Deep Breathing

 4-7 Breathing Exercise

By purposefully and mindfully breathing we can change the way we feel and how our bodies react to what’s going on around us.

Benefits:

Decreases stress, eases anxiety, improves sleep, boosts mood, lowers blood pressure, reduces anxiety, calms the mind.

When using breathing exercises we send a calming signal to our nervous system which manages things like our heart rate and stress response.

It’s a simple exercise that can be done anywhere, at any time; commuting to work, before a stressful meeting, when the children or family just get too much!

Whilst initially practicing, sit with your back straight. Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there through the exercise.

• Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.

• Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.

• Pause

• Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of seven.

• This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.

Note: 

• Inhale quietly through your nose 

• Exhale audibly through your mouth. 

• The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. 

• Exhalation takes twice as long as inhalation. The ratio of 4:7 is important.

With practice you can slow it all down and get used to inhaling and exhaling more and more deeply.

This exercise is subtle at first but gains in power with repetition and practice. Do it at least twice a day

For the first month do no more than four breaths at one time. 

Once your technique has developed, it will be a very useful tool that you will always have with you.