Two Breathing Exercises To Increase Your Oxygen Levels

Have you ever given some thought to your breathing, and whether you’re actually breathing properly? Or perhaps wondered if you could improve your oxygen flow in the blood? Your breathing is an important foundation and baseline for your health. Whether you have a hidden disability like I do, or you describe yourself as someone of good health, it is so important to maximise the flow of oxygen in your blood, replenishing your organs and your body.

Before we get into it, let’s picture your lungs. Maybe refresh your memory of your school biology lessons! They are vaguely triangular in shape, with the bottom of your lungs being wider than the top part. So your lung capacity is greatest at the bottom of your lungs.

If when you breathe, your chest (and shoulders) is going up and out, chances are you’re not breathing correctly. Most of us aren’t breathing correctly. By breathing into your chest, you may not be maximising the expansion of your lungs and end up with far shallower breathing than your lungs are capable of.

So the first breathing exercise is diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing. Your diaphragm is sort of like this immense band of muscle across your abdomen. When that muscle pulls downwards, it allows the bottom of your lungs, the widest part of your lungs, to fully expand and let more air into your lungs. When you inhale by blowing or pushing your belly out, your diaphragm pulls down and you let air fully enter your lungs. Yes eventually your chest rises slightly, but the action is coming from your belly first. Are you with me?

I know it takes a little tweak in your mind of this action that is mostly involuntary, but with a bit of practise it’ll become much easier. You are also teaching your body a tool to use to reduce anxiety and reduce stressful situations, so keep practicing.

The second breathing exercise is power breathing. So this is really simple to remember but it is so impactful and well..powerful!

So you’re going to take 10 power breaths three times a day, or more, but you’re taking the breaths in a particular ratio. And the ratio is 1:4:2. So you inhale for 1, you hold your breath for 4, then you exhale for 2. So let’s say for example that you decide to take an inhale for 8 seconds. Then using the ratio, you would hold your breath for 32 seconds. Then you would exhale for 16 seconds. Are you with me?

And this is great because you’re bringing some intentionality into it, so it’s like a technique you can use. You can use it regularly to punctuate your day and get some extra oxygen circulation in your blood, but you can also use this as a technique for when you’re in an anxious or stressful situation. Perhaps you’re in a great deal of physical pain, or a painful episode as a symptom of your hidden disability. It can be a great tool to move you forward through your experience of pain.

Or perhaps you’re in a never-ending queue to get on an airplane, or feeling frustrated in heavy traffic, or whatever it is that is causing your stress or worry. Use the power breathing 1:4:2 to help your body move through the situation.

I think these are great tools to empower you in your health and nourishment journey. I’d love to hear how you get on.