
Study Finds That Breathing Techniques Improve Mental Health
In this day and age of self-care tips and tricks, we’re sure it news to you that breathing techniques improve your mental health. But before you dismiss it as pseudoscience, Yale did a study that found this to be true of college students. Yale researchers conducted a randomized control trial of three well-being interventions. One-hundred and thirty-one students were placed in a nonintervention control group or one of three 30-hour, eight-week-long well-being programs: SKY Campus Happiness, Foundations of Emotional Intelligence, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The SKY Campus Happiness program, which incorporated practicing yoga postures, breathing exercises, breath-based meditations, and positive psychology skills, had the greatest impact, improving depression, stress, mental health, mindfulness, positive affect, and social connectedness. The emotional-intelligence group focused on teaching knowledge of emotions and emotional regulation benefited students’ mindfulness. The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction group utilized a mindfulness meditation program created for “progressive acquisition of mindful awareness, of mindfulness” and showed no changes on students’ well-being and mental health.

Via Unsplash