Breathing Exercises to Relax in 10 Minutes or Less
Appearing in an interview,confused,nervous and feeling the pressure?There are plenty of ways to find calm.All you need is a pair of lungs,your breath and 10 minutes or less.
Don’t wait until fight or flight kicks in before minding your breath. Controlled breathing not only keeps the mind and body functioning at their best, it can also lower blood pressure, promote feelings of calm and relaxation and help us de-stress.
A few days ago I read an article and came across very helpful exercise to convert stress into calmness.Following are three exercise which you can practice anytime,at any place to keep yourself calm and to make you fresh again.I do hope they’ll be really helpful for you as well.
Tip:
Find a quiet room (or place outside) where you can go each day and be undisturbed for 10 minutes (you might need to tell others not to disturb you so that you can have peace) and practice them for 10 minutes in a quiet location, without distractions like your phone, computer, TV or friends/family.Repeat this activity every day. So that you could use it effectively at the right time i.e: at your interview and practice will help you remember these exercises and you’ll be able to use them before your interview so that you can show your passion, interest and enthusiasm to make a better first impression.
1. Nadi Shodhana or “Alternate Nostril Breathing”
How it’s done: A yogi’s best friend, this breath is said to bring calm and balance, and unite the right and left sides of the brain. Starting in a comfortable meditative pose, hold the right thumb over the right nostril and inhale deeply through the left nostril. At the peak of inhalation, close off the left nostril with the ring finger, then exhale through the right nostril. Continue the pattern, inhaling through the right nostril, closing it off with the right thumb and exhaling through the left nostril.
When it works best: Crunch time, or whenever it’s time to focus or energize. Just don’t try this one before bed: Nadi shodhana is said to “clear the channels” and make people feel more awake. “It’s almost like a cup of coffee,” Pacheco says.
2. Kapalabhati or “Skull Shining Breath”
How it’s done: Ready to brighten up your day from the inside out? This one begins with a long, slow inhale, followed by a quick, powerful exhale generated from the lower belly. Once comfortable with the contraction, up the pace to one inhale-exhale (all through the nose) every one to two seconds, for a total of 10 breaths.
When it works best: When it’s time to wake up, warm up or start looking on the brighter side of things. “It’s pretty abdominal-intensive,” Pacheco says, “but it will warm up the body, shake off stale energy and wake up the brain.” If alternate nostril breathing is like coffee, consider this a shot of espresso, she says.
3. Progressive Relaxation
How it’s done: To nix tension from head to toe, close the eyes and focus on tensing and relaxing each muscle group for two to three seconds each. Start with the feet and toes, then move up to the knees, thighs, rear, chest, arms, hands, neck, jaw and eyes — all while maintaining deep, slow breaths. Having trouble staying on track? Anxiety and panic specialist Dr. Patricia Farrell suggests we breathe in through the nose,hold for a count of five while the muscles tense, then breathe out through the mouth on release.
When it works best: At home, at a desk or even on the road.
I actually came across 6 breathing exercises but I’m mentioning here 3 of them which I actually practiced and liked personally and I already have given the details of these three really useful exercises above.
First of all,the Alternate Nostril Breathing, it is known to bring balance and complete harmony among both sides i.e: left and right sides of the brain.Second of all,Skull Shining Breath, to kind of refresh my brain and third of all,Progressive Relaxation, to control nervousness and pressure.
How does it feels?
It feels really good,when you inhale the air ,your lungs must stretch and they may get a little hurt,but when you hold the breath for a few seconds and then when you exhale with controlled breath it feel like something is down towards your stomach from pharynx (passage from mouth to lungs for air) and it feels after at least 3–5 times of practice and when it is attained a person feels the essence of these exercises afterwards.
How does it create impact?
As you know,our body is made up of small cells ,which are aerobic cells and they need oxygen to keep alive, to perform well, and to keep everything into running and they do malfunctions when they don’t get enough air.This is why these breathing exercises are important and they provide our body a chance to extract enough oxygen and to get rid of carbon-dioxide which maybe treated here as negativity.
So,scientifically and technically,these are really useful,important and effective exercises to keep our body,which is made up of cells into running and to get rid of negativity i.e: carbon-dioxide.
Suggestions:
All of these are really helpful to keep myself calm.All you need to do is practice them daily at least for 10 minutes although you can do it for more time as you find it comfortable.I’ll suggest you to do them daily and why I’m saying it the reason is that if you are not doing it regularly,you may forget them and there is a sequence and pattern of breathing which you need to know and know better.If you think, you will just do it at the time of your interview,then you are wrong and you won’t be able to do it then and if you will try it then and if,due to some reason,you are unable to do it at that time but you tried, it will push you towards more confusion,more pressure and more anxiety .
So,what I suggest you to do is either you practice these exercises daily or not do it at all.
While practicing these exercises your posture must be in accordance with the picture given below.Otherwise,you’ll have some difficulty while doing them or you won’t be able to get that much benefit.
And I do hope it will prove really helpful for you.So don’t be stressed and smile :-)
Note: You can find other three exercises at the following site.
