Before you read any further, take a deep breath. Chances are your body needed that. Breathing seems easy, but if you're like most people, you're doing it wrong. The good news is paying more attention to our breath can improve our physical and mental health.
Humans breathe in and out about 25,000 times a day, and under normal conditions, this amazing process is automatic and unconscious. When we inhale, air enters our lungs and oxygen from that air moves to our blood. At the same time, carbon dioxide moves from the blood to the lungs and is exhaled. The process is essential to life.
Breathing not only keeps us alive but also affects our entire body, including digestion, blood pressure, mood, sleep, cognition, muscle function and immunity. While some people are diagnosed with serious respiratory disorders, according to experts, few of us breathe the way we were designed. We breathe too fast, too shallow, and we often unconsciously hold our breath.
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There are many reasons we don't breathe correctly, but research shows stress and anxiety can top the list. Under such conditions, most people start breathing rapidly from the top of the chest. This activates the body's sympathetic nervous system to raise heart rate, suppress digestion, and elevate pulse and blood pressure. According to breath expert and author Stuart Sandeman, many of us find it difficult to slow our breathing even after a perceived threat or source of stress has subsided. This ineffective breathing can become a bad habit.
There is a relatively new term related to breathing known as screen apnea. Recent studies show people often alter their breathing or hold their breath while looking at emails, texts, social media or any task we do in front of a screen. In his book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor explains we have not evolved to be constantly stimulated. This fight-or-flight response is helpful when avoiding being attacked by a lion, but it is not meant to be engaged hundreds of times of day, every day.
Fortunately, improving our breathing habits isn't all that complicated. The American Lung Association offers these two simple steps. First, try to breathe in and out through your nose. The nostrils are designed to filter, warm and humidify air in a way that the mouth can't. Two, remember to breathe deeply all the way into your belly. Just above the stomach is a major muscle in the respiration process called the diaphragm, and many of us aren't allowing it to do its job.
There are volumes written on breathing exercises, known as breath work. According to the Cleveland Clinic, these breathing exercises can help us relax, reduce stress and anxiety, increase muscle function, reduce blood pressure and heart rate and improve some pulmonary conditions such as asthma.
One technique, known as box breathing, is used by the U.S. Navy Seals. Try box breathing yourself for up to five minutes. Exhale through your nose to a mental count of four, hold your lungs empty for a count of four, inhale through your nose to a count of four, hold air in your lungs for a count of four before beginning the pattern again. It probably won't prepare you for situations faced by Navy Seals, but it can absolutely help you better manage a full inbox, traffic, difficult people and other stresses of daily life.
Breathing is a simple thing we can take for granted. Paying it some attention can improve our overall wellbeing. Teacher and author Amit Ray said, "Breath is the finest gift of nature. Be grateful for this wonderful gift."
Alicia Woodward taught literature and language arts for more than 25 years. She and her husband chose to retire to Mount Vernon where they both grew up. The Simple Swan is a blog that inspires beautiful living for the sage reader. Subscribe at www.thesimpleswan. Email her at [email protected].
