How dragon breathing can help your child is a valid question for any parent conscious about their child’s wellbeing.
If you want to be there for your little ones and help them achieve a state where anxiety about new things and experiences, something that is inevitable, doesn’t intimidate them anymore, you have to explore every possible option.
When faced with uncomfortable emotions like anger, jealousy, hostility, and disappointment, children need not just a safety net but also ways and techniques to ensure that they aren’t consumed by such emotions.
1. What is Dragon Breathing?
In dragon breathing,1 the essence is to deploy specific techniques to ensure you allay the child’s anxiety and ensure that they have the necessary mechanics to monitor and regulate their own emotions or stress effectively.
Dragon Breathing derives primary meaning and connotation from the idea and myths of the Breath Dragon. A breath dragon is allegedly supposed to be very territorial about anything that enters or goes near its territory.
Dragon’s breath can refer to different things. In mythology, it describes the ability of dragons to emit fire from their mouth.
1.1. Fire-breathing Dragon
The biology behind a fire-breathing dragon is not scientifically possible. No organism can breathe out flames as a dragon does in popular culture. However, some scientists believe that real-life flying and fire-breathing dragons are possible based on changes in the Earth’s climate and atmospheric composition.
1.2. Lion’s Breath
Often mistaken for the dragon’s breath technique, this is a breathing technique that helps to reduce stress and anxiety by focusing on slow, deep breaths. It involves placing one hand on the chest and the other on the stomach, then taking a slow deep breath while paying attention to which hand moves.
Breath focus also involves counting breaths as you inhale and thinking of calming words or phrases as you exhale. This technique can be practiced for 10-20 minutes at a time.
2. Why is Dragon Breathing Necessary for Your Child?
Big emotions are strong feelings that can be difficult to manage. These emotions can include worry, anxiety, fear, frustration, anger, and excitement.
It is important to understand that big emotions are not bad emotions but sometimes require more work to understand and manage. By giving your child the skills they need to manage their feelings, you’ll help them now and down the road.
3. How to Teach Dragon Breathing to Your Child?
Dragon breathing is a relaxation technique that can help children release tension and negative energy, calm themselves down, and self-regulate in stressful situations.
To teach dragon breathing to your child, start by modeling this type of breathing when they are a baby. Hug your baby and make eye contact with them, which can increase their feelings of attachment and security with you.
Then show them how to breathe in deeply and breathe out slowly. Practice dragon breathing with children often when they are calm so that it is readily available during moments of unrest and anger.
4. Benefits of Dragon Breathing
The benefits of dragon breathing are many and abound. These include increased feelings of attachment and security with parents, better relationships as adults, improved satisfaction with life, and fewer health problems.
Additionally, it can help to release tension and negative energy, aid digestion and elimination systems, and provide an outlet for extra energy in busy kids. Dragon breathing exercises have many other benefits as well.
It is useful in helping to rid the lungs of stale air and increase oxygen levels. It is also useful in reducing stress and calming anxiety.
Further, not only does it help in improving concentration and cognitive function, but also in strengthening the diaphragm and improves lung efficiency.
Enhancing cardiovascular health 2and improving the quality of sleep are just some of the better aspects associated with dragon breathing, which can benefit you, your child, and the relationship you will have.
5. Benefits of Dragon Breathing for Mental Health
Dragon breathing also helps manage symptoms of anxiety. It slows down the heart rate, reduces blood pressure, and relaxes muscles.
Deep abdominal breathing, as well as dragon breathing, encourages full oxygen exchange, which can slow the heartbeat and lower or stabilize blood pressure.
Practicing breath focus helps you concentrate on slow, deep breathing and aids you in disengaging from distracting thoughts and sensations. It’s especially helpful if you tend to hold in your stomach muscles which interferes with deep breathing.
6. Dragon Breathing: Popular Culture, Connotations, and Colloquialisms
Dragon breathing, in terms of its etymology, might even have some precedents and associations with the popular usage of the saying breathing fire.
This is an expression used to describe someone who is very angry and speaks or behaves in a hostile manner.
It is derived from the mythological creature, the fire-breathing monster, which can breathe fire. The action and activities involved in dragon breathing mimic, in a sense, the breathing out of these negative emotions like anger, hostility, and grumpiness.
In this sense, it acts as a reliever technique, which enables the children to channel these emotions in constructive ways and ultimately learn how to regulate them on their own.
7. Other Breathing Exercises For Kids
Many breathing exercises can help kids calm down and manage their emotions.
7.1. Triangle Breathing
Triangle breathing is a go-to method to help calm down and control anxiety. When engaging in triangle breathing, imagine a triangle and breathe in for 3 seconds while counting to 3.
Then you need to hold your breath for 3 seconds and meanwhile count till 3 again. Then imagine the second side of the triangle.
Finally, breathe out for 3 seconds while counting to three and imagining the third side of the triangle.
7.2. Tumble Dryer
The tumble dryer exercise is a deep breathing exercise for kids that can help them relax and calm down. To perform the tumble dryer exercise, have your child sit cross-legged and get comfortable.
Then, have them point their index fingers toward each other in front of their mouth. After inhaling deeply through the nose, have them exhale through their mouth.
7.3. Tongue Tube
Tongue tube exercises3 are designed to increase the range of motion, strength, and mobility of the tongue. These exercises can help improve swallowing and speaking abilities. Different types of tongue exercises can be done at home or with the help of a health professional.
7.4. Bumble-bee Breaths
Bumblebee breath is a breathing technique that involves making the sound of a bumblebee while exhaling slowly.
This technique fills the whole body with the vibration and energy of our own breath, helping to shift our attention inward by shutting off outside distractions and focusing on the vibration of our own breath.
7.5. Pursed Lip Breathing
Pursed lip breathing is a breathing technique designed to make breaths slower and more intentional. It involves inhaling slowly through the nose and exhaling slowly through pursed lips, often to a count.
This technique helps people with lung conditions such as COPD control shortness of breath and get more oxygen into their lungs. It can also be used to calm down and gain better control over breathing.
7.6. Diaphragmatic Breathing
This type of deep breathing exercise can lower stress levels, lower blood pressure, regulate critical bodily processes, and provide many health benefits that can affect your entire body. Inhale through your nose slowly while focusing on pushing out the hand on your abdomen.
Diaphragmatic breathing can be used to manage stress caused by gastrointestinal conditions such as diarrhea or constipation.
7.7. Breath Focus Technique
Breath focus is a breathing technique that helps to reduce stress and anxiety by focusing on slow, deep breaths. It involves placing one hand on the chest and the other on the stomach, then taking a slow deep breath while paying attention to which hand moves.
Breath focus also involves counting breaths as you inhale and thinking calming words as you exhale. This technique can be practiced for 10-20 minutes at a time.
7.8. Alternate Nostril and Equal Breathing
Also known as pranayama, it is a yogic breath control practice that involves breathing through alternate nostrils. It is a type of pranayama or breathing practice that can help you relax and lower stress.
Alternate nostril breathing is often used in mindfulness and relaxation methods to calm the body and mind.
Equal breathing, also known as Sama Vritti Pranayama 4or box breathing, is a yoga technique that involves inhaling and exhaling for the same length of time. This technique can help reduce stress and increase calm.
To practice equal breathing, you can sit or lie down in a comfortable position and breathe naturally for several breaths to observe your natural inhalation, exhalation, and pauses between each breath.
Then, slowly count 1-2-3-4 as you inhale through your nose and exhale for the same four-second count. You can continue breathing this way for several minutes.
These exercises that we have discussed involve different techniques such as inhaling through the nose, exhaling through the mouth, holding your breath, and focusing on your breath.
It is recommended to try different techniques and find what works best for you.
When paired with dragon breathing, these can serve to enhance the quality of life, mental health, and general emotional stability of your child.
- Davies, Betty, et al. ““LIVING IN THE DRAGON’S SHADOW” FATHERS’EXPERIENCES OF A CHILD’S LIFE-LIMITING ILLNESS.” Death studies 28.2 (2004): 111-135. ↩︎
- Shahul, Aakifa, AS Hovan George, and A. Shaji George. “Enhancing Cardiovascular Health with Enhanced External Counter pulsation Therapy: A Comprehensive Review.” Partners Universal International Innovation Journal 1.2 (2023): 55-62. ↩︎
- Van den Steen, Leen, et al. “Tongue-Strengthening Exercises in Healthy Older Adults: Effect of Exercise Frequency–A Randomized Trial.” Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 73.2 (2021): 109-116. ↩︎
- Noventi, Iis, et al. “The effectiveness of mindfulness based stress reduction and sama vritti pranayama on reducing blood pressure, improving sleep quality and reducing stress levels in the elderly with hypertension.” Bali Medical Journal 11.1 (2022): 302-305. ↩︎
Last Updated on by Namrata