You can live without food for a month, exist without water for two or more weeks, but without oxygen you’d die in a few minutes. Breath is life; it is the wellspring of our existence. The way we breathe has a direct, causal, and often profound impact on our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual lives.
As babies and young children, most of us breathed freely, naturally, and powerfully. Notice how tiny babies could fill an entire house with the sound of their crying. That’s how powerful their breathing is. As we grow older, we get locked in sedentary work environments and subjected to the harrowing stresses of life, and our poor, battered bodies react by resorting to shallow, constricted breathing. This limited, upper chest breathing impairs our health, decreases our vitality, and adds even more pressure, stress, and anxiety to our lives.
Proper breathing is not only important for staying healthy but is also effective in treating and eliminating diseases and various medical conditions such as asthma, respiratory infections, poor digestion, insomnia, low energy, high blood pressure, stress, nervousness, anxiety, panic attacks, heart disease, poor memory, etc. Furthermore, it can increase longevity and power our quest for well-being, expression, self-transformation, and self-realization.
It is no secret that better breathing promotes a better life. Ancient disciplines like yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, and oriental martial arts have always known and stressed the importance of breathing. As a meditative experience, breathing can link you to your spirit and even bring about amazing revelations, wisdom, and enlightenment. Proper breathing can enhance your life by connecting you to the moment, allowing you to live more fully in the now.
To develop your breathing, you must breathe consciously. Be aware each time you inhale and exhale until the proper breathing techniques become a habit with you. The effective breath is deep, tension-free, energizing, and even pleasurable.
The diaphragm is a thick, flat muscle below your rib cage and above your abdomen. When you use your diaphragm as you breathe in, you help your lungs expand to take in more air. You will have greater control over the exhalation process, too; this is a boon for speakers and singers who want to make use of the air to pack power into the voice and sustain long passages.
While breathing, it is important to be aware of the full range of movements involved in your head and respiratory passages, the nose, mouth, neck, voice box, larynx, lungs, diaphragm, belly, and back – in fact, your entire body. The idea is to get maximum air in the most relaxed way into the air sacs of your lungs where the oxygen is assimilated into the blood stream for distribution throughout the body. Constant practice of diaphragmatic breathing will open up the entire respiratory system for more frequent and freer in- and outflow of air, thereby increasing the body’s oxygen levels.
Start with a good posture and relax your shoulders. Inhale through your nose except when speaking or singing when you may take in air through the mouth. (Remember that the nose has hairs that filter the impurities in the air and have the nasal passage to warm the air to suitable body temperature.) Support the movement by pushing your abdomen up and out. Fill your lungs with air to a good volume while expanding the rib cage. Make sure you don’t tense up or get uncomfortable. While exhaling, you should feel your abdomen go down as your rib cage and lungs return to their relaxed state.
Everyone can benefit from better breathing. Proper breathing helps detoxify the body of wastes and impurities, revitalize the body, and can even reverse the onset of maladies and diseases. Good breathing also improves your voice and overall personality. And oh, yes, here’s one more important thing to remember: Breathe deeply, and laugh loudly!