjoyed this post on breathing techniques, I hope to see you in the next post!

The Focus You Gain By Creating To-Do Lists

By Adam Smith

What Is A To-Do List

We all know what a to-do list is and you’ve either decided If it works for you or it doesn’t. I’ve been in both corners where I’ve written endlessly amounts of to-do list but end up not doing any of them. Then I have written some that I tick off every single one and feel a seance of accomplishment. I researched why this was and it’s pretty much down us as people. The focus you gain by creating to-do lists is a great way of helping you complete tasks which I will go through shortly but what hinders this is a thing called procrastination. That painful inaction that stops everything you wanted or needed to do for short term pleasure but long term pain.

What To Do First

Before doing any to-do list you have to make a pact with yourself to honour your list your about to write. If not it won’t mean anything to you and can easily be cast aside. There are many ways you can hold yourself accountable. I do it because I don’t want to be a liar to myself but this could go much deeper or have it written up where everyone in your house can see it or email it to a weekly accountability partner. Whatever it is make sure you do this first.

How It Can Help You

The main point of a to-do list is to get things done, whether that be a start-up or chores around the house. When you write it down it helps organise your thoughts into clear actions that you can accomplish as well letting your subconscious mind know exactly what needs to be done. Its always so surprising how many goals I tick off later in the month that has been subconsciously coming my way.

How I Use It

For me, I love writing my list down on paper rather than my phone but that’s just a personal preference. If that’s not for you there are 100s of different to-do list apps that can be great for you. (The notebook has been a personal favourite in the past.) When I do write it down I do a monthly list of everything that pops up into my brain. I drain my brain so there’s nothing else left. Then daily I write down the 3 main goals that I have to do no matter what.

This helps me to tackle the big goals then I always look at my monthly to-do list daily for a quick reminder of what other small tasks I can do throughout the day if I have time like making a dentist appointment or getting a new battery for my watch. Then every month I evaluate what’s got done and start the whole process again.

How It Boosts Productivity

Since committing too to-do lists my productivity has gone through the roof. Where before a lot of things used to get done last minute or not at all. Now 80 – 90% of all my tasks get done. It’s not perfect with some tasks that I never get round to but on the comparison, it’s light-years ahead of what I was achieving before.

Final Thoughts

We’ve all got things we need to do. That’s just a thing of life. But the difference between you achieving your goals and your desired outcome is taking action to get there. The focus you gain by creating to-do lists when used the right way can be an effective way of getting thoughts on paper and paper to action. I would love to hear your thoughts on this on whether it works for you or not. I hope it helps you as much as it as helped me.

See you soon on the next post!