This Week’s Thrive In Five Is About Fiery Breathwork
It’s the final post in our Magic Minute series. I’ve already given you four things you can do in 60 seconds to boost your mood and energy: Daydreaming, Motivational Images, Gratitude and Daily Stretching. So, this week, I want to talk about Fiery Breathwork.
Fight Or Flight
I’ve talked a lot about breathwork in the past – particularly Box Breathing to make you feel relaxed. But while that encourages the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), today I want to show you how to do the opposite.
When in an intense or dangerous situation, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) triggers our body’s fight-or-flight response. A release of extra hormones help us to become more alert and boost our heart rate. As a result, the heart sends more blood to the muscles, and we breathe faster to get fresh oxygen to our brain. Additionally, the SNS releases a shot of glucose is into the bloodstream to increase energy.
Studies suggest that regularly engaging the PNS and SNS can improve focus. Why would you want to activate your sympathetic nervous system? Energy. And you don’t need to put yourself in any danger to feel the benefits. This is a breathing exercise to help you get fired up for events, workouts, or even just the day ahead.
Fiery Breathwork
In Kundalini yoga, an advanced technique called Breath of Fire is practiced during certain poses. It consists of quick, rhythmic breaths of equal inhale and exhale time, and is sustainable for long periods. The method I’m going to teach you is a rapid inhalation through the nose, and exhalation through the mouth. Make sure you don’t do it the wrong way around – it could get messy! Do 10 or 20 of these, whatever you feel comfortable with, and you’ll start to feel the nervous system amp up a bit. However, be careful – particularly when doing this eyes-closed – as it could make you feel a little lightheaded. But Fiery Breathwork is a great way to pump yourself up and it takes 60 seconds or less.
Easy And Achievable
And that’s it: we’ve given you five different ways to get more energy into your day through what we call the Magic Minute. Taking just 60 seconds out of your day to do one of these things should feel easy, achievable, and totally worth it!
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