Looking for some breathing exercises to help with stress + anxiety, or just to get your meditation on? Us too, so we made a list of our three fave ways to breathe easy. 👃 Join us for some inhalation relaxation, won’t you?
1. Abdomen breathing: work those abs
Calm down, we aren’t suggesting an ab workout as a breathing exercise for stress...yeesh we have anxiety just thinking about that! 🏋️ Nope, this exercise has to do with your diaphragm (that muscle just beneath your lungs). Breathing from your diaphragm instead of your chest takes some of the workload off your body when it comes to breathing. 😌
How it works: get comfy and lie down on the floor with pillow support for your head + under your knees. Put a hand on your chest and the other on your belly ✋. Next take a deep breath in through your nose, but allow your diaphragm to inflate (if your shoulders go up, you’re a chest-breather…so stop that). Slowly exhale and repeat until you’re feeling your inner zen shine through ✨.
2. Count ’em out
Called “4-7-8 breathing”, this breathing technique can even help you fall asleep 😴 (ahem, our excuse for a mid-afternoon nap while writing this). It also involves a little tongue work… 😜
How it works: once again, get your comfy on before trying. Close your eyes and position your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind those pearly whites. Breathe in through your nose for a count of four, then hold for a count of seven, and exhale super slowly back through your nose for a count of eight. Just a few of these (2-4) will have you feeling calm af in no time 🧖♀️.
3. Alternate nostrils
Ok we know it sounds weird, but this is actually a meditative breathing exercise that dates back thousands of years 📜. Aka it’s worth a shot, right? We hear this one is like a shot of espresso ☕ for your senses, so if you’ve got a big work deadline to hit and need to reduce anxiety but also get the job done, try this!
How it works: find a comfy, upright meditation pose 🧘. Hold out your right hand and press your pointer and middle fingers into your palm so your thumb, ring and pinky fingers are hangin’ loose 🤙. Place your thumb over right nostril and inhale, only breathing in through your left. We like to inhale for a 5 count + exhale for 8, but you set the rules for whatever feels good here! Swap sides and repeat for a minute or two. Status: feelin’ serene, hbu?
You know what else is a proven stress-reliever? The calming scents of nature. When you activate your smell receptors (seriously what they’re called), your brain can start producing those feel-good chemicals like serotonin 🤯. For a fresh-from-the-forest scent, try our new minerals + moss scent stix 🍃. Or if you’re feeling like a little floral might calm ya down, we recommend our spring water + lotus scent spritz 🌺. We only use safer-to-breathe and better-to-smell ingredients, so talk about breathin’ easy!