On April 4, I visited the West Wing Wellness Room for an event called “The Science and Practice of Breath for Mindfulness.” It was the first time I had been to the Wellness Room, and I found the room itself really enjoyable. Participants in the workshop sat on meditation mats and cushions in a circle on the floor while we learned about breathing and got the opportunity to try out some techniques.
We first learned why breathing is an important part of wellness. Think about what happens to your breathing when you are stressed, or even when you are calm. Studies show that when people are meditating, their breathing patterns change. The activity of the mind is clearly closely linked with our breathing patterns, and can impact them without even our voluntary contribution.
We can reverse this process to our advantage, using our breathing to change the state of our mind. When people say to “take a deep breath,” we know from experience that that can sometimes make us feel better and calmer. But what if you were to take many deep breaths? Or deeper breaths than even your deepest breaths?
Another function of breathing exercises is awareness. We are always breathing — otherwise, we wouldn’t be alive — but we are usually not thinking about how we are doing it. Taking even just a bit of time to think about how we are breathing is an important mindset shift that can place you back in your body if you have drifted away in a homework frenzy. There is increasing evidence that intentional breathing can have a huge impact on mental health.
In the workshop, we also learned about how the lungs interact with the heart and the circulatory system. The purpose of breathing is to bring oxygen into the blood, and it is interesting to know that the bottom of the lungs actually comes into contact with more blood than the top of the lungs, mostly because of the force of gravity bringing blood to the bottom. That’s why deeper breaths feel so good!
Have you ever noticed that your heart rate speeds up when you take a deep breath? (I see you all trying it right now.) This is a natural response in which your body tries to get as much oxygen from your breath as it can to distribute it to other organs.
The scientific measure for the amount that your heart rate changes in response to your breath is called heart rate variability. High heart rate variability is a strong indicator of wellness because it means that your heart can quickly adapt to stress and calm. In some studies, scientists have learned that certain breathing exercises can increase heart rate variability, another sign that breathing can improve overall wellness.
In the workshop, we practiced an exercise called a “physiological sigh,” in which we took a deep breath through the nose, then took in even more air, then exhaled through our mouths. We did this for about four minutes, and many participants reported feeling very different — lighter — afterward. We learned that most breathing exercises are best done in short periods, around three to five minutes. It can be dangerous to breathe differently for too long, as you can become very lightheaded.
I felt really inspired to incorporate intentional breathing into my daily life in small ways after the workshop. If you’ve ever wanted to meditate but find it too abstract or difficult to grasp, breathing for mindfulness could be for you – it’s much more tangible and easy to focus on. There will be three more workshops in “The Science and Practice of Breath for Mindfulness” series, happening every Wednesday for the next three weeks at 5:00 p.m. in the West Wing Wellness Room.
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