breathing Archives - The Future Mindset

The 5 breathing techniques you have to do — Photo by Ale Romo Photography on Unsplash

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!

By Adam Smith

In today’s article, 10 Astonishing Benefits Of Practising Yoga. I will show you why yoga is beneficial for your mental wellbeing. The mindset of a yogi offers great mental strength I wanted to tap into. As well as physical benefits. The mental benefits for me are astonishingly effective. I hope today your inspired to give yoga a shot.

What I Thought Yoga Was

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Yoga? I always thought it was some hippy person or more of a female thing to do. I came to find out this was so far from the truth and a stereotype I wished I never had the pleasure of knowing.

Luckily for me during the early part of 2020 I was inspired to give Yoga a try. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we have experienced I had to do all my learning from home and started trying different videos via YouTube.

My first few I did was OK. Some were really annoying and others kind of put me off coming back. I persisted and thankfully I came across a channel called Breathe and Flow. The rest is history.

How Has It Helped Me?

Breathe and Flow have become my mentors daily with their amazing videos. They combine building strength, flexibility and mediation into their routine. They also adhere to beginners who have never done it before like me and as you get better a more expert variety.

To be honest I was shocked at how difficult some of the moves are and made me realise how my body is not in the shape it needs to be. Overall for me, I feel stronger more flexible and after every session, I feel challenged and relaxed for the day.

When I don’t do it I feel less in control of my emotions or more sluggish, it’s that noticeable.

10 Astonishing Benefits Of Practising Yoga

1. Form Of Meditation

Yoga can offer mediation in a variety of different positions that stretch the muscles but also relaxes you at the same time. With a major focus on breath work throughout the whole practice, this can help you take control of your breath and focus on the presence of what’s happening. After working on my core for example in Yoga, towards the end focussing on stillness through breath-work can have major benefits for the mind.

2. Great For Body Strength

I never realised how strong you need to pull off some of the moves you have to do in Yoga. I have so much respect for what people can do with their body now. Especially after trying them myself with a lot of wobbling and failure at the first attempt. Now I can hold myself in positions for a crazy amount of time and do positions I never thought possible when I first did it. With core strength being a major contribution to health as we get older, I feel this has helped me progress to a strong core.

3. Great For Discipline

One thing you need and develop with Yoga is discipline over the mind with moves that have long held especially.

An example I had was with core hold with me pressing my forearm backwards to make it a more intense experience on my abdominals. I thought 2 minutes wasn’t long at all but then the shaking starts fast for my body and 2 minutes felt like a lifetime.

But with the calming voice of my mentor Flo I have increased my discipline to persevere through discomfort and my mind telling me to give up like an alarm bell ringing. This sets you up for the day as well and has made me more consciously disciplined throughout my day too.

4. Increases Flexibility

After my sports years early in life, many years have passed and as a consequence, my flexibility has declined. This was very much apparent when doing different positions in Yoga compared to my mentor who could put his body in all kinds of positions.

Reassuringly Flo states that you don’t have to be in the positions he is in to get the benefits of the move which helped me feel less bad for sure. Brilliantly but slowly my flexibility has improved but I’m still yet to have my feet fully down in the downward dog. (This will happen)

5. Protection From Growing Old

As said previously Yoga is a great way of combatting age and keeping the body active. This is something I’m very conscious of and would like full control of my body without aches and pains during my later years. There have been miraculous cases where people have been suffering from back pain and after doing Yoga, the pain goes away. The body is like anything, if it’s underused it will lose all of its benefits, so keeping the body active through yoga is a great way that anyone can do it.

6. Makes You Happier

For me, I have become a lot happier person because of Yoga. It offers me a challenge but also a great sense of accomplishment in the process that makes me happy. Just like any exercise, the endorphins that get released can boost your mood levels. So if you need more happiness, yoga can definitely add to it.

7. Helps With Focus

Very similar to discipline it has increased my focus as well. Especially as a lot of the moves require you to be fully engaged to pull off. With the increased focus this can be transferred throughout the rest of your day with my productivity and focus on a task being heightened because of it.

8. Improves Balance

Some of the moves require great balance. For instance, doing a side plank with the arm in the air then rising one knee to your chest can be a real challenge. There’s a lot of wobbling for me but now that has stopped mostly and my balance overall has improved

9.Clears Your Mind

If your feeling stressed or feeling anxious, Yoga can help you dispel this feeling into one of calmness. With the daily stresses of life, being in control of your mind is crucial for your mental health and a great way to take charge of that is through Yoga practice.

Every time I finish my session I feel balanced mentally with a feeling of calmness which is much needed. Since this has become a daily habit I have seen negative feelings diminish and I am more aware of them creeping up on me.

10. Helps You Stay Present

The past and the future can be ever-present in your mind but Yoga can help quieten those thoughts into what you are doing presently through breath-work. My focus on the breath throughout the practice helps me stay present. I continue the breathwork through the day because of it which helps me stay in control of my emotions, especially stressful moments. Much needed when looking after 2 years old.

Final Thoughts

If your an athlete doing Yoga should be a must and be put into your daily schedule as will benefit your progress. Every child should be doing this too as it aides them in everything they need to work on with their developing body’s, I know first hand how much my son has improved with yoga that helped him in Karate and football.

Lastly for anyone who wants to develop their strength, core, flexibility, balance, mental health and a form of mediation. Yoga can be anything you want to be and has been practised for many centuries within the Asian world where it was invented and the benefits are eminence. Whatever stereotype you have heard about Yoga is untrue and if you can find the right mentor you will come to know how could it is. I would highly recommend check out Breathe And Flow on YouTube or Instagram. Hopefully, they can offer you something of value with Yoga.

Have a great day.

Namaste