Long Deep Breathing: A Comprehensive Guide

“Conscious breathing is the best antidote to stress, anxiety, and depression.”  -Amit Ray

Long Deep Breathing is a foundational practice in all yoga and meditation. It is done consistently throughout practice (when another type of breathing is not indicated) and is a key tool to help you connect with yourself and achieve internal balance. By consciously lengthening the breath, you can experience a profound sense of relaxation, increased mental clarity, and improved overall health. This article delves into the mechanics of Long Deep Breathing, exploring its benefits, the role of various muscles involved, and practical tips for incorporating this transformative practice into your daily routine.

Importance of Long Deep Breathing: 

Long Deep Breathing is the first pranayama to master in your yoga and meditation practice. This fundamental technique not only lays the groundwork for more advanced breathing exercises, but also enhances your overall practice by cultivating mindfulness and body awareness. By mastering Long Deep Breathing, you learn to control your breath, which is essential for managing stress, improving concentration, and achieving deeper states of meditation. This practice helps create a stable and calm mind, which is crucial for progressing in other pranayama techniques and yoga exercises. This pranayama provides a solid base, enabling you to harness the full benefits of your yoga and meditation journey.

Benefits of Long Deep Breathing include:

• Decreases stress.
• Reduces high blood pressure.
• Increases the flow of prana, bringing you in touch with the source of your body’s life.
• Enhances cognitive performance. 
• Improves lung function (can help those with asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia).
• Reduces and prevents the build-up of toxins in the lungs by encouraging the clearing of the small air sacs (alveoli). 
• May impact the body’s pH (acid-alkaline balance), which affects the ability to handle stressful situations.
• Proven to support and enhance cognition.
• Helps repattern subconscious habits, such as insecurities and fears.
• Through smaller studies, breathing has been shown to play a key role in recovery from addictions.
• Reduces pain (i.e., the deep breathing that mothers lean on during childbirth). The best results are typically found when the exhale is lengthened, compared to the inhale.
• Increases capacity to manage negativity and emotions, supporting clarity, coolheadedness, and patience.

Mechanics of Breathing, the Diaphragm and Beyond:

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped skeletal muscle that separates the chest (thoracic cavity) from the abdominal cavity. The movement of the diaphragm powers your breathing. As you relax the diaphragm and extend the belly, the dome flattens down, creating extra space for the lungs to expand above it and drawing air into the lungs. When you exhale, the dome arches up, pushing air from the lungs up and out.

Other muscles assist this movement as well. The abdominal muscles help push and relax the diaphragm against the lungs. The intercostal muscles, located between the ribs, are essential for rib cage movement. During inhalation, they contract, causing the rib cage to expand and elevate, thereby increasing the thoracic cavity’s volume and allowing more air to enter the lungs. Conversely, the internal intercostal muscles assist in exhalation by pulling the ribs downward and inward, reducing the thoracic cavity’s volume and facilitating the expulsion of air.

Mechanics of Long Deep Breathing:

Long Deep Breathing uses the full capacity of the lungs, by expanding and contracting the three chambers, or areas, of the lungs:

• Abdominal or lower 
• Chest or middle 
• Clavicular or upper

This technique involves inhaling slowly and deeply through the nose, allowing the breath to fill the lower, middle, and upper parts of the lungs sequentially.

To see if you are breathing correctly, focus on the movement of these three areas of the body:

1. Movement of the abdomen
2. Movement of the chest
3. Movement of the clavicle

Correct breathing starts by lowering the diaphragm, which creates an outward movement of the lower abdomen and space in the chest cavity, allowing the lungs to expand. As the lungs fill with air, the abdomen expands, the chest expands, and finally, once filled to capacity, there is a slight lifting of the upper ribs and clavicle (or collar bones). The exhale is the reverse: first, the diaphragm rises as the upper lungs deflate, then the middle lungs empty, and finally, the abdomen pulls in and up, with the Navel Point moving back and in toward the spine.

Paradoxical Breathing and Correction:

Paradoxical breathing, or backwards breathing, occurs when your diaphragm moves in the opposite direction than it should. Paradoxical breathing happens when your diaphragm contracts during inhaling and expands during exhaling. [insert image of this]

Effects of Paradoxical Breathing:

According to MedicalNewsToday, symptoms of paradoxical breathing can include: 

• Dizziness and weakness
• Difficulty catching your breath
• Being unable to take a deep breath
• Having a rapid heart rate
• Pain, tension, or weakness in the chest or stomach

You may also notice that you are breathing paradoxically if you struggle to do Breath of Fire or other pranayamas that require correct breathing to be sustainable for a longer time.

How to Correct Paradoxical Breathing:

The easiest way to correct paradoxical breathing is to relearn how to breathe long and deep. Practice Long Deep Breathing for 3-11 minutes a day until it becomes your normal breathing pattern. The following series of exercises can help you recalibrate how you breathe.

Exploring the Three Parts of Long Deep Breathing:

Start by getting into a comfortable position, either seated or lying face up. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen. As you practice the following exercises, feel the movement of your abdomen and chest to fully experience and recalibrate Long Deep Breathing. 

Exercise 1: Abdominal Breath

Let your breath relax to a normal pace and depth. Bring your attention to the Navel Point area. Take in a slow, deep breath by consciously lowering the diaphragm, allowing the lower abdomen to relax and expand. As you exhale, gently pull the navel in and up toward the spine. For this experiment, keep the chest and clavicular areas still. Notice the movements that the diaphragm makes, that result in filling and then emptying the lungs. Focus on breathing entirely with the diaphragmatic muscles and feeling the lower belly move with those muscles.

Exercise 2: Chest Breath 

Keep the diaphragm still and consciously do not let the lower abdomen fill with air. Inhale slowly ONLY using the chest muscles. The chest expands by using the intercostal muscles between the ribs. Do this slowly and focus on the sensation of expansion in the chest area. Exhale completely, but again do not use the abdomen. 

After a couple of rounds, compare the depth and volume of this breath with the isolated abdominal breath done in Exercise 1. If you place your hands on the upper and lower parts of the ribs you can feel how the bottom ribs move more than the top ones. These are the floating ribs, and they are not as fixed to the sternum as the upper ones. Much of the contribution of the ribs and intercostal muscles comes from an expansion of the lower ribs out to the sides.

Exercise 3: Clavicular Breath 

 Pull the navel in and keep the abdomen tight. Lift the chest without inhaling. Now inhale into the upper chest slowly by expanding the shoulders and the collarbone. Exhale as you keep the chest lifted. Repeat for a few breath cycles, filling and emptying only the clavicular area.

Exercise 4: Putting the Parts Together

Each part of the breath is distinct. When all three are combined, you have a complete Long Deep Breath.

• Sit straight or lie down face up. If the spine is in a balanced position, the ribs and muscles can move freely.
• Begin the inhale with focus on the diaphragmatic movement downwards. Then feel the muscles of the ribcage expand all the way up into the collarbones as the belly relaxes outwards from the abdomen to the chest to the clavicle. All three stages are done in a smooth motion.
• Start the exhale by relaxing the clavicle, then slowly raising the diaphragm which allows the chest to empty. Finally, pull in the abdomen and the Navel Point to force out any remaining air.

After doing these exercises, take a moment to reflect on any/all of these questions:

• How did your body feel before, during, and after each of the exercises?
• How did your mind respond to the practice? Were you able to maintain focus or did your thoughts wander?
• What emotions or sensations arose during the breathing exercises?
• What insights or realizations did you gain from this session that you can carry forward into your daily life?

Suggested Kriyas and Meditations to Master this Breath:

Breath Awareness Exercise

This breathing/pranayam practice can enhance your intuition and sensitivity to your environment and others.

Go to Practice ->

Basic Breath Series

This kriya includes various breathing techniques to energize, clarify, and balance your mind and body. Great for beginners!

Go to Practice ->

Meditation for Emotional Balance (Sunia[n] Antar)

Sunia(n) Antar is like a powerful Kundalini Yoga Meditation to create a brake during times of worry, upset, or emotional distress.

Go to Practice ->