Is Your Breathing Healthy? Relieve Stress and Tension
Tags : Super Size Your Health Tips
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Our breathing patterns are very important for healthy living. One of the most frequently cited benefits of breathing correctly is relief of stress and tension; however, good breathing habits can also assist with sleeping problems, muscle relaxation, asthma and pain relief, to name a few. So lets review some tips for how to reduce stress.
Let’s identify where you may be falling short in your breathing habits and how to correct them:
Breathing through your mouth
If you breathe through your mouth you inhale and exhale large amounts of air, which can lead to hyperventilation. It can also result in lower energy levels and a general decline in health.
This problem is easy to observe and others will notice it too. Try to become aware of when you are breathing through your mouth and change the habit. Also get others to catch you when you are breathing incorrectly.
Over-breathing
If we don’t have a correctly balanced inhalation and exhalation, the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels within our system will be unbalanced, which causes poor health. Exhalation should be longer than the inhalation.
It may be useful to have someone help you with these two checks for over-breathing as it can be difficult to monitor your own breath. Lie down on the floor and breathe normally for a few minutes – this serves to establish your usual relaxed pattern of breathing. Then, count the length of your exhalation and compare it with the length of the following inhalation. The exhalation should be somewhat longer than the inhalation. If this is not the case, you are over-breathing. Another test is to try to shorten the time you take to inhale, if this causes stress, you are probably over-breathing.
Chest breathing
With chest breathing less air enters the lungs per breath. This causes a higher number of breaths, which leads to undesirable physiological changes that constrict blood vessels. Most people use only 20% of their lung capacity and are not getting enough oxygen into their system, which is vital for staying healthy.
Chest breathing is also easy to identify: Lie on the floor. Place one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen. If your chest moves more than your abdomen, then you are breathing too much in your chest. Your chest should only move slightly.
We need to use the diaphragm and not the ribs to draw air into the lungs. (The diaphragm is the large muscle below the lungs that contracts as you inhale and relaxes as you exhale). This will encourage deeper breathing. Also try to reduce your breathing speed to 4 to 6 breaths per minute (most of us are functioning at 12 or so breaths per minute).
It can take quite some time to change your breathing patterns. It needs patience and daily practice, but it is worth it. To summarize then:
• Breathe through your nose and not your mouth
• Ensure your exhalations are longer than you inhalations
• Use your diaphragm and not your ribs in the breathing action
• Breathe deeply ensuring the abdomen extends on the in breath and flattens as you exhale.
• Maintain a low number of breaths per minute
The importance of breathing correctly has been emphasized in many of the Eastern cultures for centauries – for example, practices such as yoga, martial arts and Qi Gong. If we improve our breathing, we will experience a greater sense of wellbeing, an improved mood and increased likelihood of staying healthy.
To be honest I actually never thought about if I am breathing right or not but this is very interesting. Unfortunately my breathing is not healthy. I would definitely love to start with Qi Gong or something like that because I am of the opinion that this would help my body to stay healthy.