Diaphragmatic breathing

1. While keeping your mouth closed, take a deep breath in through your nose, counting to 2. The breath does not have to be deep. 
2. Put your lips together as if you are starting to whistle or blow out candles on a birthday cake. This is known as “pursing” your lips.
3. While continuing to keep your lips pursed, slowly breathe out by counting to 4. Don’t try to force the air out, but instead breathe out slowly through your mouth.

• It’s been shown to reduce how hard a person has to work to breathe.
• It helps release air trapped in the lungs.
• It promotes relaxation.
• It reduces shortness of breath.

Practice it 4 to 5 times per day, daily.

Pursed lip breathing is best for performing strenuous activities, such as climbing stairs.

Practicing deep “belly breathing” can reduce the stress on the supporting ligaments of the diaphragm and can help relieve side stitches. 

Belly breath: Lie down on the floor and place a hand on your belly. Breathe deeply. If you feel your hand rise and fall slightly with your breathing, you’re belly breathing. If your chest is moving instead of your stomach, you’re not breathing deeply enough, and need to adjust.  

1. Sit up tall, and relax your shoulders. 
2. Keep your mouth closed and inhale rapidly through your nose with quick, short breaths (exhale quickly as well). 
3. Try doing that for about 10 seconds. 
4. Take a 15-30 second break and breathe normally. Repeat several times.

It involves filling the lungs to the max and goes by various names like belly or diaphragmatic breathing.

It has been linked to improved cognitive performance, lower stress levels, and lower blood pressure.

Central to ancient Hindu philosophy was prana, described as vital “airs” or “energies” flowing through the body. Stemming from that belief, yoga was built on pranayama or breath retention. 

When it works best: Before an exam, or any stressful event.

How it’s done: Starting in a comfortable meditative pose, hold the right thumb over the right nostril and inhale deeply through the left nostril. At the peak of inhalation, close off the left nostril with the ring finger, then exhale through the right nostril. Continue the pattern, inhaling through the right nostril, closing it off with the right thumb and exhaling through the left nostril.

When it works best: Crunch time, or whenever it’s time to focus or energize.

... is the fastest, most effective way to trigger the relaxation response, enabling you to think more clearly and perform better under pressure.

The Navy SEALs use 2 breathing techniques that force the body into a more relaxed state when they’re in a high-pressure situation:

• Tactical breathing
• Box breathing.

A perfect ‘slow’ breath that creates profound effects in our body and mind is this: 5.5 seconds inhaling, followed by 5.5 seconds of exhaling. This can be practiced for a few minutes, or even an hour.

The heart, lungs and other organs benefit greatly, and the imbalances are restored to an extent.

When you're trying to do many things at once, you're often getting very little done.

• We have limited cognitive bandwidth. Your brain may trick you into thinking it has more capacity, but your ability to work efficiently depends on how well you can focus on one task at a time.
• When you move back and forth between tasks, your brain's neural networks must backtrack to see where they left off and then reconfigure. The extra activity increase errors.
• Real innovative thinking emerges when we allow our brains to continue in a logical path of associated thoughts and ideas. Multitasking leads to less creativity.

As best as you can, set up a work environment that encourages doing one task at a time. Even doing one task for five minutes can be beneficial:

• Actively resist the urge to check social media while you are busy with a task. You may have to install anti-distraction apps that will block access for specific periods.
• Work on just one screen: Put away your cellphone and turn off other screens.
• If you start losing focus, get up and walk around to help you refocus.
• Set a timer for five or ten minutes and commit to focusing for that amount of time. Allow a short break, and get back to your task for another five or ten minutes.

The more we work on focusing on one task at a time, the easier it becomes to focus.

Having an active social life is crucial to your health. People who isolate themselves from others could increase their risk of death by about 50 percent. 

If you have a busy life, schedule recurring social activities with your closest friends, monthly.  Plan your work schedule around your social calendar instead of the other way around.

The key to finding the balance between work and health is learning how to cope with stress.

Get in the habit of stepping away from the stressful situation for a few moments to calm down and collect your thoughts: step away from the computer or spend a few minutes walking outside.

If you are experiencing chest tightness or shortness of breath now, ask yourself first:

• Are you someone with a history of anxiety, especially if it is tied to health concerns?
• If yes, did your symptoms show up while reading news about the virus?
• Do you find it hard to focus on other things?

Paying too much attention is called hypervigilance and body scanning. It is associated with anxiety.

The brain is very powerful. We can see a positive pregnancy test and immediately develop morning sickness. Anxious people can read about the shortness of breath and instantly develop it.

However, shortness of breath is also tied to the way anxious people breathe. Anxious people breathe fast and too shallow. They blow off too much CO2, which makes them feel dizzy and makes their chest feel tight.

To alleviate the symptoms, breathe in slowly through your nose, count to four seconds, and then breathe out slowly through pursed lips. It will normalize your CO2 levels.