Learn how correct breathing can help you reduce Stress and Inflammation
When you have health, your mind easily wanders around. But the moment you feel sick, experience pain, or have any other discomfort in the body, the mind can no longer wander away. It stays with you in the present moment.
And something else changes notably… your breath.
In this blog, I would like to write a bit about breathing, and I hope it helps you bring more awareness to your own breath.
Because health starts with correct breathing.
Breathing is the life-force that is always with you. When you are born, the first thing you do is inhaling and when you pass away the last thing you do is exhale.
Your Breath, your Life: The foundation of health
Our whole life depends on breathing.
We can survive a few days without drinking water, a few weeks without food, but no more than a few minutes without breathing.
Breathing is a process we rarely think about. It occurs automatically, without our awareness. Yet most people do it incorrectly.
How?
Our respiratory muscles become lazy and stop supporting full inhalation and exhalation when we live sedentary lives indoors, away from natural influences.
Breathing through the nose is our natural filter against germs and polluted air.
When you are not exercising, try to breathe in and out through the nose as much as possible. Relax the sides of the nose so you don’t “hear” the inhalation.
Breathing through the nose means the air you inhale will be filtered, warmed, and moistened before entering the lungs.
What your breath reveals
Have you ever thought about how your breath can tell you a lot about your state of health?
A fast breathing rate is associated with tension, fear, worry, etc., which tend to lead to bad health and unhappiness.
When you breathe slowly through the nose, it often means you are relaxed, calm, and happy, which helps with longevity.
If you breathe quickly, you inhale small volumes of air and exhale the same small volumes. This allows germs to accumulate in the lower areas of the lungs.
If you breathe slowly, you also most likely breathe deeply and thereby fill the lungs to a greater depth.
This helps to remove air from the lower reaches of the lungs and to destroy the breeding ground of germs.
Deep breathing also gives a good massage to the abdominal organs via the diaphragm.
The massage of the liver, stomach, etc., keeps them in good working order by expelling old, impure blood and allowing pure oxygenated blood to replace it.
Shallow breathing leads to insufficient oxygen in the body, which can lead to disturbance of the circulatory, digestive, and nervous systems.
Our respiratory muscles become lazy and stop supporting full inhalation and exhalation when we live sedentary lives indoors, away from natural influences.
Nature’s influence on the breath
People who are active outdoors and in connection with nature naturally breathe correctly because of the automatic reflex of the breath by the surroundings.
A large number of factors influence our breathing.
For example, if we take a cold shower, automatically we must breathe deeply. Yet most people nowadays rarely take a cold shower; instead, they take a hot bath.
A cold, brisk atmosphere encourages deep breathing, but nowadays people spend more time inside than outside.
Here is where we can lose touch with the natural stimulator of rhythmic breathing.
People who live in a natural environment outdoors don’t need to be taught how to breathe properly, as this happens as an automatic response to their surroundings.
if we take a cold shower, automatically we must breathe deeply.
Relearning Natural Breathing
It is for this reason that most people have to learn how to breathe properly.
Relearn what is natural and reactivate the nervous reflexes so that breathing becomes normal and harmonious to life and health.
When we live a large amount of time indoors with television, screen time, or inactivity, we automatically weaken our capacity for correct breathing.
This leads to starvation of oxygen in our bodies, which leads to fatigue, lack of energy, stress, and inflammation in the body, which after that leads to illness.
What you can start doing today to improve your breathing
1. Awareness
Start with observation on how you are breathing during the day. This will give you a lot of information already.
Do I breathe slow or fast? And when?
Where do I breathe? Down in the belly or up in the chest? And when?
Do I breathe through my nose or my mouth?
Is there a difference in breathing with different surroundings? Where is the change?
2. Slow and Deep Breathing
Time is required to transfer oxygen from the lungs to the blood and for carbon dioxide in the blood to be transferred into the lungs for expulsion into the air.
If you breathe rapidly, the optimum oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange is not reached in the lungs.
If you breathe deeply through the nose, you allow more volume in your lungs and more oxygen in your body.
3. Exhalation and Inhalation
To start with the practice of deep breathing, you can simply exhale deeply and slowly.
Let the inhalation come naturally through the nose by relaxing your belly, the sides of your ribs, relaxing your jaws and throat. Open your chest.
4. Practice throughout the day
Try to bring awareness to this breathing multiple times a day, in all kinds of places.
Bring your thoughts to your breath just for a few moments and exhale slowly through the nose as much as you can. Relax and invite the next breath naturally through the nose again.
Make it a daily habit and feel the results for yourself.
Find your natural breathing rhythm to reduce stress and inflammation
I can support you in finding your own rhythm of breath to help reduce stress and inflammation in the body.
You can book a free call with me.
We can meet, talk through what you are looking for, and find the best way my coaching can support you in discovering your natural rhythm of breathing.
Written by Dafni Kokotovis, founder of KoKo To Vision
Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Breathing Therapist, and Remedial Yoga Instructor.
I focus on Gut Health, Hormone Balance, Stress Management, and Inflammation.