be healthier by breathing
- Left Nostril Breathing 1
- Activates your “cool, calm, and collected” side
- Helps manage stress and improve sleep
- Right Nostril Breathing 1
- Boosts energy and productivity
- Activates the sympathetic nervous system
To increase focus, most of us rely on caffeine, sheer panic, and the threat of imminent failure. But the Navy SEALs have another way…
It’s called Box Breathing. SEALs use it to stay calm, drive attention, and enhance mental clarity in tense situations. If it’s good enough for someone under heavy enemy fire, it’s probably good enough for you, as you try not to cry during your boss’s weekly “touch base” meeting.
- The process is simple:
- Breathe in for 4 seconds
- Hold it for 4 seconds
- Breathe out for 4 seconds
- Hold for another 4 seconds
- Repeat at least six times.
All of the above methods are powerful if you practice them regularly. You’ll be the Zen master who has unlocked the secrets of inner peace and unlimited energy just by using your face holes strategically. You’ll find yourself responding to difficult problems by saying, “No worries, I’ve got a breathing pattern for that.”
further details...
Your left and right nostrils each come with their own unique superpowers. Let’s learn how to use them…
- Left Nostril Breathing
- How can you chill out? Believe it or not, your left nostril is deeply connected to your parasympathetic nervous system. Research shows breathing through it exclusively for a little while can help you calm down, manage stress and get a better night’s sleep.
- This isn’t difficult to do:
- Close your right nostril with your right thumb.
- Slowly inhale and exhale through the left nostril for a few minutes.
- Focus on deep, controlled breaths to maximize the calming effect.
- Finish a few rounds of this and your brain goes from “I need to set everything on fire” to “Ah yes, life is but a gentle river.” The technique is called “Chandra Nadi” — probably because Sanskrit sounds fancier than saying, “Just plug your right nostril.”
- The only side effect is looking like a weirdo. Pushing on one nostril and making Darth Vader noises won’t make you a lot of friends but it will help you relax.
- Right Nostril Breathing
- Energy. Remember that? If left nostril breathing is the equivalent of a weighted blanket for your soul, then right nostril breathing (“Surya Nadi”) is like injecting a double shot of espresso straight into your brain.
- Right nostril breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system — your body’s fight-or-flight mechanism. But it does it in a fun, quirky, “Oh my God, I’m about to meet Beyoncé” kind of way, not the “There’s a bear chasing me” variety. Research has shown this increases alertness, energy levels, and metabolic rate.
- Again, the steps are not exactly rocket science:
- Close your left nostril with your left thumb.
- Inhale and exhale through the right nostril for a few minutes.
- Feel the air rush into your lungs and light up whatever’s left of your desiccated soul.
- Again, the only side effect is looking strange. This means people will leave you alone. Energy boost or not, that will definitely increase your productivity.
Okay, time to round it all up — and we’ll also learn the breathing technique Navy SEALs use to increase focus…
Here’s how to breathe better…
- The Perfect Breath: 5.5 breaths per minute. 5.5-second inhales and 5.5-second exhales. And breathe through your nose, the Brita filter of your body. Save your mouth for the important things in life, like eating and complaining. If you want to go all-in, tape your mouth closed when you sleep. (The line between “serial killer abduction kit” and “self-care regimen” is just so thin these days.)
- Left Nostril Breathing: Breathing through your left nostril activates your “cool, calm, and collected” side. Because, apparently, your nostrils have personalities now.
- Right Nostril Breathing: This boosts energy and gives you the productivity of an intern desperate for a full-time job.
So how do we increase focus? Most of us only find it through caffeine, sheer panic, and the threat of imminent failure. But the Navy SEALs have another way…
- It’s called Box Breathing. SEALs use it to stay calm, drive attention and enhance mental clarity in tense situations. If it’s good enough for someone under heavy enemy fire, it’s probably good enough for you, as you try not to cry during your boss’s weekly “touch base” meeting.
- The process is simple:
- Breathe in for 4 seconds
- Hold it for 4 seconds
- Breathe out for 4 seconds
- Hold for another 4 seconds.
- Repeat at least six times. It’s like normal breathing but with more math.
- The process is simple:
All of the above methods are powerful if you practice them regularly. You’ll be the Zen master who has unlocked the secrets of inner peace and unlimited energy just by using your face holes strategically. You’ll find yourself responding to difficult problems by saying, “No worries, I’ve got a breathing pattern for that.”
And here’s the best part: this stuff is free. You don’t need to buy any special equipment, you don’t have to sign up for a subscription, and there are no side effects unless you count people giving you weird looks on the subway. But that’s a small price to pay for nasal enlightenment.
Breathe better, live better. Because apparently, the secret to happiness and health wasn’t a morning routine involving five productivity apps. It was right there, under your nose. Literally.