Real Food for Life

Posts Tagged ‘Air’

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:

1. Reduce stress.
2. Help to clear and focus your mind
3. Increase your energy level
4. Releases endorphines into the system. These are natural painkillers that create a natural highs and easy sleep.
5. 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)

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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