Manage Perimenopause Symptoms with Breathwork
Breathwork is like a secret weapon when it comes to managing all kinds of unpleasant symptoms. From stress to pain, to a foggy brain — there are different types of breathing techniques to help you feel how you want to.
You'll find a lot of breathwork and meditative practices in the self-love section of the MBody app, from several of our health and wellness experts. We’ve just launched an incredible series of breathwork exercises with our mindfulness and breathwork expert, Melike, designed to support you physically and emotionally.
Keep reading to hear Melike’s insights on what breathwork actually is, the science behind it, and tips on how to make the most of your most powerful tool: your breath.
If you haven’t downloaded the app already, it’s currently free to all users on iOS and Android!
What is breathwork?
Breathwork — which I also like to call Conscious Breathing — is an umbrella term for a wide range of breathing exercises and techniques. It involves becoming aware of your breathing while voluntarily controlling the pace, length, depth, and rate of your breath. With the goal being to optimize your overall wellbeing.
Breathing is the only function in our body that is both autonomic (meaning we breathe even when we sleep) and can be controlled at will. This characteristic of our breath offers us the most powerful self-management tool.
Researchers have shown that breathing practices can hack the messages sent from the respiratory system to the autonomic nervous system, directly affecting our emotional, mental and physical state.
What can breathwork help with?
Breathwork can help so many symptoms, including feeling irritable, low, struggling with confidence, anxiety, racing heart, poor sleep, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, headaches, body pains, low energy, restless legs, hot flashes, and even feeling dizzy.
I liken breathwork to a Swiss army knife that you can pull out at any time and find the right technique for whatever it is you need at that moment. Whether you’re wanting instant calm, an energy boost, if you need to focus your mind, sleep well, or even experience a deep transformation, there are breathing practices that can help.
5 quick tips to get the most out of breathwork
It is important to remember that everyone’s Breathwork experience is different. We all have different backgrounds, unique breathing patterns, and motivation for practicing breathwork. The depth and breadth of the breathwork practices that I guide you through in the app should help you discover the techniques best suited to you.
Here are my 5 recommendations to get the most out of your breathing practices…
I recommend finding a comfortable and quiet location in your home or workplace, where you will not be disrupted for the 5-15 minutes that you may be practicing. I love using headphones to offer a more immersive experience, and help you tune out background noises.
Make sure to practice in an environment with clean air and sufficient air humidity. You’ll be doing a lot of intentional breathing, and you’ll want to enjoy the air you’re taking in and help keep your airways comfortable.
If you’re new to breathwork, I’d recommend a seated position to support an alert posture so you can focus on the foundations of your breathing practice. There is no ideal way to sit, you can choose a mat, chair, or yoga block set up under your hips. The key to this is your comfort.
If you do a meditation while lying down – such as the progressive muscle relaxation exercise – you can benefit from bending your knees and placing a pillow under them, as it will open more space in the abdomen for the breath to move there freely. Be sure to support your head with a firm pillow or cushion.
For slow controlled breathing techniques – such as 1:2 breathing, triangle breathing, square breathing, and coherent breathing exercises – I recommend you try all of them and see which one suits you best. You may find one more natural and more impactful. All of these routines are designed to foster a sense of calm, relaxation, and grounding and should support healthier heart function. Having one you can always go to will be an incredible resource for you.
To see more from Melike, be sure to download MBody today!
