By now you’ve probably heard about the benefits of meditation on overall mental health, but did you know that the type of meditation you do has different effects? If you follow guided meditations, they often have a theme—maybe it’s to manifest your future, heal a childhood wound, or decrease anxiety. It can be overwhelming to pick exactly the right meditation for your mood, especially as a beginner.
This is why we recommend sticking to the basics in the beginning. Did you know there is a specific breathing pattern that is known to reduce anxiety? That’s right! The pace at which you breathe can have a major effect on your mind. It’s why our breathing gets quicker and shallower as we get nervous or anxious—which then fuels the cycle and tells our body to be more nervous.
So what’s the key? The trick is to breathe in slowly and deeply, hold the breath, and then exhale slowly for longer than you inhaled. This can look different depending on the day, but the most important thing is that you exhale longer than you inhale (and of course breathe into your belly!). Some common methods are 4-4-8, which means you inhale for four seconds, hold the breath for four seconds, and then exhale for eight.
