Belly breathing to decrease stress, heal and function better.

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Are you breathing the wrong way? 

How often do you think about breathing?  If you're like most of the public the answer to that is either very little or never.  Unfortunately, most of the public is also breathing incorrectly.   

Watch a baby breath, notice how their belly raises and lowers with each breathe.  This happens because baby's will naturally use their belly and diaphragm to breathe.  What happens as we get older? Bad habits- often a lot of them.  Poor posture and vanity tend to cause us to breath with our chests instead of our bellys.  This can lead to rapid, shallow breaths that are not as effective as bringing oxygen to our tissues.   
The good news?  With time and repetition, you can train yourself to breath appropriately!  Obviously, the reason we breath is to stay alive.  Breathing allows us to bring in life-giving oxygen and let off spent carbon dioxide. When you slow down your breathing and breathe deeply through your belly you can increase the oxygen content in your blood; this can help to decrease stress, improve athletic performance, reduce the risk of some cardiovascular conditions, and improve healing processes.  

To breath better you must learn to use your diaphragm.  The diaphragm is a large muscle that is below the lungs.  Lungs are unable to expand or contract on their own, they rely on the surrounding structures to do the work for them.  The rib cage is capable of expanding and contracting the lungs BUT when working alone rib cage breathing leads to the previously mentioned shallow, ineffective breaths.  When the diaphragm contracts and allows the ribs to expand you can get a much fuller, more effective breath.   
You can determine how you're breathing by placing one hand on your chest and one on your belly.  Breath normally for 30 seconds to a minute.  Notice how much your hands raise?  Which one raises first?  Which one raises more?  If your chest raises first, and it will in most adults, then the odds are you are chest breathing. Taking the time to recruit your diaphragm while breathing is an important task.  

Here is a very simple way to start using your diaphragm while breathing: 
  1. 1. Lie face up on the floor with your knees bent. 
  1. 2. Allow your hands to rest lightly on your stomach. 
  1. 3. Concentrate on breathing using the diaphragm, not using the chest, and feeling the stomach rise as the lungs fill from the bottom.  Breathing in for a count of 3 can help to slow the breath and ensure you're getting enough oxygen in.  
  1. 4. When breathing out let the stomach fall naturally, again counting to 3 as you exhale. 
  1. 5. Once this becomes natural the next step is to try this standing or when exercising. Don't be alarmed if this is difficult at first.  Focus on the breathing and it will soon become natural for you to breath with your diaphragm.  
       6. Practice this for 5-10 minutes a day to retrain your bodies breathing technique.  

Yoga is a great way to learn diaphragmatic breathing. Breath work is the foundation of all yoga classes. Visit our yoga partner at www.theinspiredmat.com for a list of restorative, yin or slow flow classes to further your foundation on breathing from your belly.

Dr Danny 

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