Have you ever done any Yoga, Tai Chi or Qi Gong class, than you can probably recall the revitalising effect conscious breathing had on your energy levels. It’s especially potent when combined with some restorative moment. On another hand, ‘Hyperbaric or high pressure oxygen therapy’ is a powerful therapy in modern medicine and it turns out that more oxygen is helping us fight infections, improves autoimmune conditions and mitochondrial health…who wold have thought.
We think of breathing as an involuntary aspect of our physiology and to a great degree it is true. We can not stop breathing for very long but we can control how we breath. More interestingly, the way we breath has a profound influence on every aspect of our body and mind. You might have digestive problems arising from hyperventilation or develop crippling back pain that just won’t go away. You might also induce a chronic stress response and push yourself into the feeling of anxiety. All because of a disfunction in your breathing pattern. When you consider that each of us takes in excess of 8.500 breaths every day, you can imagine how much repetition we are investing to create or perpetuated chronic pain and illness simply by neglecting our most basic of biological functions. It is encouraging to see people get better with just a little work to improve their breathing pattern and the possibilities conscious breathing offers to our wellbeing.
We are designed to breath primarily through our nose, particularly the inhalation phase. When we take a breath through the nose, we can warm up and moisturise the incoming air. The many receptors in your nose test the air for safety and inform the brain about the environment. The way our autonomic nervous system is wired, nose breathing activates the diaphragm more efficiently allowing for a deeper breath and supporting a host of vital physiological functions. If you inhale predominantly using your mouth, you are missing out on all of these advantages.
Here’s a quick test. Stand in front of a mirror and place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Take a few deep breaths and observe the movement of your hands. Does your chest hand rise first followed with the belly? Does your belly hand move at all? Are you able to inhale and expand your belly at all?
A healthy breathing pattern starts with belly expansion (breath in through the nose) followed by rising chest in the last phase of the inhalation. Most people I and many of my fellow practitioners examine are ‘chest breathers’ which means that they are not using their diaphragm and therefore miss out on more than half of their lung capacity. Imagine an endurance athlete who voluntarily reduces their ability to provide oxygen during training or competition, crazy, right? Surprisingly, it is more prevalent than you think. The solution in this case is simple, cheap and available to everyone, start paying attention to how you breath and make it a daily practice.
Happy breathing my dear friends!