How to Boost—Or Chill—Your Energy with Your Breath
When you calm your breath, your mind will follow. When you breathe rapidly, energy is amped up and you get ‘high on your own supply’.
Hi, I’m Katherine Howlett, an advanced LIVING YOGA METHOD Breath coach, providing a sneak peek into two of the revolutionary breath techniques I’ll be teaching on the Breathwork & Yoga Weekender Retreat, 10-12th March 2023 in Hampshire- take a look at Blue Stone Retreats.
2 Powerful techniques designed to:
Oxygenate the blood
Detoxify your body
Increase immunity
Build lung strength
Increase cardiovascular health
Increase memory and brain function
Optimise wellbeing, increasing joy and mental health.
Dirgha Breathing - optimize stress management
Dirgha (pronounced dear-gah) Breathing is great to do just before bed or any time you’re in need of a moment of calm. Dirgha means ‘three-part’ because you’re going to breathe in three in parts of your body, activating your diaphragm to send messages of ‘calm’ to the brain. It’s one of the oldest breathwork techniques dating back thousands of years and has now been scientifically proven to hold clear health benefits. How cool is that?
How to do it:
Get comfortable
Sit comfortably, or lie down, with your hands on your tummy.
You’re going to breathe through your nostrils, so close your mouth gently.
Close your eyes.
5 in the belly – deep belly breaths
Breathe in slowly through your nostrils imagining a balloon inflating your tummy to fullness.
Breath out slowly through your nostrils imaging the balloon deflating as you bring your abdomen towards the spine.
Repeat 5 times.
5 belly to chest - a wave of breath, from belly to chest.
Breathe in slowly and deeply through your nostrils imagining a balloon inflating your tummy, and then rising to your chest to fullness.
Breath out slowly through nostrils imaging the balloon deflating and falling chest to belly as you bring your abdomen towards the spine.
Repeat 5 times.
5 in the chest – right up to your clavicles.
Breathe in slowly and deeply through your nostrils imagining a balloon inflating your chest to fullness as your shoulders rise and ribs expand.
Breath out slowly through your nostrils imaging the balloon deflating your chest as your shoulders gently fall.
After poise
You’ve done the work, now feel the benefit.
30 seconds. Be in your body.
Feel the effect of breathing consciously on your body and brain.
‘How you breathe will determine the success of your life!’
Double Breathing – the Oxygen Advantage to Ramp up your Energy.
Double Breathing activates the breath in short sips, with clear pauses between each breath. The health benefits of Double Breathing are huge. It detoxifies, builds stress resilience, and gives a huge boost to the psychology and mental functioning. Plus, you’ll fee amazing afterwards so get ready to feel ‘high on your own supply’! You could feel a little dizzy at first with all that extra energy buzzing around, and this is perfectly normal – it’s just because your body hasn’t done this before - so, lie down for this technique.
How to do it:
This technique uses what you already know from Dirgha Breathing, so you’re already well on your way. Double Breathing is performed in one to three rounds of 30 breaths, followed by a period of not needing to breathe, called ‘Dynamic Stillness’.
Get comfortable
Lie down, with the backs of your hands on the floor.
You’re going to take two sips of air in through your nostrils (in-in) then open your mouth to breath out twice (out-out).
Close your eyes.
10 in the belly – deep belly breaths
Take two sips of air through your nostrils imagining a balloon inflating your tummy to fullness. (In-In).
Open your mouth, breathe out twice through your nostrils (out-out) imaging the balloon deflating as you bring your abdomen towards the spine. It will feel like ‘hah – hah’.
Keep a steady, slow rhythm with clear pauses between each breath.
Repeat 10 times
10 belly to chest - a wave of breath, from belly to chest.
Two sips of air through your nostrils imagining a balloon inflating your tummy, and then rising to your chest to fullness. (In-In).
Open your mouth, breath out twice through your nostrils (out-out) imaging the balloon deflating and falling chest to belly as you bring your abdomen towards the spine. It will feel like ‘hah – haaah’.
Keep a steady, slow rhythm with clear pauses between each breath.
Repeat 10 times
10 in the chest – right up to your clavicles.
Two sips of air in through your nostrils imagining a balloon inflating your chest to fullness as your shoulders rise and ribs expand.
Open your mouth, breath out twice through your nostrils (out-out) imaging the balloon deflating your chest as your shoulders gently fall. It will feel list ‘ha-haaah’
Keep a steady, slow rhythm with clear pauses between each breath.
Repeat 10 times
Next take a deep ‘Gathering Breath’
Deep breath in
2 seconds hold
Exhale through the mouth, leave a little bit of air in your lungs.
Dynamic Stillness
hold your breath out for 30 seconds.
Relax and let go. Enjoy not needing to breathe.
Switch from thinking to feeling.
Feel the buzzing and tingling of your body fully oxygenated.
Deep breath in when you are ready.
12 second hold, then slow exhale.
After poise
You’ve done the work, now feel the benefit.
30 seconds. Be in your body.
Feel the effect of breathing consciously on your body and brain.
Second and third rounds - Repeat the steps for Round 1 and add in these longer breath holds.
2nd Round – 60 seconds breath hold out.
3rd Round – 90 seconds breath hold out.
If you need to breath before these times, go head. The timing doesn’t matter, what matters is that you aim to relax into the intensity of needing to breathe, and nudge into your boundaries.
Your body, brain and energy levels will receive a boost from resisting the initial urges to breathe and your will to gently push into the breath hold. After practicing you can extend the breath hold out up to 2 minutes.
You can return to this practice whenever you need it, and when you do this simple breathing technique regularly, you’ll begin to notice a measurable effect. In effect you are giving your brain a ‘massage’ and this optimises brain function. The things that used to stress you out will become much easier to deal with, you won’t get so breathless, and you’ll have increased focus and memory. What’s there not to like!
The Science behind it!
Dirgha and Double breathing provide a powerful vascular workout, raising the heart rate, removing toxicity, and rendering our blood more alkaline. Double Breathing activates and strengthening the sympathetic nervous system, releasing endorphins, serotonin and dopamine, making us more stress resilient and capable of handling the release of cortisol and adrenaline in the system without flipping into ‘fight, flight or freeze’.
The space of breathlessness following the breathing creates a disruption in our usual psychological patterning allowing us to slip out of our usual mental conditioning into a new field of creativity and unlimited possibilities. The period towards the end of our breath holds trains us to gradually tolerate higher levels of Co2 in the system, encouraging the release of HIF protein and EPO for accelerated capillary growth and oxygen carrying red blood cells, whilst strengthening our stress resilience. When you hold your breath, CO2 levels in your blood increase, which increases the cardioinhibitory response (lowering your heart rate) This activates the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in a calming and relaxing effect, or, to put it another way, breathe slowly and relieve stress.
You can practice Dirgha and Double Breathe at any time of the day, although its easier on an empy-ish stomach - so make it part of your own routine and watch your health improve.
Learning to breathe through your nose increases oxygen levels by up to 18%, and naturally produces nitric Oxide, which has been used in COVID19 treatments due to its antiviral properties.
Breathwork, particularly Dirgha, is suitable for children as young as 3 years old, and all adults can benefit from learning proper breathing techniques.
Always take the practice at your own pace. No prior experience, fitness level or special equipment is required.
Katherine Howlett is a deeply passionate and knowledgeable Living Yoga Method Breath Coach and Yogi whose teaching reflects her own dynamic and spiritual journey. With 23 years’ experience as a yogi and three years of teaching yoga and breathwork, Katherine expertly shares her commitment to breathwork and its life-changing potential, delivering her Breathwork Fire & Ice Weekender Retreats at Gambledown Farm, Romsey.
One you connect with your breath; you won’t look back. Find out about the Weekender Retreat here
