9 Breathing Techniques to get more out of your meditation

Many of us are familiar with a wide variety of breathing and meditation techniques in our own practice but when we’re stressed or full of anxiety, we often revert to basic deep breathing to calm ourselves. Or even maybe we need some inspiration for that next class or client or to freshen up our own mediation practice.

1. deep belly breathing:

Most of us, most of the time, breathe only from and into our chests. Even when we get stressed and consciously breathe deeper, it’s not quite this deep, beneficial belly breathing.

“Chest breathing happens out of fear, stress, and habit,” says Katie Robinson, yoga teacher, empath, and inner child healer. “What we want to do is to take our breath from our chest down into our bellies.”

It should never be painful or uncomfortable, just enough for a little squeeze so you can really hear, feel, and know your breath. “Your presence and your awareness is your breath, and the longer you stay with that breath, the more your body will relax,” Katie says.

To practice:

• Inhale through the nose and on the exhale out of the mouth.
• At the very end of your breath, slightly pull your belly towards your spine.

2. cooling breath

This breathing technique is super helpful for stress and anger, anytime you feel that heat building up in your body. The more you take the time to really feel the coolness, the more it helps your body to relax and destress. Do this breath as many times as you need to to feel the effects.

To practice:

• Make an O with your lips and as you inhale, feel the cool sensation of the air over your tongue
• Close the mouth and exhale out of the nose.

3. take 5 breathing:

This type of breath really helps people who are super sensitive to touch. It’s powerfully grounding and connects you to your body. “Really feel this one. Feel your breath, feel your finger, feel your hand,” reminds Katie. The more connected your mind is to the sensations of the body, the easier you ground into your body and relax.

To practice:

• Hold one hand up, fingers spread and close your eyes.
• Using the index finger of the opposite hand, slowly trace the hand you’re holding up beginning at the base of the thumb of the outstretched hand.
• Inhale up the outside of the thumb, exhale, down the inside of the thumb. Inhale up the outside of the index finger, exhale down the inside of the index finger.
• Do this breath with all the fingers at least five times, as many times as you want.

4. core connection breathing:

Feeling ungrounded, disconnected, and unsupported is often at the heart of anxiety. The belly button is the center of our core. “It helps get us out of the mind and into our belly, the place of our intuition, the place of our gut, which is also a second brain,” says Dagmar Spremberg of Montezuma Yoga.

Doing this breathing exercise can help tremendously for those of us who experience mild to moderate anxiety. The more you bring conscious attention to this part of your body, “the stronger you connect with your core, your power center, giving you a sense of grounding and connection,” says Dagmar.

To practice:

• Close your eyes, slow your breath, focus on making it nice and deep.
• Fix your attention on your belly button.
• Feel or visualize the belly button gently expanding on the inhale and contracting on the exhale, finding your own rhythm and balance.
• You can also visualize a little flame in your belly, spreading calming light and warmth into the rest of your body.
• You might also choose to bring the breath all the way to the base of your spine, your root, and feel a sense of grounding, connection, and support.

5. prana shuddi:

Prana Shuddi, the ancient Tantric breathing technique that’s the mental version of alternate nostril breathing, helps balance both sides of your brain and calm the mind.

To practice:

• Close your eyes and bring all your awareness to your breath.
• Let your breath fall in and out naturally but slowly.
• Deepen your breathing and consciously make each inhale the same length as the exhale.
• After you get settled in, on an inhale imagine the breath going up the right nostril, over the bridge of your nose and to your third eye.
• At the top of the breath, mentally direct your exhale across the bridge of your nose and out the left nostril.
• On the next inhale bring it up the left, to the third eye, and on the exhale, mentally direct it out the right.
• Go back and forth like this for the entirety of your breathing practice, giving yourself a few breaths at the end to relax your mental direction and breath naturally.

6. breath counting:

Breath counting stems from Daoist traditions. “It’s great for busy minds, scattered thoughts, anxious personalities, forgetfulness, and for those certain days where you feel like you have a monkey mind,” says Kori Hahn of Santosha Society.

This is a super helpful breathing technique for people who are new to meditation as well as masters. In fact, Son Buddist masters claim that if you can master the count to 100 and back, you’ll have developed the mental strength to accomplish anything in life you set out to do.

To practice:

• As you inhale, count 1-2-3-4, slowly.
• On the exhale count 4-3-2-1.
• Feel free to count higher if you’d like to, but know that if you lose track of your number, you have to start back at 1.

7. relax the body, relax the mind:

In this meditation, Kori uses a short, repetitive mantra to change unconscious past habits that are no longer useful.

She says that MRI studies show this type of mantra-based meditation to “reduce heart rate and blood pressure, activate the relaxation response in the nervous system, and release stress in the body and mind.”

To practice:

• Start by breathing naturally but with awareness, focusing on the breath and relaxing.
• Inhale in through the nose, feeling it move down to the chest, into the belly, and exhale to release and relax.
• As you inhale, say to yourself “Relax your body.” Exhale.
• On the next inhale, “Relax your mind,” over and over with each breath.  You can say my body, the body, whatever feels best for you.
• Additional mantras can be “Inhale space, exhale tension and tightness, “Inhale love, exhale kindness” or other mantras that feel resonate with you.

8. 4 – 7 – 8 breathing:

This technique is a great solution for anxiety, racing hearts, and frazzled nerves. The 4-7-8 technique is accredited to Dr. Andrew Weil, integrative medicine expert, but it’s based on the ancient yoga traditions.

To practice:

• Part your lips and push your breath out all the way, making an audible whooshing sound.
• Then inhale slowly through your nose counting to four.
• At the top of the breath, hold for seven seconds.
• On the exhale, push your breath out again with a whoosh and count to eight.
• Do this four times, and up to eight with practice.

9. the brain rinsing breath:

This one is one that probably exists somewhere else too but it’s one that I made up for when I’m having trouble clearing my mind, especially when I’d find myself wide awake and anxiety-ridden at 4am. Sometimes just a few breaths is all I need to get back to sleep. Sometimes more.

If you’re a highly visual/sensitive person, you might actually see or feel your thoughts washing out of your head and feel a lighter, cleaner sensation in your head.

To practice:

• Take a deep breath and on the inhale imagine your breath coming in like a wave from both your nostrils, washing up your forehead and over the crown of your head.
• At the top of your breath hold it for just a second or two, and visualize this wave washing the inside of your head clear of thoughts, stress, and anxiety
• On the exhale, visualize your breath going down the back of your skull and rinsing away everything you just cleared out.
• Repeat until you fall asleep or your mind feels clear and calm.

I created this list knowing that the general idea of the techniques, and probably even some of the specific techniques themselves, will be familiar to you.

But what I’m hoping is that you catch a new one in here, or have an ah-ha moment where you catch one that’s perfect for a specific class or client.

If you have any techniques you love that aren’t on the list, share that knowledge, sister, and leave them in a comment below!