Breathing

Proper breathing is one of the most beneficial things that you can do for your physical and emotional health. 

We can survive for a time without food or even water. We cannot survive without breathing!

Breathing not only supplies our organs with oxygen, it also rids the body of waste products and toxins.

When we are in pain, stressed or anxious we have a tendency to hold our breathe or breathe shallow breathes. This sends a distress signal to our brain and can make the situation worse.
By using breathing exercises we can avoid this. 
Are you a chest breather? or an abdomen breather?
Place your right hand on your chest and your left hand on your abdomen. Breathe in , which hand moves higher. If your right hand is higher, you are a chest breather. If your left hand is higher, you are an abdomen breather.

When you are Chest breathing it is inefficient because then the greatest amount of blood flow occurs in the lower lobes of the lungs, areas that have limited air expansion in chest breathers. Rapid, shallow, chest breathing results in less oxygen transfer to the blood and subsequent poor delivery of nutrients to the tissues. This is a learned habit, so therefore, like when you  learn to drive, you can train the body to improve its breathing technique.
If you do this consciously and regularly you will breathe from the abdomen most of the time, even while asleep.

Daily exercises
Breathing exercises should be done at least twice a day, when you wake up and before you go to sleep.It is also beneficial to do them if you feel stressed, anxious or are in pain.

• Breathe in, through your nose, feeling your abdomen expand higher than your chest, this fills the base of the lungs with oxygen.. (if it helps you can count as you breathe in.....1..2..3..4..)
• Hold this breathe for a few seconds, not uncomfortably long just pause,  and then exhale slowly, through your mouth, 
•  As you exhale feel the breath move through your body releasing all tension
•  Remember to exhale completely, contract the abdominal muscles, completely emptying the lungs.
• Repeat this so that you do 5 breathes in and out.
• Repeat at least twice a day but you can also do these exercises while watching television, standing in a queue or at other times throughout the day. The more often you do them the quicker you will breathe like this automatically.
• As you learn to breathe consciously exhaling properly exhale through your nose, only exhale through your mouth to practice full exhalation.

For more information contact me at www.lindaledwidge.com 

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