Breathing

Correct breathing strengthens your respiratory system and reduces stress (anxiety and fear) energizes and facilitates greater alertness to your body and mind and aids to speeds healing on emotional and physical levels.

Many stress-related diseases are due to lack of breath. It's so simple, breathing is the first thing we do when we are born and the last thing we do before we leave our bodies.

Unfortunately throughout our complete lifetime, most of use will not inhale or exhale in an optimal way to utilize the benefits of correct breathing.

The aim for correct breathing is to enable ourselves to breathe naturally, using a full range of movement in our lungs, diaphragm, belly, and back - to inhale and exhale freely and fully.

It is impossible for our lungs to take in a full intake of air, as there is always air within them, however by exhaling out in a smooth, slow quiet manner via our mouths, this will enable new clean air to enter the lungs.

Deep breathing is known as "diaphragmatic" or "abdominal" breathing . When we breathe this way, we are using our bodies as nature intended. When we use shallow rapid breathing movements, this breathing pattern deprives the whole system of oxygen. Breathing in conjunction with your abdominal rising and then your chest will enable a slower fuller intake of air into your lungs.

During exercise correct breathing is a prerequisite to proper training, inhale and exhale deeply before starting on any exercise to aid full intake of oxygen. Aim to stand tall, with your arms by your sides, lifting the shoulders up to help expand the chest.

As a general rule of thumb, exhale in a controlled manner during the most strenuous part of the exercise, and inhale during your recovery phase.

The key is feeling natural, whilst taking in full complete breathes, you may find that with some of the abdominal exercises, it feels natural to breathe out (exhale) during the recovery phase, this may be because inhaling restricts your movement.

Ancient methods such as Tai Chi and Yoga place a huge importance on breathing, which will certainly be beneficial to your health if you participate in these.