Honesty time! Show of cyber-hands, how many of you ladies actually BREATHE during the day?
Now, I don't mean huffin and puffin up stairs (or even on the eliptical) but how many of us enjoy the health benefits of FIVE MINUTES of attentive breathing.
Put your hands on your belly button.
Breathe in.
If your shoulders are moving - then you are NOT doing it right...
Try to push your stomach against your hands as you breathe.
There you go! That's a diaphramatic breath.
Why do we care about breathing with the diaphram? Let me tell you:
Diaphragmatic breathing is intended to help you use the diaphragm correctly while breathing to:
Strengthen the diaphragm
Decrease the work of breathing by slowing your breathing rate
Decrease oxygen demand
http://www.breath.org/deep-breathing/
The Impact of Deep Breathing on Our Health
Deep breathing can have a powerful influence on our health. To understand how this is possible, we need to remember that the diaphragm is attached all around the lower ribcage and has strands going down to the lumbar vertebrae. When our breathing is full and deep, the diaphragm moves through its entire range downward to massage the liver, stomach, and other organs and tissues below it, and upward to massage the heart.
When our breathing is full and deep, the belly, lower ribcage, and lower back all expand on inhalation, thus drawing the diaphragm down deeper into the abdomen, and retract on exhalation, allowing the diaphragm to move fully upward toward the heart.
In deep, abdominal breathing, the downward and upward movements of the diaphragm, combined with the outward and inward movements of the belly, ribcage, and lower back, help to massage and detoxify our inner organs, promote blood flow and peristalsis, and pump the lymph more efficiently through our lymphatic system.
The lymphatic system, which is an important part of our immune system, has no pump other than muscular movements, including the movements of breathing.
So - do yourself a favor and give yourself some AIR!
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5 comments:
ah, I wish I could get better at attentive breathing. I have a whole life history of freaking out when I think about my breathing too much. When I become aware of my breathing I feel sure that I'm not getting enough oxygen, so when I try to relax and do deep breathing I start to feel a little asthmatic or something. It probably means that the practice would do me a world of good. Thanks for the post!
From the site: "Without sufficient awareness, without great sensitivity to what is happening inside our bodies, any efforts to change our breathing will at best have no effect whatsoever (we'll quickly stop our breathing exercises), and at worst will create more tension and stress in our lives and thus undermine our health and well-being even further."
Yes! Maybe I've just tried too hard without being more aware. Breathing exercises have always created more tension and stress for me in the past. Good to read about this.
Instead of DEEP breathing, how about just being AWARE of your breathing.
Its funny how often hold our breath, breath shallow (when anxious) or breath poorly.
Let me know if you managed to be aware w/o freaking out :-)
Wow, I never ever really thought about my beathing before. That is, exept for when I'm excersizing really hard. Hmmm... I think I'll sit in a quiet spot for a few moments and breath really intentionally. Perhaps I'll even call Willem, and breath a little louder. Too bad there's such a thing as caller I.D. : )
Well said.
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