Breathing meditation: 3 simple breathing exercises BRIGITTE.de

What is breathing meditation?

In breathing meditation, simple breathing techniques are used to: improve mental and physical health. It is often associated with other relaxation techniques, such as yoga. Most breathing exercises can be done anytime, anywhere. However, there are also some breathing meditation techniques that should only be done under the guidance of an expert.

Benefits of breathing meditation

Breathing meditation has many health benefits – and is a completely free method for more mindfulness in life. Proper breathing has the following advantages:

  • Stress level is reduced
  • Thoughts and feelings are calmed down
  • The pulse and heartbeat are calmed
  • Concentration is strengthened
  • Feelings of fear and nervousness subside
  • Lung capacity is improved
  • Immune system is strengthened
  • Chronic pain subsides
  • Anger subsides
  • Grief is processed more easily

Instructions for breathing meditation

You can theoretically do the breathing meditation whenever and wherever you want – on the go, in the office or at home. Most people can best focus on breathing when they are in a quiet environmentin which they can be completely with themselves. The best thing to do is to go to a quiet room and sit comfortably or lie back on the floor. Start the meditation exercise as follows:

  1. Close your eyes and feel inside your body, focus your attention on yourself.
  2. Perceive your body in its current state.
  3. Concentrate on your breathing and feel how it flows – but do not try to influence it. Just notice it.
  4. If your thoughts drift away, bring them back to your breath slowly and calmly.
  5. When you breathe in deeply, feel how the belly and then the chest fill with air and expand, and slowly breathe down and become flat as you breathe out.
  6. If you want, you can mentally count as you breathe.

If you do this simple breathing exercise for ten to 15 minutes a day, has done a lot for itself through meditation.

Breathing meditation: 3 more breathing exercises

If the above variant is too boring in the long run, you can also test one of the next breathing exercises for meditation. Here are three other possible techniques:

Boxing breathing

Boxing breathing helps to calm the body in no time and strengthen concentration. It can be carried out anywhere. How boxing breathing works:

  1. Exhale deeply until all of the air has cleared your body, especially your lungs.
  2. Now inhale calmly and concentrated through the nose for four seconds and feel how the lungs fill with air.
  3. Hold this air in your lungs for another four seconds.
  4. Exhale slowly again for four seconds.
  5. Hold your breath again for four seconds.
  6. Start the exercise over again: inhale four seconds, hold four seconds, exhale four seconds, hold four seconds.

After just five minutes of this mindfulness meditation you will feel much calmer and more relaxed than before!

The quick shock breathing

With rapid shock breathing, we not only calm the body and mind, but can also train our arm muscles a bit in parallel with breathing. That is how it goes:

  1. Breathe in slowly and extend your arms completely upwards, your hands are open.
  2. Keep the position and air in the body short.
  3. Exhale, clench your hands into a fist and lower it to shoulder level.

The exercise at a faster pace Repeat 20 to 30 times.

Respiratory Therapy: The calming breathing

Soothing breathing helps best with stress and restlessness, to come back down quickly. Here's how it works:

  1. Exhale all air slowly out of the body and lungs.
  2. Breathe in slowly through your nose for four seconds until your lungs are completely full.
  3. Hold your breath for seven seconds.
  4. Breathe out slowly through your mouth. You can use the lip brake: press the lips together and leave only a small gap to allow the air to escape.
  5. Hold your breath for eight seconds while your lungs are empty.
  6. Start again, so inhale slowly for four seconds.

This technique of breathing meditation relaxes instantly, because it slows down breathing.

You can find even more breathing exercises here.

Recommended reading: Here we explain how to learn meditation. We also introduce other relaxation techniques and explain how stress management works.

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