Introduction
If you suffer from asthma, breathing difficulties or anxiety, you will know how distressing it is when you can’t catch your breath. These symptoms have been linked to something known as “chronic hidden hyperventilation”.
This chronic overbreathing can increase the inflammation in your body, affect your blood sugar balance and alter your electrolyte balance. All these things can contribute to symptoms of illness that are linked with prolonged stress. Lower energy levels, and headaches can also be linked with overbreathing and stress. Upper chest breathing creates tension in the neck and shoulders if you are breathing 30,000 times a day with your neck and shoulder muscles, rather than using your diaphragm effectively.
This is when we breathe a little bit too much all the time, for what your body requires. It might mean your breathing is constantly a little bit too fast or shallow or big breathing, which might not be that obvious – which is why it is known as “hidden”.
It may mean you are breathing more than 12 breaths a minute at rest in the upper chest or mouth breathing due to a blocked nose. Our nose and airways can block just because our body is trying to slow the breathing down to regain balance in how our body functions.
The good news is that breathing is a behaviour and it is one of the easier behaviours to retrain. It takes 4 weeks to retrain your breathing habit and for you to improve your breathing behaviour. Breathing Mastery for Adults is designed for teenagers upwards.
Anyone with a diagnosis of a medical condition should consult with their medical practitioner before beginning this practice, and to seek support from in person practitioner led training.
Each level will take you one step closer to achieving breathing mastery.
You will be guided through a series of daily exercises designed to move you away from mouth breathing and upper chest breathing associated with asthma and anxiety.
Through the breathing meditation videos, you will be guided to practice nose breathing and diaphragm breathing with short pauses at the end of the out-breath that lengthen with each week you practice.
These pauses are designed to enable you to become comfortable with and relax into the feeling of a little bit of air hunger. This is the feeling that causes an increased desire to breathe more.
Move onto the next weeks training only when you are comfortable with the breath pause length in your current level.
Practice using a video meditation 2- 3x a day
This will help you make maximum progress. If you can do your practice before each meal it will be easier to do the pauses. For those able to do nose holds and press the pause and play buttons, your breath holds for each week can be timed and recorded.
For each days practice you can add a comment to record how you are feeling and whether you have needed your reliever inhaler/ how many times or anything else you notice about your health or breathing that day.
Disclaimer
This breathing training program is not designed to diagnose or treat asthma, but to enable better breathing habits that have been shown in studies based on the Buteyko method to reduce the need for asthma medication and reduce anxiety.
Any change to your medication should be done in conjunction with a registered healthcare professional. If you have any of the health conditions listed on the contraindications list please seek further advice before using the Breathing Mastery for Adults.
Buteyko training recommends not making any changes to asthma medication until you can comfortably pause your breathing for 25 seconds or more at the end of the out-breath. Do not stop steroid medication suddenly as this can cause serious side effects.
There may be additional changes to diet and lifestyle required to enable a health improvement.
Chronic hidden hyperventilation has been well documented and associated with many chronic health conditions. For further guidance read Breathe with Ease by Alison Waring.
Adult Week 1 Instructions
Explanation
Before you begin each session, it is important to check whether your nose is clear and you can breathe easily in and out through your nose into your tummy. You can follow the nose-clearing exercises at the start of each level if it’s blocked.
Once your nose is clear you can breathe into your tummy following the breathing exercise meditation video that is designed to time and record how long you can pause your breathing for. You will find your results recorded in the mini dashboard under the courses drop down menu at the top of the page.
After a couple of minutes of quiet nose breathing, you will be asked to breathe in and out then hold your nose and pause your breathing as you pause the video. This will be repeated 5 times. When you press pause a second video will begin to play. When you need to breathe in again, let go of your nose and press play.
To complete week 1, you must be able to comfortably pause your breathing at the end of the out-breath for at least 10 seconds. You can pause for longer, but you must be able to return to slow relaxed nose breathing immediately after – no gasping or big belly or upper chest breathing!
Just remember to breathe in when you feel your body is asking you to.
Check your pulse at the start and finish of each session. If your pulse is higher at the end of the practice than at the start, this is an indication you have paused for too long, and you are causing your body to become stressed. Resume your breathing sooner next time, so your pulse should be the same or lower at the end of the session.
When you are instructed to press the pause button and hold your nose, immediately follow the instructions on the second video to the side. A lap top or tablet is optimal for this practice. Remember to press play as soon as you need to breathe in. The first video will then play and give you further instructions.
The ideal would be to practice three times a day before meals. You will still make progress if you practice in the morning and evening. Your breathing and relaxation should improve the more you practice.
- In your first week to help you practice nose breathing you can use tape to cover your mouth for 20 minutes after work, maybe whilst watching TV or reading, to maintain your nose breathing, when you are not thinking about it.
- If you get a chance to have a walk each day with nose breathing for 20 minutes that would be excellent. You can tick the box if you have completed this.
- You can write down in the comments box anything that you have found that was challenging or you, found better each day or how many times you used your inhaler.
Adult Week 2 Instructions
Before you begin your practice in week 2 you must be able to pause your breathing for at least 10 seconds and comfortably return to quiet nose breathing after your control pause.
This week we focus on releasing emotions with the breath. Noticing where we feel them, welcoming them and releasing them with the pause and softening at the end of each exhale.
If you haven’t tried taping your mouth closed yet during the day, try 20 minutes on an evening. You can tape vertically so that you can take a sneaky breath round the sides of the tape if you need to.
If you have already got comfortable with mouth taping during the day, then in week 2 it’s good to try it at night time. Put the tape on a bit before bed to get relaxed with it first. Do not tape your mouth at night if you have had alcohol, sleeping tablets or feel sick. If you feel well, then you can use micropore tape to keep your mouth closed during the night to maintain your nose breathing throughout the night.
Most people report that they feel more energised in the morning when they have taped at night. The subconscious comes out to play at night and big breathing and mouth breathing can take over. If you keep your breathing calm and relaxed and through your nose, you will wake feeling more refreshed and rested, having had better oxygenation in the night without the big breathing.
Remember to record if you taped or not in the comments box each day to see how it is helping your progress.
Make sure you take a 20 minute walk each day with nose breathing. If you get out of breath, remember to stop and regain your nose breathing, before you carry on walking.
In week 2 we introduce the extended pause. This is where you increase your control pause length -the length of time you can comfortably pause from the end of your outbreath, to your next inbreath, by 5 to 10 seconds. To make an extened pause, at the end of your control pause, continue pausing by tapping on your chest with your finger tips and sway from side to side for 5 to 10 seconds, before letting go of your nose, and resuming the meditation video by pressing play.
The tapping motion and swaying is to keep you relaxed and to help you extend your pause length so you can become comfortable with the feeling of a little bit of air hunger. If you can relax with this feeling, you will make faster progress.
Remember to check your pulse at the start and finish of each practice session so you can check to make sure you have not paused for too long, which can increase your heart rate at the end, if you have been causing stress to your body.
If you feel the extended pauses are not helping with anxiety levels, then continue with relaxed control pauses or simply breathe in for 4 and out for 6 without the pauses, until you feel comfortable to take the next steps…
Happy Practising….
Adult Week 3 Instructions
To begin week 3 you must be able to pause your breathing and comfortably return to slow quiet nose breathing after 25 seconds.
This week focuses on very reduced breathing. By reducing the volume of the air cloud you take in, it reduces the amount that you breathe out, holding onto more carbon dioxide (CO2), that sits at the bottom of the lungs. CO2 is a natural muscle relaxant so if you can retain more carbon dioxide it can help keep your airways open and your blood vessels relaxed. This can help to lower blood pressure and reduce the tension in your body.
Make sure your nose is clear before practice. You may experience a resetting at some point, where you feel like you can relax with a feeling of hardly needing to breathe at all.
During the 4 week practice you can also experience a healing crisis, where your body throws out more waste and you have more mucus or a cold. Keep practising gently during this time, don’t force it. Usually your pause length increases after this increased clear out.
Because it’s harder to go into a pause with very reduced breathing, we take a few normal sized breaths before we take a control pause or extended pause. This enables your normal breath to be a standard breath for comparison.
There are rescue breath videos that can help if you are struggling with your breathing at any point. Remember you can always reach out for help too.
If you can begin practising the steps exercise this week that would be great. You can practice the steps exercise as long as you can walk for 20 minutes with nose breathing, without getting breathless and needing to stop.
Steps Exercise
Walk with nose breathing. At the end of a minute, breathe out and hold your nose, and count how many steps you can take in the pause. Then continue walking with nose breathing. You should be able to recover your breathing within two nose breaths.
If it takes you longer than this you have paused for too long.
Repeat this 5 to 10 times with 1 to 2 minutes of nose breathing in between each pause, where you count your steps.
Walk continuously and count how many steps you can take in each pause.
You will need to take deeper and bigger breaths when you are exercising. Remember to breathe in from the bottom of your tummy upwards. Keep your shoulders relaxed and dropped.
You can record your steps count in the comments box for each day you practice the steps exercise.
Have fun…
Adult Week 4 Instructions
To begin week four you must be able to comfortably pause your breathing for 35 seconds and resume quiet relaxed nose breathing immediately.
In week 4, we continue with very reduced breathing, and we also bring in the eye roll technique to help increase the control pause length. We also bring in the maximum pause, which is continued beyond the extended pause with distraction through getting up and walking around the room, whilst recovering into the feeling of air hunger as quickly as possible through relaxation.
If you can’t pause for 35 seconds by this stage, just miss out the maximum pause and do a control pause or extended pause instead.
Ideally you want to reach 45 seconds with your control pause, which is possible with daily practice over the month.
There is no benefit to pausing for more than a minute.
Continue to practice beyond the month for best results. You might also want to consider training yourself to nose breathe with talking.
Food that your body doesn’t tolerate well, can also increase inflammation and breathing rate. You can check if a food suits you or not, by checking your control pause before you eat the food, and then recheck twenty minutes later. If your pause length reduces significantly you may want to consider whether this needs addressing in order to make further progress with your breathing health.
You may also want to look at the additional videos for help and support with your breathing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
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