Breathing exercises

Discover gentle and practical advice to help you find more breathing ease in everyday life whatever your age, physical ability, or condition. 

Before you start any physical activity

Check with your healthcare professional that it's safe for you. You can also discuss with them the level of exercise that's right for you.

Watch our Support Breathing Ease videos

A woman sitting in an empty room

Before you start

This video is an introduction to the Support Breathing Ease videos.
A woman sitting doing breathing exercises

Releasing tension and creating space in the body

Before we work with the breath, we work with the body. This set of gentle movements helps release through the jaw, neck, shoulders, chest and upper back.
Woman doing breathing exercise in a big empty room

Finding the natural breath and extending the exhalation

This practice is about exploring your breath rather than controlling it.
A woman sitting in an empty room with her eyes closed

The peaceful breath

Once we’ve settled the body and found a natural breath, we might then be able to relax and rest.
Woman lying down with closed eyes, resting her head over two pillows

Tips to try for lying down

This short video shows you some ideas for making the practices accessible even when you are short of energy.

About Kate, your instructor

Kate Binnie is an HCPC registered music therapist and doctoral researcher at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, Hull York Medical School. Kate’s work explores how to support people living with breathlessness and anxiety in advanced lung disease.  

With 20 years’ experience in palliative and respiratory care as a therapist (music, yoga, mindfulness), Kate runs support groups for Asthma + Lung UK. Together, with designer and partner Angus Thompson, Kate developed the concepts behind the Breathing Space garden being exhibited at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.  The garden is being permanently rehomed at the Breathing Space Lung rehabilitation Centre in Rotherham, an ex-mining area of the UK, with high rates of lung conditions. See it here.

About the videos

At the heart of the Breathing Space garden is a simple idea: when we create even momentary conditions of safety and calm, the body can naturally find its own way back to easier breathing. These are safe breathing experiences which can be built on……

Breathlessness isn’t just a physical problem sited at the lungs. It’s always tangled up with emotions and physical sensations – like anxiety and tightness – which can interfere with confidence in day-to-day activities, movement and sleep.

Stress and worry about breathing sensations can increase muscle tension and fast, shallow breathing.  And yet we are often told simply to "take a deep breath" or to calm down. 

In practice, it is usually more helpful to:

1) Be kind to ourselves (its normal to be worried or annoyed about not feeling well or being able to breathe).  

2) Focus on reducing tension in the body, releasing a slow exhalation, and letting go of the idea of trying to “control” the breath at all.

Rather than breathing exercises (which suggests control), these five short practices are about finding your own natural, relaxed breathing pattern – at your own pace, and in your own way. You can do them sitting in a chair, lying on a sofa or in bed, or standing outside in a green space. You do not need any special equipment or experience.

You might find these practices support other more formal exercises you do for lung health or anxiety that have been recommended to you by a health professional.   

Click here if you would like to learn more, Kate runs Body Breathing groups with Asthma + Lung UK.

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