Understanding breathing and the importance of taking a deep breath.

Whether you think about breathing or not, it happens. So therefore, leads many individuals to believe that they basically don’t have to think about their breathing.

In this article, however, we’ll be disputing this notion: Even though it’s not compulsory to give your breath much thought, when you do, amazing things can happen.

Breath is fundamental to life. We take about half a billion breaths, usually without thinking about it. Breathing is influenced by our thoughts and our thoughts and physiology can be influenced by our breath. Educating our selves on learning to breath consciously can be a valuable tool in helping to restore balance in the mind and body, very useful during times of stress. 

The beginning for all deep breathing practices initiates in the science of yoga, precisely the fourth limb of yoga, identified as pranayama. The ancient yogis learned that by controlling the breath, you can influence every aspect of your life. 

When you experience stressful thoughts, your sympathetic nervous system triggers the body’s ancient flight-or-flight response, providing you with a surge of energy to respond to the perceived danger. Therefore, breathing becomes shallow and rapid, and you mainly breathe from the chest and not the lower lungs. Intern making you feel short of breath, which is a common symptom when you feel anxious or frustrated. The effects of this your body will produce a surge of hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine, which increases blood pressure and pulse rate. You can reverse these symptoms instantly. When you breathe deeply and slowly, your activating your parasympathetic nervous system, which reverses the stress response in your body, so therefore slowing down your heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and calming your body and mind.

Conscious breathing can change your life. It can transform your thought process and your emotions, how your muscles work, how frequently you get ill, decrease your risks of developing chronic diseases. There are a lot of different breathing exercises out there, but they may not all be the right choice for you. Talk to a professional for advice on breathing exercises.

How breathing works:

From the nervous and cardiovascular systems, right down to your body’s individual cells, deep breathing has the capability to change and restore your health. Once you engage your breath, you are activating your nervous and cardiovascular systems. With every inhale and exhale, your breath helps regulate, improve, and restore your body. The science behind deep breathing is a great reminder of how our bodies have a natural ability to be resilient.  In addition, with deep breathing, you can engage the abdominal muscles and diaphragm instead of the muscles in the upper chest and neck.

The Diaphragm breathing and how it works:

Diaphragmatic breathing is a form of a breathing exercise that strengthens your diaphragm, a key muscle that helps you breathe. This breathing exercise is also occasionally called belly breathing or abdominal breathing. Whilst you inhale normally, the diaphragm (assisted by the intercostal muscles) contracts and flattens. This pushes on the abdomen and simultaneously causes the lower ribs to go up and out. Basically, the ribcage rises and expands. As a result, volume increases in the abdomen and chest, and the lungs are inflated. 

Diaphragmatic breathing benefits:

It has a number of benefits that affect your entire body. It’s the basis for almost all yoga, meditation or relaxation techniques, which can lower your stress levels, reduce your blood pressure, and regulate other important bodily processes. 

Which is recognised to help manage the symptoms of conditions as wide-ranging as irritable bowel syndrome, depression, anxiety and sleepless nights. Here are more benefits this type of breathing can have:

• It helps you relax, lowering the harmful effects of the stress hormone cortisol on your body.
• It lowers your heart rate
• It helps lower your blood pressure
• It helps you cope with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• It improves your core muscle stability.
• It improves your body’s ability to tolerate intense exercise.
• It lowers your chances of injuring or wearing out your muscles.
• It slows your rate of breathing so that it expends less energy

 Benefits of diaphragmatic breathing: 

Reducing stress:

Deep breathing is one of the best methods to lower stress in the body. This is because when you breathe deeply, it directs a message to your brain to calm down and relax. The brain then sends this message to your body. Those things that happen when you are stressed, such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breathe deeply to relax. 

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the airways within the lungs become impaired and inflamed, obstructing airflow in and out of the lungs. The diaphragm also tends to be weaker. The body attempts to compensate for this weakness by engaging the muscles in the back, neck, and shoulders while breathing. Retraining the body to engage the diaphragm while breathing may help alleviate symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue. 

Asthma:

Medication, research suggests that breathing exercises can be a beneficial treatment for individuals with asthma, assisting to improve breathing and quality of life. There are several types of breathing techniques that are predominantly helpful for asthmatics. Some of the exercises help with breathing retraining, some help increase the strength of respiratory muscles, whilst others improve the flexibility of the thoracic cage (rib cage).

Diaphragmatic breathing helps a person engage the diaphragm fully while breathing. This may provide a number of health benefits, including:

• strengthening the diaphragm
• improving stability in the core muscles
• slowing the breathing rate
• lowering heart rate and blood pressure
• reducing oxygen demand
• promoting relaxation

Individuals should practice this breathing exercise for 5–10 minutes at a time, around three to four times each day.

Here’s the basic techniques for diaphragmatic breathing:

1. Sit in a comfortable position or lie flat on the floor, your bed, or another comfortable, flat surface.
2. Relax your shoulders.
3. Put a hand on your chest and a hand on your stomach.
4. Breathe in through your nose for about two seconds. You should experience the air moving through your nostrils into your abdomen, making your stomach expand. During this type of breathing, make sure your stomach is moving outward while your chest remains relatively still.
5. Purse your lips (as if you’re about to drink through a straw), press gently on your stomach, and exhale slowly for about two seconds.
6. Repeat these steps several times for best results. 

Rib-stretch breathing

The rib-stretch is another helpful deep breathing exercise. Here’s how to do it:

1. Stand up straight and arch your back.
2. Breathe out until you just can’t anymore.
3. Inhale slowly and gradually, taking in as much air as possible until you can’t breathe in anymore.
4. Hold your breath for about 10 seconds.
5. Breathe out slowly through your mouth. You can do this normally or with pursed lips. 

Numbered breathing

Numbered breathing is a good exercise for gaining control over your breathing patterns. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Stand up, staying still, and close your eyes.
2. Inhale deeply until you can’t take in anymore air.
3. Exhale until all air has been emptied from your lungs.
4. Keep your eyes closed! Now, inhale again while picturing the number 1.
5. Keep the air in your lungs for a few seconds, then let it all out.
6. Inhale again while picturing the number 2.
7. Hold your breath while counting silently to 3, then let it all out again.
8. Repeat these steps until you’ve reached 8. Feel free to count higher if you feel comfortable. 

Autonomic nervous system and your breath:

Also, breathing is part of your autonomic nervous system (ANS). This system is in charge of essential bodily processes that you don’t need to put any thought into, such as:

• digestive processes
• how quickly you breathe
• metabolic process that affect your weight
• overall body temperature
• blood pressure