Behavioral Health: Breathing Tutorial

Behavioral Health: Breathing Tutorial

Hello, my name is Angie Hernandez Harris and I’m a counselor here at Beriatrics and Nutrition in Boyisee, Idaho. I’ll be guiding you all through one of my favorite breathing exercises, heart-c centered breathing, adapted from the HeartMath Institute. It’s one of my favorites because it takes so little time and you can do nearly anywhere. It’s packed with a lot of benefits. I invite all of my patients to try it at least once a day, if not twice. It’s shown to decrease stress and cortisol levels and increase coherence or our ability to be present. I’ll be sharing the instructions on the next slide, as well as modeling what this breathing exercise could look like for you. So, you want to find a relaxing or neutral place, but really you can do this anywhere. In your room, an office, kitchen, in your car. I just like to ask the question, how can I get my body at least 5 to 10% more comfortable? So, if I’m in my office, I’ll close the door, for example. Then you’ll think of this breathing exercise as a deep belly breath, but instead of breathing in and out of your belly, you want to imagine that you’re breathing in and out of your heart. And there’s a lot of research that by doing so, that is what really helps to increase our coherence level. So, a good way to remind our body that we’re doing a heart- centered breathing is by putting a hand on our heart. If it feels good, you can also put a hand to your belly. Just keep it there throughout the exercise. This really helps to ground yourself into your body because you might notice that even as you’re settling into this practice, your brain might be pointing out some to-dos and what’s next. And that’s really normal. So, I invite you, if it’s helpful, to use an anchor word that can help to remind your brain to come back to your body. An anchor word is a word that’s a gentle reminder. So, like peace or harmony, even breath is a great anchor word. Once you have your anchor word, get yourself situated 5 to 10% more comfortable. Put a hand on your chest, hand on your belly. We’ll be going through this breathing exercise six times together. You’ll inhale through your nose and exhale out of your mouth. You’ll hold at the top. So, it’ll be something like, and I’ll keep track of the time so you don’t have to. I’ll count for 5 seconds in, hold, and then exhale for 5 seconds out. You might notice that to start you might only be able to do 3 to 4 seconds and that’s okay. Go at your own pace. Whatever feels comfortable for your body. So the next step is to put your gaze into that heart space. Hand on your chest or on your belly. Go ahead and exhale any still air out of your lungs first. Seal your lips together and then inhale through your nose for one 2 3 4 5. Hold. And then exhale for 1 2 3 4 5. Good. Again. Inhale for 1 2 3 4 5. Hold. And then exhale for 1 2 3 4 5. Again, inhale for 1 2 3 4 5. Hold. And then exhale for 1 2 3 4 5. Inhale, hold, and exhale. Last time through. Inhale. Hold and exhale. If your eyes are closed, you can gently blink them open. Check in with your body. How does that feel? Maybe roll your shoulders back. Take a few swallows. Good job. Good job everyone. So, I invite you to use this exercise as often as you need to, but if you’re trying something new and this is the first time, maybe try it for just 1 minute a day. See how it goes. Till next time. Thanks. Bye-bye.