There is an action that our bodies do that is automatic and to which we usually give little conscious attention: breathing. There is, however, a way of breathing that’s terrifically more efficient and more relaxing than the way many of us breathe most of the time. We probably don’t want to bother placing any attention on how we are doing our breathing; yet there is a way to take in air that supports well-being and it is quite different from how we normally do breathe. Learning (or re-learning) and practicing this breathing technique can bring us deeper and more full-body relaxation and considerably improved health.
Not that all breathing is the same. It suits the situation: when we’re tense, our breaths might be shallow or gasping. As we approach sleep, our breathing slows and deepens. When we do aerobic exercise, we tend to breathe from the chest, just as when we’re frightened or excited.
But take a look at the way that small children breathe (when they’re relaxed). Next time you have the chance to observe a child peacefully sleeping, watch for what on the child’s body rises and falls with breathing. It’s the abdomen, not the chest.
I went to a chiropractor about 25 years ago now who spoke to me about breathing. She pointed out that we learn as we grow older to breathe from higher up, from our chest. Quite without realizing it, adults tend to hold the diaphragm frozen. Women may get the idea that they look more alluring breathing from their upper torso rather than their abdomen. But I can assure you that it is best to break the higher-chest breathing habit.
In many cultures, breathing is considered synonymous with life, the physical animation we call life and with the spirit. However that may be, it is certainly of prime importance to health and well-being. The action of inhaling is meant to bring in fresh oxygen to be absorbed into the blood and from there circulated to all the organs, to every cell in the body. With every exhale, we emit carbon dioxide into the world and this, happily, nourishes the plants, makes the world greener.
When breathing is shallow, as is upper-chest breathing, we don’t dump as much toxic gas through the exhale and old, stale air tends not to get cleaned out. On the contrary, when we suck in deep draughts of air from lower in the abdomen, the lungs clean out old air faster and the blood gets far more oxygen. Looking at this holistically, at the whole effect of it, breathing naturally (deeply) creates a consistent internal rhythm with which all our systems function in harmony.
Natural, healthful and relaxing breathing is diaphragmatic. It uses the diaphragm muscle, the muscle which separates the lungs from the abdomen. When we breathe from the diaphragm, the ribs expand as the lungs fill with air. Diaphragmatic breathing brings air down far into the lungs. Here it is that the oxygen exchange is most efficient and thus the blood best enriched. Breathing deeply from the diaphragm relaxes and helps energy flows throughout the body. The rhythmically moving diaphragm muscles can even massage the abdominal organs, helping energize and tone them.
Here is a quick check you can do to see how you are breathing: Put one had on your abdomen and one on your chest. Inhale and exhale and note what moves. You want your abdomen to push outward as you take in a deep breath and to pull in as you exhale.
More on the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing: when we breathe properly, blood pressure decreases and the heart rate slows, our muscles relax, digestion improves vastly and all this goodness may help ease anxiety…we calm down. Diaphragmatic breathing helps reduce the frequency of hot flashes by 50% as per one study. Breathing deeper helps us sleep much better, improves circulation of the blood and increases alertness. Working with the breath can assist people to overcome addictions.
Retrain your body to breathe properly
Here’s an easy breathing exercise that helps teach us the habit of diaphragmatic breathing and after a while makes it once again unconscious, effortless, as it should be.
Find a time and place to do this where you will not be disturbed.
You can do this exercise sitting up straight or lying down. Eventually your breathing will switch over, you’ll have replaced shallow for deep breathing. I suggest that at first you place a hand on your abdomen while you do it. Later you can drop that action out.
1. Take a deep breath through your nose. Feel the air flowing into the farthest, deepest recesses of your lungs.
2. Notice, be aware of the energy from this breath flowing to every part of your body.
3. Feel your muscles relax as your abdomen expands outward.
4. Do not hold your breath, but when your lungs are full, begin to exhale slowly from your nose (some say that exhaling should be done through the mouth but it is more relaxing for the purposes of this exercise to exhale through the nose). As you do so, your abdomen will move inward.
5. As you exhale, be aware of the toxic air leaving the body and stresses dissolving.
Repeat 1 and continue.
Make sure also that you’re well hydrated as dehydration interferes with proper breathing.
You can extend the length of time to inhale and exhale and also how long you do the exercise for. Doing two or three times a day is extremely relaxing and beneficial. Of course, the more regularly you perform this exercise, the easier it becomes to adopt natural diaphragmatic breathing as the body’s normal, automatic breathing method.
This exercise is a helpful way to start and end other exercise routines, too.
See below also for some aromatherapy breathing aid ideas.
A Tip on Singing
As a singer, I took lessons for a short while in order to be able to sing a cappella (without accompaniment) and without a mic for many hours at a time. It turns out that in order to do that at all, I had to move to abdominal breathing and abdominal singing.
I was amazed to learn that when we push up from the deep-down diaphragm muscle to move air out of the lungs up through the voice box, a mechanism at the bottom of the diaphragm engages automatically, causing a natural reflex as irresistible as a knee jerk. This reflex places the vocal cords into proper position, for beautiful and more effortless singing. You want your vocal cords, like two ribbons pulled straight, good and taut, placed right next to each other yet flexible, so they will vibrate in the air stream. This singing produces a naturally better voice, eventually clearer and more powerful.
The other way to sing, where you use the throat muscles to control the vocal cords, may bring tension to the area and may lead to damage of the vocal cords especially if one is singing loudly (as in rock music) or long (as in opera, musical comedies or long performances). Using the throat not the diaphragm can so irritate the vocal cords as to swell them. Singers using their throats like this can get blisters and welts on their vocal chords. These can prevent the vocal chords from lining one right up against the other, where blown air will cause them to vibrate and produce a tone.
When severe, the vocal chord bumps can be removed surgically but the operation is quite chancy. One risks losing one’s singing voice by abrading the vocal cords and causing blisters and one risks losing one’s voice with the surgery. I don’t know how she is now, but a few years ago I heard that Julie Andrews had lost her incredible voice after a vocal cord operation she chose to undergo. I cried so for her. I’d lost my voice due to fungus taking hold in my lungs several years ago…it was gone for an emotionally torturous three years. (Got my voice back when I created SuperImmune Boost™ Tonic and took it often to handle this, by the way.)
Almost incredible to me is the fact that returning to the diaphragmatic singing method can itself clear up vocal cord sores and return the voice to its natural, resonant sound. Wonderful!
I am very glad after all that I lost my voice after my first day’s singing those 8 or 9 hours. I’d not have found out this great data. See, I’d awakened with no voice and another day’s full performance schedule. Knowing he was being trained by the city’s opera coach, I called our quartet’s bass and whispered my situation to him. With just one exercise he taught me, I took my throat out of the equation and triggered the proper vocal cord position with my diaphragm and voila! about an hour of drilling brought my voice back.
I’ve found that this method, singing from the diaphragm, helps to relax the singer, too.
Again, this is natural for small kids
I also learned then that children sing using their diaphragm, naturally. They later “learn” their way out of this.
Essential oils can help
By the way, there are essential oil blends that help clear and soothe the breathing passages. Certain essential oils can help ease muscles spasms that can occur in the breathing apparatus from tension, allergies and so on. Mrs. Breathewell’s™ Chest Rub is a blend I created which can be rubbed on the chest and throat, also around the nose and sinuses, but best not too close to the eyes, to help open those passages.
The appropriate essential oils also can help clear mucus from the air passages, nose and throat. (Do consult your naturally oriented physician if you’re having trouble breathing, of course.) I make an air freshener called Ice which contains amongst several other good lung essential oils, eucalyptus and peppermint and is great for breathing.
Most people can breathe easily in a forest, So tree essential oils, such as cedarwood, cypress, fir and pine, can help us to breathe easily. When sprayed or diffused into the air, a blend of lung-healing essential oils can help purify the air and make deep breathing easier. The micro-particles of essential oils remain airborne for hours, too, continuing to destroy bad bacteria and viruses. Plus, most people really enjoy their smell. Ahhhh!
Take a deep breath
The old advice for when we’re nervous or frightened — to pause and take some deep breaths — makes good sense. Breathing properly is a super way of defusing stress and helping the body to operate as a harmonious whole to attain greater health.
I hope this information helps you and yours. Write me to let me know, OK?
Love,
Evan