Fix Your Focus – Try this 2-Minute Trick
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Do you struggle to concentrate at work? When you need to really focus on a task, are you easily distracted? A simple, balancing breathing practice could be the key to improving your productivity and helping you to get in the zone.
Most breathing practices are designed to aggressively stimulate your sympathetic nervous system to wake you up; or they go the other direction, upregulating the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system to put you to sleep. What we often need most is something in the middle, what I like to call water category or coherent breathing practices.
The simple water category, alternate nostril practice below is designed to improve your concentration. If you’re overstimulated, it will calm you down, if you’re low on energy it can help to give you a lift. It’s a perfect go-to practice midday when you’re struggling to focus on an important project, and 10 rounds of this type of breathing takes just two minutes.
The thing to remember is that consistency amplifies the efficacy of breathing practices, so the more you make this part of your concentration routine, the more notable the results.
Ocean Breathing
Ocean Breathing, also known as Ujjayi breathing, sounds like Darth Vader or a whisper that originates in the back of your throat. This practice oscillates your throat and by proxy, your vagus nerve for a self-soothing effect.
- Hold your hand in front of your face as if it were a mirror
- Open your mouth, fog up the imagined mirror by exhaling with a “ha ha” sound
- Now inhale with the same “ha ha” whisper sound
- Finally, close your mouth, breathe through your nose only, but continue to make that “ha ha” whisper sound both on the inhale and the exhale
- You’ll find the exhale easy, but the inhale takes some practice to learn
Pranayama Mudra
This nostril closing technique will feel a little clunky at first, but you will get the hang of it, and it will enhance your breathing practice.
- Take your right hand and pull your first two fingers to your palm
- Point your last two fingers upwards
- Your thumb controls your right nostril
- Your ring finger controls your left
- Close your right nostril and alternate as you work through the practice below
Alternate Nostril Breathing
This water category practice is designed to calm you down if you’re over-stimulated, and to boost your energy if you’re feeling lethargic. Since your right nostril is correlated with your sympathetic nervous system and your left with your parasympathetic, this practice works toward that balance by alternating between right and left.
- Using Ocean Breathing throughout, start by closing your right nostril
- Close your right nostril
- Inhale through your left nostril 1-2-3-4
- Close your left nostril
- Exhale through your right nostril 4-3-2-1
- Close your left nostril
- Inhale through your right nostril 1-2-3-4
- Each inhale and exhale = 1 round
- Repeat for a total of 10 rounds
Safety Disclaimer
If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, glaucoma, or a pulmonary condition, please check with your doctor before starting any breathing practices.