breathing exercises Archives

March 31, 2021 By Megha Mahajan Leave a Comment

Can Pranayama Techniques Cool Your Body During Summer?

Are you using lots of water, cool drinks, air-conditioning or beach parties to beat the heat this summer? Would you be interested to know about an easy and inexpensive way to chill instead? If yes, then read this article to learn three different breathing techniques to cool down your body. Yes! You read it right. All you need to do is breathe! Here’s how Pranayama techniques can cool your body during summer!

Pranayama Techniques To Cool Your Body

1. Increased Rate & Depth of Breathing
Preferably lie down in Shavasana and practice deep diaphragmatic breathing, allowing the belly to rise with each inhalation. Make sure to increase your breathing rate too. A modified version of doing it is panting like a dog. Just open your mouth and stick out your tongue as far as it can go, then start panting. Make sure that your stomach goes in or contracts immediately with each exhalation.

Why does it work?
We sweat a lot during the summers. The evaporation of sweat cools down our body. In the same ways, with an increased rate and depth of breathing, we exhale a lot more water vapour. It enhances the cooling effect of the body. Now you know why dogs don’t sweat? They stick out their tongue and release the heat. More breaths and less movement ensures the double advantage of cooling your pace.

2. Sheetali Pranayama
Stick your tongue out and roll it like a straw. Inhale air through this straw as if you were sipping in a cool beverage on a hot summer day. Exhale through the nose. Sheetkari pranayama is a modified version of Sheetali, which can be done if you are unable to roll your tongue. Here you have to open your mouth with clenched teeth to inhale through them and exhale through the nose.

Why does it work?
When we breathe in through the nose, the air gets warmed up on its path to the lungs to match the internal body temperature. While we breathe in through the mouth, this doesn’t happen. On the contrary, the air gets moistened when we inhale through the mouth, enhancing its cooling effects.

3. Left Nostril Breathing
Use your right-hand fingers to block the right nostril and breathe through the left nostril. An easier way to activate the left nostril breathing is to insert a cotton plug in the right ear.

Why does it work?
Our body temperature is maintained by the movement of air through the right and left channels. The right channel is associated with sun, heat and activity. Whereas the left channel is associated with the moon, cool and rest. It is like the accelerator and brake pedals of a car. Applying the brakes gently slows down and cools off the overheated car engines. Similarly, when we deliberately breathe in through the left nostril, the brakes get applied to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to produce a cooling and calming effect on the body.

And there it is! We hope these 3 pranayama techniques will help you cool your body during these hot summer days. Try them and let us know your experience in the comments below. For more summer tips, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

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April 10, 2020 By Dr. Naina Sudarshan 3 Comments

Breathing Exercises To Strengthen Lungs

Have you ever wondered how many breaths we all take in our lifetime? On average we take about 675 million breaths in 80 years of life. Breathing frequency and type are different in different stages of our life depending on age, altitude, pollution levels, smoking, weather and other factors. Our lungs are the main organs of respiration as they are responsible for an exchange of oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) to keep the heart, brain, and other functioning of the body normal. Lung function and lung capacity are determined through the efficiency of exchange of oxygen (O2) and CO2 in our lungs. Any ailments with lungs can affect the health of the entire body. Have you ever thought about keeping your lungs healthy too? We can enhance lung capacity, which means the quantity of air a lung can hold. Certain breathing exercises can help the body make use of all the oxygen inhaled by our lungs in a better way. Here are three simple breathing techniques to strengthen our lung capacity.

Pursed lip breathing

Pursed lip breathing is a simple breathing exercise which helps in slowing down breathing and emptying the Lungs completely.

Method:

Sit in a comfortable position, relax the shoulders, neck, rest the tongue on the floor of the mouth and close your eyes gently
Inhale through the nose for 2-3 seconds
Purse your lips as when you blow the candlea
Breath out all the air slowly for 4-6 seconds
Repeat this for about 5 minutes

This type of breathing can also be done when someone feels shortness of breath during or after exercise or any heavy work which lets plenty of air in and out of the lungs that helps in restoring the normal breathing pattern.

Diaphragmatic or Belly breathing

How often in a day do we pay attention to our breathing pattern? Do you do shallow breathing or deep breathing? The diaphragm is the main sheet of muscle in between the chest and the abdomen that helps in respiration. But, usually, we develop the habit of breathing through chest, neck and shoulder muscles which limits the amount of air filling in and out of our lungs. Belly breathing strengthens the diaphragm and enhances the pulmonary efficiency. Here is the best way to train yourself for diaphragmatic breathing.

Method:

Lie down on your back on a flat surface with the knees bent or sit comfortably on a chair with neck, shoulder and head relaxed
Place your one hand lightly on your abdomen and the other hand on the chest
Inhale deeply through the nose for 2-3 seconds as you fill all the air towards your abdomen
Pay attention to the hand on the abdomen moving up while making sure hand on the chest is not moving up
Now exhale all the air through the mouth (Pursed lips) while tightening the abdomen inwards. Make sure the hand on your abdomen is moving down
Repeat this breathing for 5-10 minutes to get the maximum benefits

Alternate Nostril breathing

This is a type of deep and slow breathing in Yoga in which inhaling, and exhaling happens through alternate nostrils. Long term practice of this breathing improves the total capacity of the lungs while boosting the pulmonary function markers. It is also meant to purify the lungs and the circulatory system throughout the body.

Method:

Sit straight on a flat surface with relaxed shoulders and neck
Start with deep inhalation and slow exhalation couple of times or for a minute
While folding the index and middle fingers of the right hand, make Vishnu mudra to close the right nostril with right thumb and left nostril with ring finger
At first, close the right nostril and slowly exhale through left nostril
Keep the right nostril closed and slowly inhale through the left nostril and feel all the air going upwards while filling all the air deep down till the abdomen
Once you inhale all the air possible, pause briefly for 2 seconds
Now close the left nostril with the ring finger and release thumb to open the right nostril
Exhale out all the air through the right nostril with a pause of 2 second at the end
As your still closing the left nostril, inhale slowly through the right nostril letting all the air into right side of the body with a short pause of 2 seconds at the end
Again, close the right nostril and open the left nostril to exhale all the air out

This is considered as one round of alternate nostril breathing. Continue this pattern for 5-10 minutes to get the maximum benefits.

Practising one or more of these breathing exercises under good guidance is proven to strengthen our lungs. Be sure to do these breathing exercises on an empty stomach as a safety measure. These are short yet very effective ways to strengthen our lungs and boost our immunity as well – a much needed thing for today’s times!

For more breathing exercises, meditation techniques and yoga, tune in to experts on GOQii Play.

Stay home, stay safe, get active and #BeTheForce

March 3, 2020 By Sunita Arora Leave a Comment

Deep Breathing Techniques to Help You Beat Stress

Imagine being seated at your desk, going through the essential paperwork and working your way through those excel sheets like a keyboard wizard and then suddenly, you’re pulled into a meeting and briefed about another project. More paperwork fills your desk and now you’re multitasking. Deadlines get closer and stress levels soar higher. There’s no escape. You’re trapped at your desk. In such a scenario, high levels of stress do very little for your wellbeing. So how do you beat stress in a similar situation? The answer is simple – Deep Breathing!

Deep breathing is very easy to learn and the best part is that there’s no restriction on where and when you can do it. You don’t even need any special equipment. It is a great way to lower stress levels. When you breathe deeply, your brain sends signals to your body to calm down and relax. When you do deep breathing regularly, you can reap all the benefits it has to offer.

Benefits of Deep Breathing

Deep breathing calms the mind and the nervous system, triggering deep relaxation.
It helps you increase the intake of oxygen which nourishes the body and brain.
It lowers heart rate, respiratory rates and blood pressure.
Practising good deep breathing exercises helps you fall asleep, soothes muscles and gets you in meditation mode faster.
It’s a handy tool when you are tense or stressed during exams, interviews, meeting deadlines and so on.
Deep breathing helps clean and rejuvenate our vital channels of energy and regulates the heating and cooling cycles of the body.
Deep breathing also helps in relieving shortness of breath by preventing air from getting trapped in your lungs. You then have fresher air which makes you feel more relaxed and centred.

Breathing Exercises You Can Practice Easily

Let’s look at 2 very simple types of deep breathing exercises which are simple yet effective.

1. Simple Abdominal Breathing Exercise
Whenever you start feeling anxious, try this simple abdominal breathing relaxation technique. You can perform this exercise as often as needed. It can be done standing up, sitting down, or lying down.

How To Practice:

Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Your abdomen should expand and your chest should rise very little.
Exhale slowly through your mouth. As you blow the air out, purse your lips slightly, but keep your jaw relaxed. You may hear a soft “whooshing” sound as you exhale.
Repeat this breathing exercise for several minutes.
Begin with just 5 minutes. If you feel 5 minutes are too long, you can start with just 2 minutes.
Increase the time when you begin finding it easier and comfortable. You can practice this multiple times a day.

2. Equal Breathing
Equal breathing is one the breathing technique which focuses on making inhales and exhales with the same length between 3 and 5 counts. Once you get used to equal breathing, you can do it during your yoga practice or with other daily activities.

How To Practice:

Take a comfortable seated position and breathe in and out through your nose only.
Count during each inhale and exhale to make sure they are even in duration. Alternatively, choose a word or short phrase to repeat during each inhale and exhale.
You can take a slight pause after each inhale and exhale if you feel comfortable (normal breathing involves a natural pause).
Continue practicing this breathing technique for at least 5 minutes and you can increase the duration up to 10-15 minutes.

I Hope these deep breathing techniques help you level up, calm your mind and reduce stress! For more tips on how to beat stress, tune in to experts on GOQii Play. If you experience chronic stress or stress you cannot deal with in a healthy manner, consult a psychologist.

Do leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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