In our day and age, it’s harder than ever to remain focused and figure out what you want in life. Instagram, Facebook, the internet, and colorful advertisements everywhere distract us and move our focus away from our goals, drain us mentally, and catapult us into a vicious cycle of comparison, insecurity, and lack of concentration.
Luckily, we are born with a body that serves as a perfect vessel to bring us back to focus and get our life back on track, concentrating on what we really want. Our breath is probably our most underrated yet powerful tool we possess. We are so busy working on our perfect abs, glutes or moisturizing our skin (which is great of course) that we forget to use what we already have in order to create a better life: the breath.
Pranayama, or yogic breathing, can help us to breathe more consciously and get back to focus. This can improve our concentration and productivity at work and help us to get more clarity when work and life feels overwhelming.
The great part about learning and mastering pranayama is that you have been breathing your whole life, so it is not a completely new skill that needs to be developed. Nevertheless, pranayama and right breathing take time and practice to be developed.
Oxygen as the pathway to more clarity and focus
Sustaining our body with enough vital oxygen is the primary way to enhance clarity and focus. Have you ever felt insanely tired, lacked concentration, had a poor memory, experienced cluttered thoughts or even blurred vision at work? Chances are high you can relate to at least some of these symptoms. Unfortunately, for many, these symptoms are part of their daily work life.
What has caused these symptoms could be a lack of oxygen to your brain, due to incorrect breathing, meaning not taking in enough oxygen into our system with our inhales. Our brain uses 20 percent of oxygen of the whole body, while only compromising 2 percent of body weight, quite a lot! The brain is our master organ that controls our nervous system and is also linked to other organs like the gut. Having a properly working brain is, therefore, necessary to thrive.
Comparing brain cells to other cells in the body, brain cells are extremely sensitive to oxygen deprivation and begin to die much quicker without sufficient oxygen supply. The lack of focus and ‘brain fog‘ many of us are experiencing on a daily basis stems very likely from an insufficient oxygen supply to the brain. Fortunately, this can be changed by breathing the right way.
Normally, we breathe unconsciously. Breathing in and out is something we are not aware of until we bring focus to it. Often this type of breathing is not the most beneficial for us, especially if we are experiencing stress, mental and physical tightness, feeling overwhelmed or unfocused. However, we do have the ability to consciously direct our breath and therefore possess a powerful tool for our mental transformation, helping us to see things more clearly, be more focused at work and gain clarity on our goals.
How to breathe right
Incorrect unconscious breathing, meaning breathing that is shallow, fast and comes from the chest, can actually be draining for your energy and can worsen the effects of stress. If we are very stressed or panicked, we tend to hyperventilate - breathing very fast. This upsets the balance of oxygen flowing into our body and carbon dioxide leaving the body. But as outlined above, for our brain and organs to work properly, we need a good amount of oxygen in our system.
Fortunately, breathing properly and conscious can literally clear away all of the unpleasant symptoms one might experience. Breathing exercises can improve brain function almost instantly and help us to see more clearly, get more productivity and focus.
So, how to breathe right?
If breathing short, fast and only into our chest is apparently the wrong type of breathing, it makes sense that longer, slower breaths into the belly are a better way of breathing, correct? And this is exactly what diaphragmatic breathing also is about.
It’s very easy to practice and you can do it almost anywhere.
Just close your eyes, standing or sitting up tall.
Place one hand on your stomach and the other one on your chest.
Breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose and directly into your belly. The hand on your stomach should rise as the belly expands.
After you fully filled your belly with air, breathe in a little bit (really only a little bit into your chest). Take a moment to pause before you slowly and gently release the breath through the mouth. Your stomach sinks while your chest remains fairly still.
Repeat this five to ten times at least.
How to incorporate this technique into a daily (work) routine
If you do this exercise daily, you can soon see the many benefits it has, mainly having more focus and clarity, but also your overall well-being increases and you will feel more calm and peaceful in situations that left you to cringe before.
The question remains however how to incorporate this breathing into a hectic daily life. Oftentimes you might not even think about breathing consciously and deeply when you are in a spiral of negative thoughts or have difficulty concentrating.
The key here is, of course, practice. Start with diaphragmatic breathing in a moment when you are already quite relaxed or think about it consciously. Your body remembers the positive effects of this breathing exercise.
You can go on and try to incorporate three minutes of diaphragmatic breathing three times a day, at a time of your choice.
Soon it will become much easier to also breathe consciously in challenging situations and remain calm, clear, and focused mind for longer time-spans throughout the day, helping you to live a life that you feel in control of and not the other way around and making healthy decisions in your professional and private life.
Written by Clara Malzer
