Learning to breath with the belly* help

[Westie]

Hello friends!

Lately I've been reading a lot on different ways to breathe and I've found that most people seems to agree that belly breathing is superior to chest breathing for stress reduction etc. Normally I breath with the chest.

So I decided to try and change the way I breathe, and ended up getting really anxious instead. I went in to hard and could not stop to think how I was breathing, which in the end forced me to breath manually instead. This went on for 2 days and today it is better, and I'm breathing more with my chest again.

Anyway, do anyone of you have any experience in learning to breath with the belly? How long did it take you? I guess you have to go slowly about it and not force it so you end up being more anxious instead.

Oh and also, one of the reasons why I wanted to change is because I am meditating aswell and in the books I've read most of them tell you to focus on the belly while breathing.

All help is greatly welcome!

[jessed03]

Ooh you verged on a little sensorimotor OCD there. (Which is just what you've said, consciously obsessing over a processing like breathing). But you seem fine now.

This is a difficult question, as I've struggled with the same thing. It's more dangerous to your well being obsessing over a process, than it is to chest breathe, so if it doesn't work out, then, ya know, take the hit and drop it for a bit and come back and try again later.

One thing that may help is wearing a welt or band just above your diaphragm. That way it makes it difficult to chest breathe, and very easy to belly breath.

Another way is to buy a breatheslim device. You breathe in with a little resistance, and it naturally makes you belly breathe over time. They're about 40-50 bucks.

[Westie]

Ooh you verged on a little sensorimotor OCD there. (Which is just what you've said, consciously obsessing over a processing like breathing). But you seem fine now.

This is a difficult question, as I've struggled with the same thing. It's more dangerous to your well being obsessing over a process, than it is to chest breathe, so if it doesn't work out, then, ya know, take the hit and drop it for a bit and come back and try again later.

One thing that may help is wearing a welt or band just above your diaphragm. That way it makes it difficult to chest breathe, and very easy to belly breath.

Another way is to buy a breatheslim device. You breathe in with a little resistance, and it naturally makes you belly breathe over time. They're about 40-50 bucks.


Yeah luckily I realized that. Actually I think that perhaps it is better to wait until I am more stable before messing with the breath like that. I think I will just breath with the belly during exercises like yoga and stop obsessing about it in everyday life. During these two days I would stop what I was doing and then try to feel if I was breathing correctly, basically all the time. And of course it just made me feel a lot worse, the first night I could not sleep because I was thinking that my breath would stop if I did not force it.

[jessed03]

I think that's a good idea. The more anxiety reduces, the less prone you often find yourself to those little OCD-ey blips. You may find soon you can do it without a problem.

Do you not become a belly breather during your meditation anyway? I've found no matter how stressed I am, I'm always belly breathing very gently by the end.