Whether you are new to cannabis or an expert user, your body won’t

necessarily react the same way every time. Cannabis can work exactly
the way you plan it, but a new strain or different dosage can throw you
off unexpectedly. Especially with high -THC content, you might experi-
ence side effects, like stress, anxiety, or even panic attack.
In this article, we are going to talk about the importance of proper
breathing and how to utilize it to take back control over your mind and
body and to ease the side effects of marijuana.
Breathing is such a basic and essential part of life that we don’t even
think about it much. It has been on autopilot since day one, but what
if there is more to it.

Breathing sets the rhythm of everything, it is quintessential to our

existence, but since we do it intuitively, might be hard to wrap your
mind around the idea, that most of us breath improperly or at least
less than optimally.

Let’s see what a good ol’ deep breath can do to

our overall wellbeing.
When we are talking about taking a conscious deep breath it
means to we inhale slowly and deeply through our nose and exhal-
ing completely also through our nose.

I want to emphasize the word completely here since the majority of

us almost never exhale the entire volume of air from our lungs which
in time causes us diaphragm to lack the full range of motion and that
leads to superficial breathing.

Diaphragm
Practicing conscious deep breathing for 3-5 minutes any time during the
day can have tremendously positive effects on your health. Why? Clean
oxygen travels through your body, your brain, your heart, that can ease
depression, helps relaxing, eases headaches, lowering cortisol (stress
hormone) level in the body. While this all sounds great, practicing mind-
ful breathing does more, than alleviate a bit of anxiety.
Breathing techniques are not a newly found trend. The power of breath-
ing techniques has been known and passed down from generation to
generation since the dawn of humanity. Spiritual seekers and yogis have
often utilized different techniques because they believed that breath-
ing is the connection between mind and body since it is the only bodily
function that we can do both consciously and unconsciously.

By altering their breath these masters could shift their consciousness,

reach an altered state of awareness, and thus gain control over their
body temperature and other functions which are normally out of our
reach.

They also found out that many diseases were the result of improper,
inefficient breathing so, breathing techniques were used to heal the
body, to reach mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

If you have ever attended a yoga class or tried mediation you already
know, that all starts with breathing. It helps you focus, reach a certain
state of mind, and relax.
By now we know quite a lot about cannabis, its benefits, and also a few
side effects. However, we cannot expect our body to react the same
way every single time since there are many factors that can play a role
in this situation.
We can be tired, our hormones can be off, even the weather can affect
our mood, not to mention everyday stress. We also try new strains
from time to time, but even the strains that have the same name from
different growers can have a slightly different effect.

Cannabis-induced anxiety can result in panic attacks, which can cause

shaking, sweating, intense feeling of fear, rapid heartbeat, uneven, fast
breathing, chest pain, nausea, dizziness, or numbness, really the symp-
toms can be off the chart.

Anxiety and panic attack feels terrible, it is not life-threatening and it

can go away fairly quickly. However, our judgment is clouded in these
cases and we can’t think clearly, so 10-15 minutes can feel like an eter-
nity.
The best way to treat hyperventilation, panic attacks, or even light
stress caused by cannabis or really anything, is to focus on your
breath.

Try these exercises next time you are feeling anxious or panicked.

1.Try this simple technique if you feel anxiety slowly creeping up on

you:

Sit comfortably with a straight spine, and place your hand on your
knees or where it is. This exercise helps you relax and get centered.

- Count to five in your head while taking a deep breath

through your nose.
- Hold it for a moment
- Count to five in your head, while exhaling through your
nose as well
- Try to focus on your breath and the sensation of the air
on

2. Try this breathing technique when you feel tension and fear.

Sit down and push your back against the wall, close your eyes.

- Place your palms on your face and close your ears with
your thumbs.
- Place your index fingers on your forehead, and rest three
fingers on the side of your nose, slightly covering your
eyes
- Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose
- Exhale through your nose with a closed mouth, while

This exercise lowers blood pressure, and vibration created by

humming reduces negative energy, stress, and fear.
3. Try this exercise when you feel irritated and hopeless.

Sit down on a chair or your bed

- Close your right nostril with your right thumb

- Breath through the left nostril deeply, and slowly
- Close your left nostril with the same hand middle and
ring
finger
- Release right thumb from the right nostril and exhale
- Inhale again from the right, switch nostril and exhale
through left
- Now inhale from left switch fingers and exhale through
right
You are going to exhale and then inhale in one nostril, switch and repeat
this with the other one.

Keep doing this exercise until you feel better. Aim for 25 repeats first
and see how you feel. Keep going if you still feel anxious.

Luckily, we began to recognize, that the ancient teachings are filled with
remedies to modern day problems. One of the great publications about
the importance of breathing is James Nestor’s book: Breath: The New
Science of a Lost Art.

Journalist, James Nestor was seeking a resolution to his reoccurring

pneumonia and bronchitis. During his research to his book, Nestor par-
ticipated in a study, in which he was forced to breathe only through his
mouth for 10 days. The result was shocking. Improper breathing caused
severe snoring, which affected his sleeping, he developed sleep apnea,
and his stress level was extremely elevated.

Besides the study, he searched the world for answers, tracking down
men and women who can help him understand the hidden science
behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya,
and Tummo.
Current research shows us, that practicing different breathing exercises
can jump-start our whole body. It can enhance athletic performance,
refresh our internal organs, ease asthma, autoimmune disease, and
allergies. Relieves stress, calms the mind, and helps with panic attacks.

Our nose was naturally made to breathe through it, because only the
nasal pathway is equipped to heat up and filter the air. Breathing
through our nose triggers hormones, it can lower blood pressure,
evens heart rate, and keeps our body in balance. Inside the nose lies a
whole network of neuro sensors that constantly monitor the air that we
inhale or exhale and sends signals to the body to react to those signals
appropriately.
 In his book, Nestor explains
how researches were
shocked to find that our
ancestors from a hundred
thousand years ago had
twice the size of nasal
pathways.

These ancient remains tell

the story of how our
modern-day skull anatomy
changed over time
presumably because of a
major change in our diet
and our growing frontal
lobe.

This change consisted of us losing a large portion of facial bones

shrinking our noses along with the nostrils and the nasal passageways.
This change also caused our jaws to become smaller and smaller
which is why researches say, we are now struggling with crooked teeth.
The skulls of those early humans all have perfectly straight and surpris-
ingly healthy teeth. Nestor also makes the connection between the
shrinking of our nasal apparatus and snoring or chronic sleep apnea.

The other very important aspect of proper breathing is the number of

breaths we take or better said the amount of air we inhale per minute.
This has to do with the amount of carbon dioxide in our body.

A little-known fact is that carbon dioxide is just as if not more import-

ant than oxygen. If we don’t have enough CO2, our body can not pro-
cess enough oxygen.

It is called over breathing, which means breathing too fast. This causes
an increased heart rate along with poor oxygenation of the body.
After studying this phenomena Nestor found that the ideal breath cycle
is 5.5 seconds inhale and 5.5 seconds’ exhale. This slow but steady
pace of breathing insures the best oxygen to CO2 ratio.

There were many people throughout our history who came across the
miraculous healing power of breathing techniques but sadly whether
they were trained medical professionals or just self-thought pulmonauts
their techniques and sometimes incredible results all but faded into
oblivion.
Modern medicine completely disregards breathing methods as a way to
treat certain health problems although when we unearth some old, for-
gotten studies it becomes clear that it is never to late to extend our lung
capacity with conscious breathing techniques.
One of the more interesting symptoms of our modern, office dwelling
lifestyles is shallow breathing. Shallow breathing is the drawing of mini-
mal breath into the lungs, usually by drawing air into the chest area
using the intercostal muscles rather than throughout the lungs via the
diaphragm.
We do this without even noticing throughout the day and studies show
that some people even stop breathing for short periods of time without
ever being aware of it. This type of unconscious breath irregularity is
potentially very harmful but ironically if we do conscious breath restric-
tion or breath extension it can be extremely healthy and useful to take
back control of our breath and thus eliminating or at least reducing un-
healthy breathing habits.

What is shallow breathing?

Shallow breathing as mentioned above uses very little of the diaphragm

and because of this our lung capacity slowly decreases over time. Pul-
monauts of the past who recovered from debilitating illnesses by using
extreme forms of breathwork to extend their lung capacity not only
achieved to regain their health but managed to extend their life signifi-
cantly. Nestor also talks about a study was made to find the most im-
portant factor when it comes to longevity and surprisingly the one thing
that made the biggest difference was lung capacity. The bigger the
lungs capacity the longer the person lived regardless of diet,
geographical location and even prior health issues.
 BREATHING
METHODS
(Never attempt these techniques while driving, while underwater, or
in any other conditions where you might be injured should you
become dizzy)

Buteyko breathing
The point of this technique is to train the body to breathe in line with
its metabolic needs. For the most of us this means breathing less.

- Sit up with a straight back

- Pinch both nostrils closed with the thumb and forefinger of either
hand, then exhale softly out your mouth to the natural conclusion.
- Start the stopwatch animation and hold the breath
- When you feel the first potent desire to breathe, note the time and
take a soft inhale
- It’s important the first breath in after the control pause is controlled
and relaxed; if it’s labored or gasping, the breath-hold was too long.
Wait several minutes and try again.
Thousands of Buteyko practitioners, and several medical research-
ers, swear by it to stave off asthma and anxiety attacks.

Box breathing
Navy seals use this technique to stay calm and focused in tense situ-
ations.

Inhale to a count of 4; hold 4; exhale 4; hold 4. Repeat

4-7-8 Breathing
This technique places the body into a state of deep relaxation.

- Take a breath in, then exhale through your mouth with a whoosh
sound.
- Close the mouth and inhale quietly though your nose to a mental
count of four.
- Hold for a count of seven.
- Exhale completely through your mouth, with a whoosh, to the count
of eight

3-9 Conscious Breathing

- Inhale 3 seconds

- Exhale for 9 seconds.

-Repear the cycle for 10 times

Yogic Breathing
- Sit cross legged on a chair or on the floor and relax.

- Breath deep into your belly

- Once your belly is expanded, concentrate on and inflate the area at

the bottom of your rib cage or what commonly is called the solar
plexus

- Lastly, finish inhaling by expanding the upper part of your chest

Chest

Solar plexus

Belly

We hope you found this article not only enjoyable but useful and
remember: breath well to be well :)