Hi, my name is Justine Nelson. I’m an Integrative Wellness Coach at Tahoe Forest Hospital. I focus on mindfulness and tobacco cessation. If you’re ever feeling stressed out and can’t think clearly, you want to take a deep breath. Slowing down to consciously be aware of our breath is the easiest and quickest way to help regulate our nervous system and clear the mind.
So here are some effective ways to deep breathe. First, we want to roll back our shoulders to correct our posture and open up our lungs. Then we want to focus on inhaling through the nose and exhaling out the mouth with pursed lips. Inhaling through the nose helps us filter out different dust allergens and boosts our oxygen intake. Exhaling through the mouth allows us to have that audible sound to the brain that indicates relaxation and gives a nice full exhale.
The next thing we want to do is focus on bringing our breath down into our diaphragm—expanding our abdomen near our ribs as we inhale and contracting our abdomen as we exhale. This allows us to slow down our breath, utilize more of our lungs, clear out old air, and actually take pressure off the heart and use less energy to breathe.
Finally, we want to focus on a longer exhale than inhale. A longer exhale allows the vagus nerve to signal to the brain to activate the rest and digest phase of the nervous system and can help ease the stress response.
Okay, now you can follow along with me for a few rounds of conscious deep breathing. First, we want to roll back our shoulders. Then we’re going to focus on inhaling through the nose and expanding the abdomen, and then exhale out the mouth, pursing the lips, contracting the abdomen, focusing on a nice long exhale.
And again, breathing in through the nose, expanding the abdomen, and exhaling out the mouth and contracting the abdomen. And then one more time, inhaling through the nose, expanding the abdomen, and then exhale out the mouth, contracting the abdomen.
Now you can return to your natural breath. Again, my name is Justine Nelson. Thank you so much for following along with me. You can contact the Center for Health for more information and how to work with me.
