OH! Magazine - Australian Version June 2018 | Page 6

( FITNESS & MOTIVATION
THE BENEFITS OF
MICHELLE
BRIDGES
BOX BREATHING
Michelle Bridges explains the benefits of box breathing.
BOX BREATHING
reathing – it’s something we all do
and it’s the absolute foundation of
our lives, but it’s also something
that most of us pay almost no attention
to, most of the time.
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Instead, what most of us are doing is a
shallow, rapid mouth breath that reaches
only as far as the top part of the lungs.
This shallow, rapid, open-mouthed
breathing actually triggers, and then
keeps us in, our ‘fight, flight, freeze’ state
(aka, the sympathetic nervous system
kicks in). Now this is exactly what you
need when you’re in a truly stressful
situation (like if your life is in danger from
a rampaging sabre-toothed tiger and you
need a lot of oxygen quickly to fuel your
muscles so you can hightail it out of
there), but it’s absolutely not helpful to
be in that state all the time – in fact, it’s
the equivalent of revving your car engine
without relief, for the entire time you’re
driving. And what happens if you
constantly rev your car engine? You burn
it out right? Right! Same goes with your
body.
Because we are surrounded by a lot of
stress-inducing stuff in our modern
society (and our body isn’t able to
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OH! MAGAZINE ( JUNE 2018 )
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breathe in for 4 secconds
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3
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Ideally we should be taking belly breaths,
using our diaphragms as well as our
lungs, and moving the breath through our
noses only, thus producing a slow,
deliberate and full breath.
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With the stresses and speed of our modern
world, many of us have developed equally
speedy breathing – shallow, rapid breaths
that most often don’t actually serve us
well, in terms of achieving optimum
health.
(also called ‘tactical breathing’, ‘SEAL breathing’,
‘commando breathing’, ‘square breathing’)
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breathe out for 4 secconds
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differentiate between the stress of a
sabre-toothed tiger attack and the stress
of being stuck in peak hour traffic), it’s up
to us to deliberately, consciously take
action to switch ourselves out of our
‘fight, flight, freeze’ state, and into our
‘rest and digest’ state (aka the para-
sympathetic nervous system); to let our
engines cool down and bring ourselves
back into balance.
Enter ‘box breathing’ as the mechanism
for to achieve this.
Box breathing is super simple, requires
no equipment, can be done anywhere,
and has an immediate effect. What’s not
to love?
CONNECT WITH MICHELLE VIA:
Web: michellebridges.com.au
Facebook: Mishy.Bridges
Twitter: @mishbridges
Instagram: @mishbridges
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While the counts for box breathing can
differ, what’s most important is that you
breathe consciously and as slowly and as
deeply. If that means you’re starting off
with a two-count breath rhythm, then
that’s what you start off with. The more
you practise, the deeper and longer
breaths you’ll be able to take.
To begin, you need to bookend your day
with a few rounds of box breathing. This
will help you build the habit. Over time it
will be become engrained, and you’ll be
more likely to remember and employ it in
stressful situations.
Have a go, practise, practise, practise and
before you know it, you’ll be breathing
easy!