Box Breathing Explained: How to Lower Anxiety & Stress

Transcript

hey guys Kim Marie here today we're gonna talk about box breathing I'm gonna walk you through a what is box breathing B once before and C I'll show you really quickly how to do it if you want a video where I'm actually going through it with you and leading you like in a practice of box breathing then check out the video I made last week it's already uploaded and ready to go this one is really just more of the why and the how the other one is like if you shouldn't plug in and do one right now go check out that one this one's more of the explanation so first what is box breathing box breathing is obviously a way of breathing it's like yoga in that you're gonna practice on your app or wherever you wanna practice you're gonna practice in a specific place and then the benefits are gonna spill out into your day to day life it's not a way of breathing throughout the day it's a way of breathing for a specific amount of time and then it will help you in all the other areas of your life what box breathing is or or the reason why people do it is because it's a way of getting to your nervous system which is the part of us that creates the fight or flight or freeze complex that we have when something dangerous or scary happens to us now if you're in a crowd center there's a natural disaster or something happens it really quick and terrible and each think fast then you will go into fight or flight and that's good that means that your digestion is gonna slow your focus is gonna get really zeroed in your ability to move quickly and with strength will happen just naturally which is awesome that's how people get out of play threatening situations like back in the day if there was a saber-toothed tiger coming you instantly your body would stop digesting all the Energy's you would go to moving fast thinking quickly and dealing one focus with that say where's your tiger but these days our nervous system was working on overdrive because we are stressed and we are worried and we are panicked about things that are not in our immediate surrounding for example there's just a bear tooth tiger right now there is a lot of stress and worry and panic over things that could happen or things that might be happening somewhere nearby but not really right here or things that happen in the past and your keep thinking about them and it's all of it is creating this fight or flight or freeze complex in your body that's why we're all feeling so crazy right now so box breathing is going to help calm the nervous system which is going to let you find some peace and calm the way it works is that when you're inhaling then you're gonna suspend when you suspend the breath let's say you do three seconds you start with three seconds for your box you're gonna suspend your breath for three seconds and your brain is gonna go into a mini mini mini fight-or-flight response it's gonna go like oh my gosh you don't have air for three seconds but then you're gonna stay calm again you're not gonna clench you're not gonna hold you're just gonna like a float and then you're gonna exhale and then you're gonna suspend and then you're gonna inhale so what you're doing is you're training your brain just like we do on the mat just like we do in meditation you're training your brain to be calm in that tiny moment of panic so what it's gonna do is in the rest of your life when you find that mini moment of panic you're gonna be able to be calm which is gonna allow you to enjoy whatever is going on a lot more but be think more clearly and make better decisions make decisions from a place of clarity instead of a from a place of panic so that's why that's how it works and that's why it's super super useful now but really anytime you're experiencing anxiety or worry or panic so yeah so far we've talked about what it is we've talked about what it does and why it works and now I'll explain to you how to do it again I have another video that walks you through it and it's about maybe six or seven minutes of us practicing together so if you want to practice partners see my other video this is just gonna explain to you how to do it so the way it's gonna be is you're gonna stay get comfy I love to put a little blanket on and get really really cozy before I'm gonna do bad breath work but you can do it anywhere you can do it sitting you can do it before bed that's my favorite these days or you can do it outside you can do it on a walk you can do it in the middle of the meeting it's so discreet and sneaky so what you're gonna do is you're gonna pick your amount of seconds if you're a really beginner you start with three seconds if you're like I think I'm pretty good maybe four seconds if you're expert mode that's five six seven seconds so what you'll do is you'll inhale for the amount of seconds so let's say you do three inhale two three suspend two three exhale two three suspend two three and then you just keep going so if you picked three you're gonna inhale suspend exhale suspend and if you're doing three and you're feeling panicky should I take it easy the whole point is to relax if you're doing three seconds you're like actually I too easy they go up to four seconds for five seconds once you start to get your lungs exercised it's like yoga you get more flexible you get stronger once your lungs start to feel really good and strong then go on to five six seven seconds once you get to this 7:8 second range you get into unlocking really cool parts of the brain that's when you start like eradicating anxiety altogether from your life which is really really cool that's also when you start to get into these really cool and deep creative flows or meditative experiences or like really just like feel like you're you're tuned in like you just feel good and grounded and like really awesome so sir at the bottom at the low numbers for the anxiety and do it whenever you're feeling it if it's working for you start doing it once a day start doing it once a day until you feel like you don't need it anymore and then that baseline that you've built will just stay with you which is really cool you're already trained the nervous system and then whenever you need a little booster just pop in do a couple minutes of your box breathing and then there you go so that's what box breathing is that's how it works and that's how you do it enjoy [Music] you