Boost your energy and wellbeing simply by learning to breathe better.
Just for a moment notice how you are breathing, is your breath shallow, fast, or long and deep?
Did you know how we breathe has a direct impact on our health and wellness both in the moment and longer term affecting both our mind and body? Read on to see how.
A calm and unconscious breathing pattern helps lower stress, pain in the body, improves your thinking and brings a mindful awareness to the connection between your mind and body.
The connection of the breath and pain reduction has one theory that slow and deep breathing reduces pain by having an effect on the sympathetic nervous system.
On average we breathe in and out 23,000 times a day, often quite unconsciously. When awake we can tend to breathe with short shallow breaths, even holding our breath which prevents the breath from nourishing the body both from a psychological and physiological effect.
When we are born we have the instant awareness how to breathe and breathe properly.
Breathing deeply and breathing well nourishes the body and mind whilst regulating the body.
By the time we reach 10 years old these skills often start diminishing.
Losing our awareness to our breathing can come from a multitude of things, such as stress, anxiety, sedentary lifestyle, being constantly busy, nervousness, weight gain, poor posture and more.
Reducing our breath and therefore reducing oxygen, can increase fatigue as well as heart and lung stress, which is associated with elevated cortisol. Cortisol is connected to a range of health issues including weight gain, mood swings and sleepiness.
The benefits of breathing with awareness are vast and can be easily refocused on.
For example, notice how you breathe, is it through the mouth or through your nostrils?
Calm breathing in and out through your nostrils provides the filtering of warm and moist air before it reaches the lungs. Mouth breathing on the other hand does not provide this at all leaving your lungs more at risk of infection. Mouth breathing can also lead to dry lips, as well as snoring for example as less oxygen is delivered to the brain.
Being aware of just how you breathe, noting how your breath changes in different situations day to day is a great start to maximising your breathing for your health and wellness.
A simple breathing exercise:
Start by sitting comfortably, notice your breathing.
Then, breathe in slowly for the count of 4 then slowly breathe out for the count of 6, all through your nose if you can. Repeat this 6 times and notice how you feel. You might notice that your heart rate has reduced and you feel calmer.
