CONTENTS

• Conscious breathing as a fundamental skill for stress management
• Breathing mindfulness training

As long as we're healthy, don't catch a cold, and don't have a stuffy nose, we pay virtually no attention to our breathing in everyday life. Breathing is such a natural and reflexive process that we simply don't remember it. It simply happens without our conscious involvement. And yet, it turns out that an activity like breathing can be and is well trained. Musicians and athletes, for example, train their breathing professionally – swimmers learn to hold their breath underwater for as long as possible to train their lung capacity, and shooters learn to control their breathing to achieve the greatest possible accuracy when shooting. Why can breathing training be important for the average person?

Conscious breathing as a fundamental skill for stress management

It turns out that we can breathe in two ways—unconsciously and consciously. Depending on our emotional state, our breathing can be more relaxed or faster. When we're nervous, our breathing becomes rapid and shallow, and in an extremely stressful situation, we may find it difficult to breathe normally and deeply. During restful sleep, however, our breathing slows down. When we learn to control our breathing, we find it easier to control our body's response to stress —thus signaling it to relax.

Breathing mindfulness training

This exercise is one of the simplest and most basic mindfulness practices. There's no way to do it wrong. The purpose of this exercise is to observe your breathing and focus your attention exclusively on it. If your thoughts involuntarily wander, that's okay. When we notice this, we calmly return to observing our breath. Getting started with this exercise only takes a few minutes. It's very simple, easy:

• sit comfortably,
• relax,
• breathe calmly
• Concentrate on breathing in – notice how the air inhaled through the nose fills the body, lungs, stomach and the chest rises.
• Concentrate on exhaling – your chest drops, watch as your body relaxes.

Focusing on conscious breathing can be very powerful. It can help us calm down and, in keeping with mindfulness philosophy, help us focus on the here and now. Mindfulness is the intentional and conscious concentration of your attention on the sensations that arise in the present moment, here and now. This allows you to focus on information and receive it clearly and distinctly, without additional emotional burden and distorted by views formed over the years. Breathing awareness training, including breathing exercises, helps you find emotional balance in a world where we experience numerous daily stimuli that cause stress, fatigue, and nervousness. Breathing awareness training is an introduction to a conscious life, in harmony with yourself, others, and the natural environment.