Breathe in…hold…Breathe out and repeat!

How often do you carry out focused breathing exercises? Which ones have you found work best for you?

Breathing exercises are great as you can do them anywhere, at any time and regardless of whether you carry out for 60 seconds or spend an hour meditating you will always benefit from them.

Sometimes they will be incorporated into an exercise routine or form part of a training system and often we use them when feeling stressed or panic to help neutralise those states of mind.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting and carrying out breathing exercises for a couple of minutes twice a day and feel this has been helpful. The breathing technique I’ve been doing is a simple and popular one called square or box breathing.

I choose to do this as I was going to sleep and again as I woke up. This has been great for setting myself up for the day ahead and then for moving into sleep. Both of course are ‘transition’ states which seem to accommodate the calmness of this breathing technique really well.

Another good time to carry this out I've noticed (sticking to the 'sleep' theme) is if you wake up in the middle of the night and find it hard to fall back again. Sometimes carrying out this exercise can be soothing and and allow you drift back off once more.

Stay well and of course, keep breathing!