Breathe Better

Proper, deep breathing reduces stress, improves immunity and boosts energy levels. It will detox your life of tension and introduce pure calm and relaxation.

Everyone knows how important oxygen is for our survival but they are much less sure of how to breathe correctly or what effects good breathing has.

We know that even a momentary lack of the correct level of oxygen in the body can result in serious damage or even death. Yet many of us continue to underuse our lungs and deprive our bodies of all the benefits of correct breathing.

From early childhood we are told to ‘stand up straight, stomachs in’. When we are told to take a deep breath we automatically inhale and raise our chest. But, by restricting movement of the stomach and abdomen, we are limiting the area that our lungs can expand into. We therefore develop the habit of only using a third of our lung capacity each time we inhale.

The balance of your mind and body is also affected by your breathing. If you are tense and stressed, and your breathing is short and shallow, you are less likely to be able to think straight, your movements become erratic and your balance is thrown. Yet correct breathing is easy and much more relaxing.

To breathe correctly, you simply relax your stomach muscles, inhale through your nose slowly and take in the air until it feels as if the base of your stomach is full of it. Pause momentarily and then exhale through the mouth. When you feel the air ‘in your stomach’ it shows that you have relaxed your diaphragm muscle, which means your lungs have fully expanded and you have inhaled to full capacity. This will feel strange at first but will soon become such a normal way to breathe you won’t need to think about it any more.

Deeper breathing slows the heart rate and the pulse. The deeper we breathe, the more oxygen we inhale. All these are indications of improved and stronger health.

A simple breathing exercise

This is a good breathing exercise to do when you feel stressed, if you cannot sleep or if you simply want to recharge your batteries:

• Sit comfortably or lie down, supporting your lower back with a cushion if necessary.

• Place your hands on your stomach area, with the fingertips just touching.

• Start to breathe in through your nose very slowly, to the count of four. (As you inhale, you should feel your stomach expand and your fingertips separate.)

• Hold the breath for four and exhale slowly through your mouth, to a count of eight.

• Repeat several times as required.

It will feel strange at first, as you are not used to using your muscles to expand your stomach in this way, but over a period of just a few minutes this will become more natural.

Continue this exercise for at least ten inward breaths and you should feel much more relaxed and ‘centred’. Eventually you will not need to use your fingers to check that your stomach is expanding (rather than your chest). Soon you will be able to carry out the exercise whilst you are going about your normal day-to-day business – not the lying down but the controlled breathing! If you ever have difficulty dropping off to sleep, this is a far more effective way than the traditional ‘counting sheep’. The chances are that you won’t make it to ten – you will probably be asleep by six.

We live by our breathing so learn to do it properly and live a little bit more.