How To Do Box Breathing

Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Take a deep breath with this episode on box breathing. Discover its benefits for reducing anxiety and improving focus. Join us for a guided 2-minute breathwork session and learn how to do box breathing and incorporate this simple breathing technique into your daily routine.

Timestamps to help you navigate this episode:
0:00 Intro
2:45 FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
5:11 Benefits of Box Breathing Technique
7:42 Relaxation Techniques
11:57 Sponsor: Snap Supplements 25% OFF using code LUNDEN25

Transcript

Lunden Souza: 2:26

Welcome to Self Love and Sweat the podcast, the place where you'll get inspired to live your life unapologetically, embrace your perfect imperfections, break down barriers and do what sets your soul on fire. I'm your host, Lunden Souza. Hey, have you grabbed your free Self Love and Sweat monthly calendar yet? This calendar is so amazing. It comes right in your inbox every single month to help you have a little nugget of wisdom, a sweaty workout, a mindset activity, just a little something, something to help keep you focused and motivated and keep that momentum towards your goals. So every day, when you get this calendar, you'll see a link that you can click that will lead to a podcast episode or a workout or something that will be very powerful and quick to read. And then you'll also see, on the top left corner of every single day, there's a little checkbox in the calendar and what that is is that's for your one thing. You can choose one thing every month, or it can be the same, something that you want to implement and make this something that you can easily implement, like daily meditation or getting a certain amount of steps or water, for example, and staying hydrated and even taking your supplements. This can be something if you want to get more regular, doing a particular habit and routine. You can choose what that checkbox means. So if you want your Self Love and Sweat free monthly calendar delivered right to your inbox every month on the first of the month, go to lifelikelunden. com/ calendar, fill out the form really quickly and you will have your calendar in your inbox within a few short minutes. That's lifelikelunden L-I-F-E-L-I-K-E-L-U-N-D-E-N dot com forward slash calendar. Go, get yours for free and enjoy this episode. Happy today. Welcome back to the podcast.

Lunden Souza: 4:36

Today we're going to talk about the benefits of box breathing and then we're also going to do a couple minutes of box breathing together, because I just feel like if you pressed play on this episode, you might need a little breather, a little breathwork break, which I often take using this technique, and I want to teach it to you today If you don't already know it. If you already know it, this will be a great reminder. So box breathing is inhaling for four, holding at the top for four, exhale for four, hold at the bottom for four. So creating this box with the inhale, the hold, the exhale, the hold. So the benefits of box breathing include helping you cope better with stress and the feels of the day.

Lunden Souza: 5:19

I really feel like that counting for three, two, one, hold for three, two, one I feel like that counting is really helpful. To come back to the present moment, come back to the now and that counting I feel like is really helpful. And then also the fact that it's called box breathing. I kind of imagine a box. For me it's kind of like when all the things are floating around and I'm thinking about all the things. It's a great way to like narrow my focus, come back to my breath, come back to the present moment and create that little box in my mind's eye. It also helps with the sleep, so you can do box breathing in bed as you are heading to sleep. You could even elongate that exhale even more specifically if you're trying to fall asleep. Like I said, great way to refocus.

Lunden Souza: 6:11

If you're having a busy day or a stressful day, or maybe you've got some information or things changed and just right in that moment you can activate your box breathing. I think you can really do breathwork anywhere, but there's some breathwork techniques like breath of fire or awakening breath that like in public, in places it might not be something that you want to just bust out with the arm movement and the belly from breath of fire. Box breath. You can do anywhere. You can do it in the car, you can do it in the grocery store line, you can do it while you're waiting at an office to have a meeting or in between zoom calls, like whatever your life is like. You can do it in the car as you prepare to pick up your kids and like transition into, like parent hat or caregiver hat.

Lunden Souza: 6:56

It's just a great breathwork technique to use anytime. It keeps calm when preparing for the day I said helps when making a big decision. So if something shifted or you're about to step into a room, step into a space to have a conversation, to make a big decision, to move the needle in one direction or the other and kind of make decisions along those lines, it can be a very great technique that you can do. Just a few rounds of a couple minutes of. It also decreases cortisol, which is a stress hormone. So it's going to bring down our stress, bring us back to the present moment, help us refocus, help us find that clarity and regulate and come back into a more regulated nervous system. So the breathwork technique, like I said, is inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Now we're going to do it together, all right, but first we're just going to start off with one minute of just breathing, okay, just inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth or your nose, whatever you want. Maybe you want to do an audible exhale?

Lunden Souza: 8:07

and inhale fill up the belly, fill up the chest, relax the shoulders and exhale, and we're just going to stay here for about 45 more seconds. Just coming back to your breath, Notice where your breath is going, where it wants to go. Notice if your breath is a little bit shallow. If your shoulders start to rise up, maybe you can relax them a little bit, relax your jaw, and in just a moment I'm going to guide you through box breathing. So just stay with your breath for the next 15 seconds and then you can follow my count. And one more big breath in, let it out. And here we go. Inhale four, three, two one. Hold for three, two, one. Exhale for three, two, one. Hold for three, two, one. Inhale for drink it up three, two, one. Hold for three, two one. Exhale for three, two, one. Hold for three, two, one. Inhale for three, two, one hold for three two.

Lunden Souza: 9:38

One exhale for three two one hold for three two one inhale for inhale, for breathe in hold for three. Two one hold for three. Two one hold for three. Hold 4. Exhale 4. Hold 4. Keep going Inhale 4., 3., 2., 1.

Lunden Souza: 10:18

Hold, 4., 3., 2., 1. Inhale, 4., 3., hold, 4., 3., 2., 1. Hold, 4., 3., 2., 1. Hold, 4., 3., 2., 1. Hold, 4., 3., 3., 2., 1. Hold, 4., 3., 2., 1. And then let it out and just stay in this feeling. Enjoy what you activated with your breath. That was only 2 minutes of box breathing and I can imagine that you're breathing in a very deep breath and I can imagine the benefits you're feeling in this moment, even if you were just able to turn down the volume and dial it down just a little bit. And for those of you that are premium subscribers to the podcast, I have 10 minute breath work audios that I upload each month that you can listen to and do 10 minutes of breath work with me, just like we did today with music all the things. I hope you enjoyed this box breathing today and have a beautiful rest of your day. See you next time.

Lunden Souza: 11:58

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Lunden Souza: 13:54

Now let's get back to the show. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of self love and sweat the podcast. Hey, do me a favor wherever you're listening to this podcast, give us a review. This really helps a lot and share this with a friend. I'm only one person and with your help, we can really spread the message of self love and sweat and change more lives all around the world. I'm Lunden Souza, reminding you that you deserve a life full of passion, presence and purpose, fueled by self love and sweat. This podcast is a Hitspot Austria