11/25/2025
November 2025 Blog Breathe Into The Thankfulness
What does it mean to breathe? We all breathe everyday…It is just something we do or is it? Does it have another purpose besides keeping us on track of staying alive by taking in oxygen? How and what does breathing as a therapy do for us? How can the act of “breathing in and then breathing out” be like a “letting go”? What does it mean to embrace your breath? Can it make changes to your physical or your mental state of mind. As a means of therapy, breathwork can make a difference in your life! According to Google Search, “breathwork” is defined as “intentional control of breathing patterns and offers benefits by influencing the body’s autonomic nervous system”.
Breathing exercises can be extremely helpful to someone who needs to reduce their level of anxiety, which creates stress. This in turn creates those feelings of “fight or flight”. It is that feeling where we just feel like we are going to implode or we just have to run, run, run, to remove ourselves from everything.
When we think about breathing, we think about inhaling and exhaling air so we can live… But breathing is so much more than just putting air into our lungs!
In human spirituality, with its diversity of myths, practices and beliefs, breath has always been a source of meditation and reflection. Breath is linked with Life, when we are born we take our first breath – and with our last breath, life leaves the body… it affirms our relationship with the world: There is some belief that the manner by which one breathes determined the length and quality of life, a view based on the observation of the rhythms of nature. It was thought that all living things possessed a certain number of breaths and the idea developed that slow, rhythmic breathing, by keeping the body well supplied with oxygen, contributed to a longer and more harmonious life and is considered by some as a way of speaking God’s name…to me breathing really is the purest form of Mindfulness that one can do…
There are many types of breathing exercises out there that you can try… just to name a few:
-Abdominal – using the diaphragm to breathe - Right hand on center of chest, left hand center of belly…deep breath in, left hand moves, right hand does not move
-Bellows – breathe in through the nose, expelling/huffing on exhale
-Calm 478 Technique (4-inhale, 7-hold, 8-exhale) – Dr. Andrew Weil – wellness guru
-Box breathing) – 4 count in, 4 count hold, 4 count out, 4 count hold – focus on regulating breathing to the 4 count
-Zen Breathing (ZAZEN) (Buddhist form of meditation) focus is only on the physical act of breathing. Focus on each breath as it rises and passes to stay in the present… feel the breath instead of watching it. Breathe as you normally would in a natural way, your belly soft and relaxed.
There is a correct and incorrect way to breathe. At birth our natural way of breathing is inhaling through the nose using the diaphragm. But over time, many of us change our breathing to inhaling through our mouths.
Regardless of how you use breathing, it has a direct effect on the brain as well as on the body. It is one of the few body processes that can be regulated both consciously and unconsciously. Breathing connects us directly to the vagus nerve, the main nerve in our parasympathetic nervous system… located at base of skull…sort of the bridge between the brain and the body. How we breathe (faster, deeper, shallow or slower) can send a different signal to our brains and create a physical change to the body.
Breathing can be used to help one relax, calm the mind, & settle the physical body to release stress and anxiety. Additionally, breathing lowers blood pressure, reduces the heart rate, & enhances physical relaxation of the body. It can improve your mood and provide you with emotional regulation. Deep breathing increases oxygen flow to your brain which can improve your cognitive function. Calm breathing helps to lower cortisol levels and promotes relaxation. When breathing, exercising or meditation breathing, you always inhale through the nose, using the diaphragm and exhale through the mouth. Some breathing tools include what is called a “Breathing Straw” (great for anxiety) and Labyrinth Exercises (great for children). It is important to consider your breathing in every form of exercise or activity as a primary part of the exercise… to improve physical benefits to the body as well as to your mind.
As we are coming into the beginning of the Holiday Season, starting with Thanksgiving, we need to be thankful that we can use breathwork at our tool, we can use it to let go of our stress or embrace the calm more, and considering it as our therapy as a way to help us deal with all the stressors that this time seems to bring to us.
Do not be afraid…take a moment and try one of the listed breathing exercises, focus on how you feel afterwards, and be thankful to give into and fully embrace the calm.
Blessings, Light and Love!
