Deep Breathing
Page 3 of 6
Learn Deep Breathing
- Lie on your back and place a book on your belly. Relax your stomach muscles and inhale deeply into your abdomen so that the book rises. When you exhale the book should fall. You will still be bringing air into your upper chest, but now you are also bringing air down into the lower portion of your lungs and expanding your entire chest cavity.
- Sit up and place your right hand on your abdomen and your left hand on your chest. Breath deeply so that your right "abdominal" hand rises and falls with your breath, while your left "chest" hand stays relatively still. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth and enjoy the sensation of abdominal breathing.
- Place a clock with a second hand in view. Breathe in slowly, filling your abdomen, for five seconds. Then breathe out slowly to the same count of five. Try exhaling through a straw in a glass of water. The bubbles you produce will provide feedback so you can control the slow exhale.
- When walking for exercise, walk and talk with a friend. It is difficult to walk and take shallow breaths.