5 Breathing Techniques To Lower Your Blood Pressure
Breathing techniques are complementary strategies to the treatment your doctor prescribes for high blood pressure and a very simple way to maximize well-being. Although they can take some time to learn, ultimately, they can help you feel good every day.
High blood pressure is one of the most common silent diseases around the world. It’s essential to pay attention to it once you’re diagnosed and the doctor prescribes a treatment.
When a doctor diagnoses you with hypertension, it’s important for you to learn to watch your diet, reduce salt intake, and avoid leading a sedentary lifestyle. But in addition to this, you must follow the treatment and recommendations, as they’ll help you to enjoy a good quality of life.
But what if you could resort to another strategy to reduce high blood pressure at home?
1. Concentrate on a word to turn off your mental noise
An easy technique to lower your blood pressure is to focus on a word. By putting your focus on it, you “turn off” your mental noise. This includes the erratic thoughts that usually cause stress or anxiety. When you’ve achieved internal calm, you’ll start with the breathing technique.
- Sit in a comfortable place with your back straight.
- Choose a word (wind, harmony, balance, peace, tranquility, fluidity, etc).
- Repeat the word slowly until an image appears in your mind.
- Now, breathe deeply.
- Hold the air in for four seconds. Then, exhale loudly for a few seconds.
2. Breathing technique to “cool” your body
The following suggestions might be a bit interesting. But, it’s very useful and effective for reducing your heart rate. It also calms your mind and regulates your blood pressure.
This technique is usually practiced in yoga. It has the name Sheetali. This is a word that comes from Sanskrit. It can be translated as a cooling calm or cooling your body.
- Sit with your spine straight.
- Relax your shoulders and arms.
- Inhale in a slow, relaxed manner.
- Then, stick out your tongue and try to draw a “U” in the air with the tip of your tongue.
- While you do this exercise, breathe in for five seconds (you should be extremely focused).
- Now, close your mouth gently. You’ll notice an interesting internal coolness…
3. Breathing to lower high blood pressure
- Sit in a comfortable place with your back straight.
- Then, tilt your head slightly back.
- Close your eyes and rest your hands on your knees.
- Now, inhale and exhale five times slowly. You should do this as slowly as possible.
- Your breathing should be audible. To do this, shape your lips like you’re trying to say the vowel “O”.
4. Abdominal breathing
Abdominal or diaphragm breathing is one of the most well-known and, without a doubt, the most used. So, if you had to choose any of these five techniques to reduce blood pressure, this would be one of the most useful.
- Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
- Now breathe deeply through your nose. You should feel your diaphragm widen — not your chest.
- Keep this air in for a few seconds, then exhale deeply.
- Repeat this over the course of 10 minutes. You’ll see how it clears up your mind and balances your heart.
5. Alternative nasal breathing
This technique is useful for reducing stress and even sleeping better. In fact, we recommend that you do this when you’re in bed. You should do this 30 minutes before going to sleep-
It’ll give you a healing sleep and you’ll wake up with a more balanced blood pressure. These are the steps you need to follow.
- Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight.
- Relax for a few minutes.
- Then, use your right thumb to plug your right nostril.
- Breathe deeply through your left nostril.
- When you’ve breathed in as much as you can and can’t take in any more air, close your left nostril with your right ring finger.
- Now breathe out through your right nostril.
- Then, do the same thing with this side. In other words, when you’ve breathed in as much as you can with your right nostril. Then, close it and exhale the air through your left nostril.
Are you ready to try one of these great breathing exercises?
As you’ve seen, the main goal of breathing techniques is to teach people to breathe deeply and slowly.
Now that you know this, will you dare to practice these fabulous breathing techniques every day to boost your well-being? If you do, both your heart and your mind will thank you greatly.
According to psychologist Alejandra Alonso, breathing techniques are always recommended for psychological and pulmonary health, among other issues, because they can help lower heart rate.
Therefore, remember that something as simple as breathing well won’t only provide relief on a psychological leve but also on a physical level. This will significantly influence your well-being.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Encinas, F. J. L., de la Puente Muñoz, M. L., & López, M. C. (2001). Técnicas de control de la activación: relajación respiración. In Manual de técnicas de modificación y terapia de conducta (pp. 367-395).
- Strosahl, K. D., & Robinson, P. J. (2015). Vive tu momento. Amat, editorial.
- Hervás, G., Cebolla, A., & Soler, J. (2016). Intervenciones psicológicas basadas en mindfulness y sus beneficios: estado actual de la cuestión. Clínica y salud, 27(3), 115-124.