It’s mental health awareness week here in Aotearoa and with the sun doing its part by shining down, Sin & Brook decided to help out too.
They had a chat with Gemma Rose, a breathwork expert who taught them a “life-changing” breathing exercise that helps calm you down.
It’s easy (you’ve breathed before, breather!) and legit works a treat. Here it is:
Breathe deeply in through your nose, feeling it in your diaphragm, for two seconds and out through your mouth for two seconds, with no pause in between. Do this twenty times with your eyes closed. After the twentieth breath, let the air out of your lungs and hold.
If you want to partake in it with Sin, Brook and Gemma (as well as a chill af liquid tune playing), head to the four-minute mark of the below podcast.
Gemma explains that the exercise activates the parasympathetic nervous system - “signalling to the body it’s safe to be at ease, it’s safe to have a presence - all the internal organs can go into processing in a chill way”.
There’s a full five-minute practice that Gemma says is “life-changing, so sick, and free!”:
- Ten rounds of breath with a ten-second hold
- Twenty rounds of breath with a twenty-second hold
- Thirty rounds of breath then hold as long as it feels comfortable
“If you do that every day - even a couple of times a week - you would retrain your nervous system,” Gemma says. “The speed of your thoughts would slow down because your nervous system is regulated and you’re discharging built-up stress and tension.”
Sin & Brook frothed the exercise and are thinking about giving the five-minute practice a monthly spot on their show.
If you’re keen to learn more about it, you can head to Gemma’s Instagram or website.
Cheers Gemma, and happy breathing legends!
