As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact every aspect of our lives, it’s important to stay focused on the things we can control to create certainty and to build resilience. One of the most basic and impactful controllables is a simple act most people take for granted—breathing.
When you understand how to breathe correctly, it relieves anxiety and stress, helps to regulate our emotions, allows you to focus, and improves communication. In the video below, I teach the importance of breathing and demonstrate several easy breathing practices you can do at home. I’ll show you how to elongate our breath by using our whole bodies to breathe—versus just our neck or chest—so we can achieve a state of relaxed concentration and cultivate a sense of well being and being calm.
Breathing the right way is also crucial for improving strength and athletic performance, especially as we age. When you breathe properly, it brings the heart rate to a range that’s conducive with optimal physical and cognitive performance. It can also strengthen the diaphragm muscle, which tends to weaken as we get older, and allows you to flex your muscles more intensely, which helps with athletic performance.
In terms of stress relief, breathing the right way can help you control your anger and fear so you can process the emotions and react appropriately, and by positively affecting our psychological state, it can help stop panic attacks, freezing, or choking under pressure by lowering our stress arousal levels.
Check out the video below to learn more about breathing techniques and watch me demonstrate a few that help relieve stress and improve focus. Find even more virtual trainings here.
