Enhance Your Health with Attentive Breathing: Breathe or Die!
Breathing is your first responsibility in life. Without your breath, you will be dead within minutes. Breathing in - or inhaling - is an active motion brought about by the contraction of your diaphragm muscles. Breathing out – or exhaling – is normally a passive process brought about by the elastic recoil of your chest.
We breathe to deliver oxygen to our body. We breathe to rid our bodies of harmful gaseous accumulation. The passive diffusion of gases incorporates oxygen into our blood supply. This takes place via the capillaries in our lungs. Breathing expels harmful carbon dioxide from the body and it also results in a loss of water. Exhaled air has a relative humidity of 100%.
Although breathing occurs automatically, we have the power to consciously control it as well. There are uncounted techniques for breath control. Many sub-disciplines in the realms of yoga and meditation are based upon breath control. The premise is that by being aware of our breath patterns, we can control our stress levels.
When you are calm and relaxed, your breath will be slow and deep. When you’re anxious or upset, your breath will be shallow and sharp. Conversely, if you wish to be calm and relaxed, then you need to make your breathing slow, full and deep.
In yoga, the practice of controlling the breath is called "pranayama". There are several different techniques. In essence, it is good to understand what a full yogic breath is. Here it is in a nutshell:
Starting with the inhalation, you breathe in through your nose.
Fill your belly first with air and then your chest cavity.
The stomach expands first. The chest cavity follows.
Do not breathe out right away. Hold your breath for a few seconds.
Now exhale, again through the nose. Expel the breath from your chest cavity first and then from your stomach (the reverse of the inhalation process).
Make sure you get all of the air out of your breathing system with each exhalation.
Expel all of the air from within yourself.
Now, wait a second or two before inhaling again.
Repeat this process in a slow and rhythmic fashion.
This is yogic breathing!
It’s obviously not hard to do. It’s as easy as breathing! What is important here is that your mind is being attentive to the breathing process. Take a few minutes right now to practice. It feels good, doesn’t it? Do it is many times as you like. You are delivering oxygen-rich blood to all of the systems of your body. You are enhancing the health of your life!
One of the goals of all meditation techniques is the constant awareness of our breathing patterns. To be in a meditative state is to be calm and collected. It certainly doesn’t make any sense to think that a meditative state is to be anxious or nervous.
Can you see that if you are always aware of your breath being slow, full and rhythmic, that you will also be in a more relaxed state of mind?
So, begin to be a conscious breather. You just did your first set of breathing exercises. Now, just start doing it two or three times a day. By doing so, you will find yourself doing it more and more often; more than just two or three times. The goal again is constant awareness of your breathing patterns. It may not seem like it, but you will be gaining wisdom by practicing breath control. That’s right, wisdom. One very important definition of wisdom is that you’re aware of your “self”. Not yourself, your “self”. Get it?
This may seem like a simple lesson. It is. But it’s only simple if you have the desire to increase your self-awareness. By increasing your self-awareness, you increase your awareness of all things around you, all other people around you and everything that you do in life. This is a basic lesson in wisdom development.
Here at 10-4Life.com, one of the goals is to spread wisdom. Wisdom begins in your breath. Become aware of your breathing patterns. Stop taking your primary life force for granted. Pay attention to the environment that you surround yourself with. Do not take it for granted that you can go out in a smog-filled city street, breathe the atmosphere and not be damaged by it. It is a sad fact that most people never give first thought to it, but it is killing our entire race.
Here are some quick facts that you can incorporate into your daily life to enhance your breathing and thereby your health:
Stay out of the cities as much as possible.
Do not smoke or allow others to smoke anywhere near you. Don’t be afraid of insulting them; they’re insulting you by breathing toxic smoke on you.
Practice pranayama.
Engage regularly cardiovascular-based exercise.
Drink plenty of fresh water. This will help flush out all of the toxic junk that ends up in your system inadvertently. It happens just by living on this planet.
Fill your personal spaces with plants.
Have you ever seen anybody die from tuberculosis, COPD, lung cancer or any other type of breath-debilitating disease? It is horrible. They also spend years before they actually die in the process of a slow death. When they die, they gasp for air. Air. Don’t let it happen to you. Take control of your breath today. It is a wonderful thing to do and all of the alternatives are devastating.
B R E A T H E !!