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Breathing Technique, Mindfulness, and Yoga | 69

million people in 150 countries. It consists of 4 parts: 3-stage
slow resistance breathing (Ujjayi), bellows breath, om chanting,
and cyclical breathing. Ujjayi has been shown to increase
parasympathetic activity through vagal afferent inputs to the
brain and improves heart rate variability. In addition, it
improves low respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which has been
associated with depression, anxiety, panic and obesity. Brown
and Gerbarg also found evidence suggesting that yogic breathing
has powerful physiological and psychological effects which may
contribute to longevity (Brown 2009).
Various breathing training programs have reduced both
anxiety and depression. A breathing training style called the
Papworth Method, used to treat asthma and its accompanying
anxiety, produced significantly less anxiety and depression in a
treatment group as compared to a control group after five
sessions and at a one-year follow-up (Holloway 2007).
Meuret et al investigated whether breathing training for the
treatment of panic disorder was effective or merely placebo
effect. Although the nine studies they examined had
methodological challenges, the authors concluded that
breathing training had something to offer panic disorder
treatment (Meuret 2003).

Mindfulness

Mindfulness, the simple act of being in the present moment, has
been knows for centuries to be therapeutic. Mindfulness permits
the individual to move out of the mind’s “noise,” thus reducing
negative mental influences. Various techniques have been
developed to assist individuals in focusing on the present,
including outdoor activities, meditation, putting attention on
the breath, and putting attention on a chant or sound. Myriad
forms of meditation have been studied and practiced for
thousands of years. The two forms most studied are mindfulness
meditation (MM) and transcendental meditation (TM).