You probably take breathing for granted. After all, you don’t have to think about it; your body breathes you. Scientists have discovered that modifying your breath has potential health benefits. You can speed it up, slow it down, hold it out, or hold it in. You can breathe all the way up from belly through chest into your head, or keep the breath in your belly only. There are hundreds of various breathwork practices.
Here, I am going to share a practice designed to balance your nervous system.
Breathing to bring balance to the nervous system
To balance the nervous system, you will try 4,7,8 breath. You inhale through your nose for a slow count of four, hold the breath for a slow count of seven, then exhale with force and sound for a slow count of 8. You will do this for five minutes three times a day.
Do not time share: just breathe, don’t do anything else. This can be the hardest part for people. But if you are washing the dishes or taking a shower while you 4,7,8 breathe you will not receive the full benefits.
Click here to watch Dr. Andrew Weil walk you through a demonstration of the process. Important note: PLEASE DISREGARD THE PART WHERE HE TELLS YOU HOW LONG TO DO THIS BREATHWORK. Since he recorded this video, the dosage has changed.
You will do this practice 5 minutes at a time, 3 times a day for maximum benefit.
The benefits
The breath is the portal to the nervous system. As such, when you mindfully breathe you bring the nervous system under your command. Meaning, you act as a conductor: guiding the orchestra of your nervous system into a homeostatic state. In short, you teach yourself to be in balance.
There are hundreds of breath practices. 4,7,8 breath, balances your nervous system by extending the exhale to double the amount of the inhale with a pause for holding breath. In this way, you rhythmically entrain your brain to relax. To calm down. And yet, this is a practice to do EVERY DAY. Not just when you are stressed.
Click here to listen to Dr. Andrew Weil extol the virtues of this pranayama practice. Stay through the instructions to hear him talk about the benefits.
Life is about habits
Think of breathwork as hygiene for your nervous system. Imagine, you wouldn’t brush your teeth only when you thought you might have a lot of food in them, right? You brush your teeth at least twice a day regardless of the food you can sense. Breathwork is like that. You choose to mindfully breathe daily. Which type of breath practice might change based upon your need; but, I encourage you to do so daily.
The dosage for this practice is three times a day, five minutes at a time.
That means across the course of the day you will be mindfully breathing for fifteen minutes. Everyone can take a total of fifteen minutes out of their day to use this tool. Perhaps set a reminder on your phone or link this to a recurring activity like going to the bathroom to help you remember.
For more about the importance of breathwork, read the book Breath by James Nester featured on my Resources page. And watch this Ted Talk to learn more about other types of breathing techniques.