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| Waiting To Inhale |
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| Breathing is much more than just intake of oxygen. It can be a key to feeling and living better |
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BREATHING IS a lot more than letting out the bad air, and letting in the good. Its about using the breath for everything it can do, including good health and stress relief. Breathing often gets lost in the list of things related to good health because its so automatic. But keeping an eye on your breathing can be a key to feeling and living better, experts say.
What is breathing?
The National Institutes of Health describes breathing in two movements: inhaling and exhaling. Inhaling sucks air from the environment so the lungs can take in oxygen, and, unfortunately, some bad gases, too.Exhaling expels unused air and used oxygen in the form of carbon dioxide. Breathing is consistently the most intimate activity living beings have with the environment. If a person inhales about 20 times per minutes at rest, that translates to about 28,800 times a day Breathing can be fast or slow; it can use a small part of the lungs or all of the lungs. But most people breathe wrong, says Ryan M Niemiec, a psychologist with St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute.Most people breathe "anxiously through their chest-called shallow breathing-especially in response to stressful or pressure situations," says Niemiec. Very shallow Breathing-hyperventilation-causes a variety of sensations in the body and mind, including muscle tension, light headeadness, headache and anxiety.
Experts note that breathing is the one system that is both automatic and can be controlled while conscious. That control may have a purpose, they say. The next time youre practicing yoga or suffering from an anxiety attack, youre going to be told one way or another to breathe deeply. Theres a reason for that: Its healthy. In yoga, for instance, breathing is often more important than even the stretching and balance, says Dayna Macy, communications director with Yogajournal.com, a website. "When you calm down the breath, you can calm down the mind." Christine Yonkers, owner of YogaSource in Richmond Heights, Mo., agrees. "You relax by focusing on your breath. The breath is always in the present." Tamara Burlis, physical therapist and instructor, put it more clinically: "People use low, deep breathing for relaxation purposes. They focus on their breathing, and start to slow down their breathing, to get more in tune with Themselves."
Physical benefits of healthy breathing include reduced blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension as well as increased energy, says Niemiec. Psychological benefits include increased mental calmness and decreased anxiety, he says. The breathing muscle, the diaphragm, gets stronger with work, like any other muscle. And the more fit a person is, the more efficient the lungs are at using oxygen. "You can do more activity taking less breaths," Burlis says. Posture is one of the overlooked areas when it comes to breathing. The volume of air the lungs can take in changes with posture. Sitting up straight with your shoulders back and chest out can better open the body to deeper breathing. Someone who is obese or is in the last trimester of pregnancy needs to pay particular attention to posture. "Theyre going to be short of breath, because its going to be harder for their diaphragm to push against their abdominal areas because of fat, or baby is pushing back," Burlis says.
"The mind and body are integrally connected," says Lynn Rossy, a clinical psychologist. "The body is the easiest place to effect change. You can divert your attention away from obsessive thoughts. "The breath is used for concentration and meditation. It actually has a physical effect on the body." When Rossy finds some-one suffering anxiety, her first step is to get them to breathe properly in order to calm down. "Lie on the floor flat and put one hand on their upper stomach," Rossy says. "Then think about being able to expand the belly on the inhale and contract on the way out.
"Have a good exhale. If you dont exhale out, you dont get a good breath in."
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