Erin Lim

RCTH 2104 Modalities

Professor Burket

Activity Title: 4-7-8 Breathing

Sources:

The Benefits of Meditation for Individuals with a Spinal Cord or Brain Injury. Craig Hospital.
(2019, June 4). Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://craighospital.org/blog/the-
benefits-of-meditation-for-individuals-with-a-spinal-cord-or-brain-injury.

C6 Spinal Cord Injury: What to expect & how to recover. Flint Rehab. (2021, October 22).
Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.flintrehab.com/c6-spinal-cord-injury/.

Gotter, A. (2018, April 20). 4-7-8 breathing: How it works, how to do it, and more. Healthline.
Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.healthline.com/health/4-7-8-
breathing#How-to-do-it-.

Understanding Spinal Cord Injury. Levels of Injury - Understanding Spinal Cord Injury. (n.d.).
Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.spinalinjury101.org/details/levels-of-injury.

Activity Description:

• Activity can be a group session or one-on-one with one participant.

• To begin the activity, sit comfortably in an up-right position and close your eyes.

• Make a whooshing sound, exhaling completely through your mouth. (This gets rid of

your last breath before starting the breathing exercise)

• Now, inhale through your nose counting to four seconds.

• Then, hold your breath for seven seconds.

• Lastly, exhale making a whooshing sound from your mouth for eight seconds.

• Note: Every new inhale is a new cycle of breath. Repeat these directions for eight full

breaths.
Primary Social Interaction Pattern: 4-7-8 breathing is intra-individual interaction because this

activity involves only the participant themselves and their minds. It doesn’t require interaction or

contact with other participants or external factors.

Adaptation: Spinal cord injuries can either be complete or incomplete. With complete spinal cord

injuries, a person has no motor control or sensation below their injury due to the neural pathways

being damaged permanently whereas incomplete SCIs refer to partial damage from the injury,

allowing some feeling in the body (C6 Spinal Cord Injury, 2021). Our bodies move from signals

in the brain controlling our bodily movements, but because the neural signals are severed due to

the injury in the spinal cord, it cannot reach to the brain causing a loss of feeling in certain parts

of the body. A level C6 injury in the spinal cord results in the nerves of wrist extension and

possibly paralysis in hands, trunks and legs. People who have C6 spinal cord injuries can speak

and use their diaphragm but breathing can be a little difficult. (Understanding Spinal Cord Injury,

2021). The 4-7-8 breathing meditation is a good exercise for people with spinal cord injuries

because it focuses on mindfulness and breath awareness which can relax their muscles and pain

levels in the body (The benefits of meditation, 2019). The 4-7-8 breathing exercise can be easily

modified for those with incomplete C6 spinal cord injuries because it involves little to no

movement and is in a sitting position. To offer support to SCI participants, the breathing exercise

can be performed while being seated in either a supportive chair or wheelchair. By having a

supportive foundation that the chair or wheelchair gives, the participant can feel secure while

doing the activity.

Participant: 21-year-old man with an incomplete C6 Spinal Cord Injury.