If you’ve ever been to a yoga or meditation class then you’re familiar with breath control.
By learning how to breathe with intention (and the different exercises that can help you do it) you can increase your self-awareness, energy levels and control over your nervous system.
Long before yoga and meditation became mainstream Dan Brulé knew the value of breathwork.
He has been teaching breathing since 1970 and traveled to more than 65 countries teaching breathwork techniques to people around the world. He is also the author of Just Breathe and Founder of The Breathing Festival.
“Breathing is the only system in the body that is completely automatic and completely under our control,” he explains. “That’s not a coincidence. That’s an invitation to take part in our own nature and evolution.”
In other words, if you can take back control of your breathing, you can take back control of your health.
Breathing deeply provides numerous benefits including: boosting your mood, detoxifying your body, alleviating pain, increasing energy, enhancing mental clarity, lowering blood pressure and improving sleep.
The Triangle Breath
In this video, Brulé introduces a basic breathwork exercise called the triangle breath.
Believe it or not, it’s how we are hardwired to breathe! Inhale for 4 seconds. Exhale for 4 seconds Pause for 4 seconds. Repeat for a few minutes. Yes, it’s that simple.
Now, what do you imagine as you’re breathing? What are you saying to yourself?
If you want to kick it up a notch you can combine breathing with affirmations and visualizations. Think about what brings you joy and let those positive feelings wash over you. It can be a person, a beautiful scene from nature, a memory, fantasy, whatever makes you smile.
Focus on what gives you pleasure and as you breath out, allow yourself to receive and feel that pleasure. Then pause and linger in that blissful state.
Triangle Breath with BoomBoom Inhalers
To add a refreshing and energizing boost to the practice, Brulé used a BoomBoom inhaler.
Breathe in to the count of 4, exhale for 4 then pause. Hold on to your positive mental image and make it as vivid as possible in your mind. This helps to anchor the feeling.
Anchoring is a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) technique, which trains your brain to connect a positive emotion to a specific phrase or gesture.
So, what’s the science behind it?
When you use an anchor, it helps “stabilize a portion of primary experience and are then able to access that portion of primary experience at a later time.”
The purpose of anchoring is to shift portions of experience to situations when it will be beneficial, such as lowering stress.
In this case, the anchoring tool is the inhaler. As the most powerful sense, smell is an excellent mental anchoring technique.
The more you do this exercise, the faster your mind and body can reach this peaceful state. When it comes to breathwork, consistency is key.
You have to continuously put the work in to reap the benefits and create positive, lasting change.
The Breathing Festival 2021
The Breathing Festival is a virtual event that will take place February 11-28th 2021.
This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from breathwork experts from around the world. Over 50 of the world's leading breathing experts will be sharing their techniques, and guiding you through experiential breathwork sessions.
Visit theicfb.com to purchase your ticket and take part in empowering discussions, life-awakening experiences, tools, tricks, and more!