Learn to Breath

I wrote this post for the Northland's Newscenter just 4 short years ago. I've made a few edits.

Learn to breathe
by JESSICA ROSSING on MARCH 31, 2011

Take a moment right now to feel your breath, hear your breath. Breathing is natural and essential to our survival, but have you ever taken the time to focus on how you are breathing?

Here is a test to check your breathing.
-Stand up
-Hook your thumbs over the waist line of your pants so that the thumbs are about even with your belly button
-Let your hands lay across you lower stomach
-Now take a breath, and pay attention to how your stomach moves
*If your stomach sucked in and flattened, and you felt the air go to your shoulders, than you are breathing backwards, or shallow.
*If your stomach relaxed and expanded slightly on the inhale than you are breathing naturally and the right way.

HIGH or SHALLOW Breathing
High Breathing comes from the upper part of the chest and lungs. Also known as “Clavicular Breathing” or “Collarbone Breathing” because you are breathing from the top of the ribs, collar bone and shoulders.  This type of breathing is usually shallow, and caused by many different reasons. Maybe you have always been told to hold your stomach in, maybe you had the emotional wind knocked out of you at some point in your life. Your stress and anxiety levels are high, or there is some other reason as to why your breath is restricted.

How to breath more natural.
Let’s start with learning active exhalation so that you can feel the movement of the diaphragm.
- Stand or sit up straight, and breath just through your nose.
- Focus everything on your exhale and nothing on the inhale.
- Inhale and exhale with the mouth closed and press the lower rib cage down and back while simultaneously contracting the belly back toward the spine and lifting up into the thoracic cavity. This will push all the air out of your lungs.
-Hold this for a few seconds
-Now let go and relax the stomach and ribs, allowing the inhale to naturally come in by itself! Repeat this a few times. (Push the exhale, relax, inhale, push the exhale, relax, inhale)

The more that you practice this, the more correctly you will begin to breath. Breathing deep from within the diaphragm will allow more oxygen into the body, supplying more to the brain and muscles making you feel more awake, more energetic and more relaxed. Studies have shown that taking in this deep diaphragmatic breath, holding it, than letting go can actually help lower blood pressure, stress, and help you sleep better. Take time to practice this, learn your breath, and apply it to your work day, for stress reduction, relaxation, and to better supply your body with oxygen for physical activity.

For a moment take a deep calming breath, and in that moment know that everything is ok, even if for that moment.

"Our breath is the bridge from our body to our mind, the element which reconciles our body and mind and which makes possible oneness of body and mind. Breath is aligned to both body and mind and it alone is the tool which can bring them  both together, illuminating both and bringing both peace and calm." -Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfullness

“Master your breath, let the self be in bliss, contemplate on the sublime within you.” -T. Krishnamacharya

“When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world. ” -Mr. B. K. S. Iyengar

“The quality of our breath expresses our inner feelings.” T.K.V. Desikachar

Namaste,

Jess