Breathing in and out is easy, but in the same manner, its working is complex your whole respiratory system is involved while you inhale oxygen that oxygen is used by the cell’s in your body, and the waste those cells produce is known as “carbon dioxide” which you exhale.
On average, you take around 23,000 breaths. Apart from the normal breath that we take there are different types of breathing such as lion’s breath, equal breathing, sitali breath, and more each of them has there own benefits as well as drawbacks.
What is the breathing 4-7-8 technique?
Breathing 4-7-8 is one of the many techniques. It was developed by Dr.Andrew Weil, he is an American doctor, he is the founder as well as director of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine… This breathing technique is based on “pranayama” (the practice of breath control in yoga while doing movements between asanas)
Breathing 4-7-8 was designed to help you sleep better and help you get into relaxation as you do this technique your mind and body focus on each breath eliminating your other worries as you lie down at night to sleep. It can help a person to fall asleep faster than usual.
This breathing technique when you focus and imagine. As you focus on your breaths you bring your diverted mind to an ease of just focusing on your breath which helps you get calm and visualizing peaceful flow of your natural breaths. While visiting your happy memories will help you a lot to get relaxed.
How to do breathing 4-7-8?
As the name suggests breathing 4-7-8, these numbers represent the seconds to inhale, hold, and exhale your breath. The breathing 4-7-8 technique is an easy and powerful tool to help you relax. When you take your first breath you will feel a bit dizzy don’t worry and relax it will pass.
There is no need for any kind of equipment just sit down or lie down whichever is comfortable to you. As I mentioned above if you are trying this breathing technique so you can sleep lie down would be the best way for you to go.
- Make yourself comfortable as you may or may not close your eyes.
- Make a woosh sound and exhale completely through your mouth.
- Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth, behind the top front teeth. It’s important to keep your tongue in the same position throughout breathing.
- You will inhale through your nose for the count of 4 seconds.
- Hold the breath till you count to seven.
- Exhale through your mouth(while making a woosh sound) for 8 seconds.
- If exhaling is hard for you, try pursing your lips which will make it easier to exhale.
- Don’t worry if you are not able to do with 4-7-8 seconds of duration.
Consider this process of 4-7-8 seconds as a set and when you inhale again you start a new set or a new breath. Do this breath for three to four times.
Let it all go off the worries, stress as you feel your shoulder getting relaxed. Hopefully, you will feel more relaxed and calm now gently open your eyes and sit quietly for at least a minute before you get up and get back into the hectic world.
As a beginner do not perform this breath more than twice a day and three to four breaths at a time when you have a month of experience behind your back if you want you can extend it to 6 to 8 breaths at a time. With enough practice, you can get used to doing this form of breathing slowly and deeply.
Only practice this breath when you are in a relaxing environment and when you don’t have to go in alert mode just after performing this breathing. You can do breathing 4-7-8 early in the morning with added benefits of waking up early or before going to bed.
Some people couple this breathing technique with mindful meditation, yoga, or any other form of exercise that helps your mind and body get relaxed.
Are these numbers important?
These number are not as important as the ratio to keep. Everybody can’t hold there breath for & second or exhale for 8 second they might come face to face with some trouble so instead of focusing on 4-7-8 second focus on ratio.
For example, inhale for 3 seconds hold it in for 5 seconds, and exhale for 6 seconds.
Benefits of breathing 4-7-8
When someone is dealing with anxiety or suffer from stress on regular basic deep breaths can you help that what we all know? As we take deep breaths we focus on breath and that helps us calm our mind and lead to long-term stress-reducing benefits also.
Breathing 4-7-8 technique is a great tool to be relaxed through out the day.
- It helps you fall asleep easily if you’re someone who has trouble going to sleep at night you should do it.
- It gets rid of your cravings such as cigarettes or any other craving that you have.
- This will not happen overnight it takes time so doing this month can lower your heart rate.
- It eliminates anxiety, that’s good if you are suffering from it.
- We all have hectic days and this breathing technique can help you calm down so you won’t make any wrong decisions when you are not in the right mind.
- It also improves your digestion system.
This breathing technique is a natural medicine unlike other drug that lose there power over time at first you might not like this exercise but gradually with each increasing repetition and breath it will come in handy to deal with stress, and anxiety.
Conclusion
Breathing is one of the things that connect’s our entire body. There are many breathing techniques that are easy to do and offer plenty of health benefits too. If you have never tried any breathing technique you should try one and the breathing 4-7-8 technique would be ideal it’s easy to do won’t take much of your time and after a period of time, you will start noticing its benefits.
There are several videos on youtube or apps that help you keep track of breathing second with soothing music to accompany you.
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