Breathe correctly, improve your health

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We breathe in and out roughly 25,000 times a day. And yet, according to experts, including pulmonologists and psychiatrists, most of us are doing it wrong — breathing too rapidly and too shallowly.
Over the last few decades, research has begun to confirm what ancient cultures around the world have long believed: Breath work, the practice of correcting and controlling your breathing through simple exercises, can improve health and well-being.
At rest, your breathing should be slow and steady, between 12 and 20 breaths per minute. Consciously slowing that even further—to between five to seven breaths per minute at rest—can help reduce blood pressure, regulate heart rate and lift mood. Researchers have also reported that breathing slowly can reduce chronic pain, stress and depression, and bolster fitness and energy levels.
One study, published last April, found that breath work helped recovering Covid-19 patients return to healthy respiratory rates. And another study, published in November, found that breathing exercises—among other mindfulness practices—were as effective as drugs to treat anxiety disorders.
Here are three simple breathing exercises that pulmonologists, sleep doctors and researchers consulted for this story recommend.

4-4-8 breathing
Try this exercise if you are feeling anxious or scared.

What to do: Take a breath in for four counts, hold your breath for four counts and then exhale for eight counts. repeat.

Alternate nostril breathing
This exercise, borrowed from yoga practices, can help improve focus.

What to do: Close your right nostril and breathe in through your left nostril for a count of four. Now close your left nostril and breathe out from your right nostril for a count of four.

Box breathing
The U.S. Navy SEALS use this technique to prepare for training, and even before combat, because it can enhance cognitive focus.

What to do: Breathe in for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of four, exhale for a count of four and hold your breath again for a count of four.