Breathe

It seems pretty simple isn’t it. We’ve done it all our lives. What we should do is breathe in through the nose, which moves to the stomach while the diaphragm contracts, the stomach expands and the lungs fill up with glorious air. All the while the intercostal muscles, which run between the ribs, assist breathing by helping the chest to expand and contract. It’s an unconscious process, however many of us don’t do it as well as we could, which leads to all sorts of both physical and mental health issues.

Breathing through the nose allows nostrils to heat and cool the air as required, as well as filter toxins and allergies from the air, preventing them from entering our bodies. We should also make use of the belly, efficiently bringing air down toward the belly, so that as the diaphragm contracts, the belly expands to fill the lungs with air. This deep breathing pulls the lungs downward and creates negative pressure inside the chest, bringing air into the lungs.

Organs are involved too, the lungs and the kidneys work together to keep the body’s pH levels in check. The brain receives signals from receptors in the body, and the brain then sends nerve impulses which tell the body, both how often to breathe and how deeply.

As I said earlier, breathing is an unconscious process, we actually breathe around 25 000 times a day! We shouldn’t think about it all the time, we’d never get anything else done. Thinking about breathing correctly too much may also lead to anxiety. However, there are some simple things we can think about to assist our breathing in general.

• Exercising expands our lung capacity, and hence the amount of oxygen we can take in each breath

• Staying hydrated which helps the throat and mouth with humidity; humid air is less likely to irritate our airway

• Avoid large meals which may cause bloating, as when the abdomen is bloated, it can press against the diaphragm and prevent it from efficiently moving up and down. This leads to shortness of breath.

• Relaxation techniques to calm the mind and the breathing

Relaxation techniques that control breathing are good to calm the mind and make us feel calmer; controlling the breath evokes the relaxation response.

Diaphragmatic Breathing Technique

(10 minutes a day would be great if you can manage it, even if only in times of heightened stress when you need some extra help)

Practice placing one hand on your belly and one hand on your upper chest. When you breathe in (through your nose on inhalation and exhalation), check the hand on your belly is moving out with your belly, and the hand on your chest is not moving out (ie; your belly is filling with air). This illustrates if you are deep breathing into your belly or shallow breathing only into your chest. Breathing in this manner encourages “full oxygen exchange”, meaning you trade the beneficial incoming oxygen for the outgoing carbon dioxide. Hold the breath in the belly for 5 seconds if you feel comfortable or build up to this. This type of breathing slows the heartbeat and can lower or stabilise blood pressure. It’s may relieve stress and make you feel more relaxed.

Of course there may be deep emotional reasons why we don’t breathe well, stress and anxiety may make our breathing shallower, not sleeping well disturbs our breathing at night, which then leads to more anxiety and stress. Kinesiology is as always a great tool to find underlying reasons why we feel the way we do.

Breathe well and look after yourself,

Best,

Kim

Healthline, see reference below, has a great page on general breathing techniques, with a bag on 10 Breathing Techniques for Stress Relief, with little videos on the techniques, including Hummingbird and Lion’s breathing which are great Yogic techniques.

References

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/learning-diaphragmatic-breathing

https://www.healthline.com/health/breathing-exercise#deep-breathing