How to Breathe? Wait! Now we need to be taught how to breathe, too?
We’re breathing constantly. Oxygen is the most basic requirement for human life. Have you ever stopped to think about how significant the act of breathing is? Have you thought about how you breathe? Do you breathe short and shallow, high in the chest? Or do you use belly breath? It’s worth giving some attention to how your breath might be affecting you and your well-being.
Becoming aware of how you breathe and making even a few changes could have a great impact on your life. Learning to be conscious of and using your breath properly can greatly enhance your exercise efforts; retraining the muscles of your diaphragm, neck and shoulders, the intercostals of the chest and back and strengthening the lungs. Some of the greatest use of breath can help control anxiety and manage pain; for example – the Lamaze method of breathing as used during childbirth.
Proper breathing brings health to your body. “The simplest and most powerful technique for protecting your health is absolutely free – and literally right under your nose,” says Harvard Graduate Andrew Weil, MD.
There are a few health practices that actually teach a specific breathing pattern as part of the discipline. Yoga is a well-known practice; another is Pilates.
Joseph Pilates referred to breathing as the “shower of life.” Joe, born in 1880 in Germany, was sick with rickets, asthma, and rheumatic fever as a child and as a very young man challenged himself to devise a plan to reshape his sickly body into a healthy one. He accomplished this with great success. If only he could see the effects of his work on the world today!
The very first principle of the Pilates discipline is breath awareness and control. In fact, Joe said “Even if you follow no other instructions, learn to breathe correctly.”
Many readers will be commenting ‘under their breath’ that they exercise regularly and breathe plenty hard, thank you very much! You might be surprised though, to find that you may be able to make your time and use of energy much more effective! Engaging in exercise and sports doesn’t necessarily lead to optimal breathing. They can cause or aggravate existing breathing restrictions such as panting, holding of breath, gasping, asthma, etc. Proper use of inhalation and exhalation sends a physiological message to your body to get ready for exertion. This, used in proper coordination with muscular engagement retrains the body, produces and balances your energy; flooding the body with just enough oxygen to perform the needed task.
It’s worth mentioning here that many of the ‘home exercise videos’ can be dangerous as they take us through a very rigorous routine, very quickly –and time is not taken to instruct in proper breathing, movement or muscular engagement; leading to painful discouragement and even injury.
Healthy breath awareness and training can lead to many wonderful and beneficial side effects, including relieving tense muscles, fatigue, light-headedness, edema, wrinkling of skin, easing strain on the heart by increasing oxygen and circulation, lowering cortisol levels in the body, stimulating the nervous, digestive and immune systems… mental stamina and clarity, deeper relaxation, improved sleep, the ability to recover quickly from trauma (such as an injury or surgery), stress and exertion, …just to name a few!
“He who breathes most air lives most life.” -Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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