3x Hyperventilation Breathing Exercises – Happy with Yoga

Hyperventilation breathing exercisesThese are great exercises to apply in this busy time.

Hyperventilation can feel very annoying and even anxious. You feel like you no longer have control over your breathing. And often you don’t have that anymore at a certain point.

Fortunately, these kinds of breathing exercises are very effective.

Not only do you need to apply them when you are experiencing hyperventilation, but they also help calm your breathing before it hits you. So preventative!

In this blog I explain a bit more about hyperventilation breathing exercises. This is how you read:

• What is hyperventilation
• Why hyperventilation breathing exercises are important
• 3 hyperventilation breathing exercises

Are you reading along?

Question and answer

1.What is hyperventilation?

It literally means you are breathing too much. So you breathe too much compared to the activity of your body.

2.What causes hyperventilation?

There can be many causes, but often it has to do with fear, tension and stress.

If you hyperventilate, you breathe very many times per minute. The number of breaths per minute is also called your respiratory rate. Rolf explains more about this in the video below and gives tips for a normal breathing frequency.

Why are Hyperventilation Breathing Exercises Important?

With hyperventilation you often have the idea that you are short of breath. You breathe high, called the chest breath. You use a small part of your lung capacity. That’s why you breathe more often per minute. So very tiring!

This can make you panic and make it difficult to relax.

To avoid, reduce or combat this misery, we give you 3 easily applicable hyperventilation breathing exercises below.

3 Hyperventilation Breathing Exercises

The following 3 hyperventilation breathing exercises can ensure that you breathe calmer and better. You use the total Yoga breathing.

This uses the total lung capacity, you breathe more slowly and probably fewer times per minute.

1. bexhalation

This breathing provides more rest and you use the total lung capacity.

Lie with your back on the floor or sit cross-legged. Place your hands on your stomach and direct the breath to your hands. Breathe in and out through your nose. Make the exhale longer than the inhale.

If you find this difficult, you can lie on your back and put a book on your stomach, for example. This also provides the desired effect.

To properly apply abdominal breathing, you must use your diaphragm. In this video, Rolf explains a little more about that and shares 3 exercises that will also make your abdominal breathing easier.

2. Nadi Shodani

In the Nadi Shodani breathing exercise, you always switch nostrils with the breath. This breathing creates peace and space in the lungs. And therefore also in your further body and mind.

This is how you perform Nadi Shodhana:

1. Make sure you sit comfortably without tension in the body. This can be done in the lotus position, cross-legged or just on a chair.
2. Now place your right thumb on your right nostril and inhale deeply through your left nostril.
   After the inhalation, close your left nostril with your ring finger (place your index and middle finger on the point between your eyebrows). Now you free the right nostril and also exhale through this nostril.
3. After exhaling completely, inhale again through your right nostril. When you have fully inhaled, close the right nostril again with your thumb.
4. Then free the left nostril and exhale through it.
5. This will continue for a few minutes. Remember that the nostril through which you exhale is also the nostril through which you inhale.

An extensive one how to tutorial of Nadi shodhana pranayama can be found on our PRACTICE platform:

3. Breathe using a visualization

Sometimes it is difficult to find the right breathing rate yourself. It can help if someone guides you at that moment so that you don’t have to think about it yourself.

In the video below, Rolf explains more about the importance of the correct breathing frequency. You will also find a visualization where you can breathe along to calm your breathing.

Knowing more?

Would you like to know more about breathing? And how can you ensure that you breathe correctly in daily life?

On our practice platform you will find a course that is all about breathing.

Breathing is one of the most important aspects of your Yoga practice! In this course you will learn the tools and techniques to work with the breath in the right way.

Click on the image below for more information!

---

Have you ever suffered from hyperventilation? What do you do at such a moment?