How Breathing Can Transform Your Life
Air: The First Food!
The beginning of your life is probably measured from that moment when you took your first breath. From that point on, you 'know how to breathe' so you completely forget about it except in those rare instances when you can't ! Suddenly more air can become very important – for example, when you are under water. The truth is air is always important. Most of us take on habits of not breathing properly and suffer because of this. It is therefore useful to learn how to breathe properly or to breathe deeply. The health benefits of proper deep breathing are numerous.
5 Benefits:
- Reduce stress.
- Help to clear and focus your mind
- Increase your energy level
- Releases endorphines into the system. These are natural painkillers that create a natural highs and easy sleep.
- Relaxes muscles a major cause of neck, back and stomach pains
These are just the physical benefits that are easily measurable. There are a lot more. By practicing a breathing exercise just a few minutes a day, the benefits continue into the rest of your day, and with continued practice, we create the habit of always breathing properly and therefore multiply the benefits many times. 3 Simple
Breathing exercises: (check with your doctor is you have a respiratory illness)
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The simplest breathing exercise is to put your attention on your breathing as you are inhaling and exhaling normally. Several things usually happen quite naturally. First, your breathing will slow down and lengthen. Secondly you will start noticing the transitions between inhaling and exhaling. There's magic in that transition! You can either hold your breath just for a short comfortable time, or connect the inhale to the exhale. Holding is slightly more effective.
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A slightly more complicated breathing technique to breath with your BELLY. If you watch a baby breathing as it is laying down this is how they naturally breathe and it will be more obvious to you if you lie down also. You can introduce this after you become comfortable with conscious breathing in No. 1. Instead of using the muscles of your lungs to expand the top part of your lungs (on the inhale) you use your diaphragm muscles and your belly expands. This gets air deeper into your lungs and is very relaxing. With a little practice you will breathe more and more with your belly.
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To deepen your breath even more, you inhale using the same muscles as in belly breathing, but you expand so much in your abdomen area that your BACK also expands. This gives you the relaxation of a back massage plus even more benefits! Your belly does not expand quite so much. Ideally you still have your attention on your breathing and also you can still pause after your inhale.
You can employ these techniques for a few minutes every day for increasing benefits. You can also use them in an 'emergency' such as when you are stressed, anxious or can't sleep. You can even consciously implement them as 'micro techniques' for just a second or two when you are walking, working and going about your day. Every bit helps. The body will remember when it is more relaxed and try to go in that direction more and more – IF you give it the chance. That's what regeneration is all about – giving the body the proper environment to renew and balance and do what it wants to do.
Copyright © Randy Fritz You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com or the direct link to the post Better Breathing
6 Responses to “How Breathing Can Transform Your Life”
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Great article Randy……yes we must breath in order to live; it is the most essential element to life in our body.
Learning how to breathe into my belly changed my life. Before learning to breathe more deeply, I did not realize that my shallow breathing was adversely affecting my health. I had stomach aches all of the time and had been medicated with little yellow pills for it during my teens. It always was worse when I was stressed and was not breathing deeply.
One week in the 70’s and I found myself in a very stressful situation that caused so much stomach pain that I was literally walking around bent over; I could not stand upright due to the pain and yes I was not breathing deeply. Eventually I was hospitalized and given Demerol which not only took away the pain but I was high!
When I left the hospital, they gave me those same little yellow pills I had taken when I was in my teens; I do not know what they were called but they made the pain less. I knew right then that I had to do something but still did not know what.
I needed to relax so I enrolled in a yoga class, a friend was teaching and this is when I learned how to breathe. Every morning , I would do yoga. Also, every day I would practice breathing into my belly while laying on my bed; it was important to totally focus on doing it as it was so not what I was accustomed to doing. Whenever I noticed the stomach pain returning I would lay down and practice breathing. Later I would practice belly breathing whenever I was sitting around, then when quietly walking and any time I remembered during the day. Now, I naturally breathe into my belly consistently. It is not a noticeable deep breathing just naturally breathing into my whole body.
Mostly, we do not learn to breathe properly; just very shallow breathing. Knowing how to breathe and relax is a skill that has served me well for many years, and I urge everyone to learn it.
Another thing I have learned is that constipation which is so common is often due to shallow breathing. When they learn to breathe into their lower abdomen they begin to have regular bowel movements.
thank you for the breathing tips I am practicing already.
Your article on breating is very comforting to read.It validates what I am doing now. I especially like the deep breathing emphasis. When I played my flute as a teenager I remember my music teacher saying, “imagine you are breathing from your stomach. You have a large grapefruit there when you breathe in, and then breathe out to play the flute”. This gets rid of the shallow breathing. When deep breathing is necessary for playing a wind instrument correctly. I practice deep breathing when I initially sit down to relax through meditation. Deep breathing has saved me from making rash judgements when teaching. It fits throughout my day. NO PANIC ATTACKS now!!. Sue
Thank you for the Breathing tips.
We have a several Eli Bay breathing cassettes which we occassinally use to help us with deep breathing as there were times we didn’t practice deep breathing reguarlly.
After My T.I.A in 2005 the Psychologist streesed deep breathig to control blood pressure and relaxation,this has helped me pay attention to a healtier life
I have been practicing Conscious Breathing for 20 years now. Looking back, Conscious Breathing has helped me in making right decisions in life. It brings one to the awareness of unlimited power within, the source of power behind ever breath.
It is easy to do. Just watch the inhale motion of your breathing. Pause and say “I am breathing”. Then watch the exhale motion. Pause and say “I am breathing”. Repeat as often as you can.
The is done at bedtime about 5 minutes before sleeping and the first thing to do before leaving your bed in the morning.
Every part of your body is wired to your brain. Conscious breathing help repairs problems in this wirings.
Hello, I just searched this site on Google and wanted to take my time to thank you for adding this to the website. It is very informational on curing panic attacks and it has helped me understand more about them. I will be sure to see what else you have to offer. Thank you once again!