How You Can Live Healthier With a Simple Breath

Breathing is the first thing we do when we’re born, and it will be the last thing we do in our lives. Whenever we need to calm down or do something important, we pause and take a breath first to focus ourselves.

Yet for the most part, we take breathing largely for granted. We spend a vast amount of our lives breathing without focus. Most of the time we don’t even notice we are breathing. But when we experience stress or any other intense emotion, our breathing instantly becomes fast and rigid. As part of our natural “fight or flight” responses, this increased breathing triggers our bodies to release cortisol and adrenaline to cope with the stress. In the short term this release causes fatigue and inflammation. Over the long run, prolonged stress can lead to depression, chronic fatigue, feelings of helplessness, and consequently, physical illness.

However, the human body has the power to heal itself. We need to breathe in oxygen to stay alive, but the oxygen we take in can also help us rejuvenate and regenerate ourselves. Studies have shown that by changing the way we breathe we can reduce stress, frustration, and improve our overall quality of life. We can tap into this enormous healing potential and restore our body tissues every day via conscious and mindful breathing. It might feel easier and faster to take a pill, but with conscious and mindful breathing we can learn to activate the natural way our bodies heal just by breathing with purpose.

Every breath we take affects our heart rate. Breathing slowly increases our heart rate variability, in effect giving our hearts a form of exercise. As a result, over time our cardiovascular system becomes stronger, more resilient, and better able to respond to stress. Additional studies have demonstrated that as few as five deep breaths per minute can induce a state of mental calm, improve blood flow, and bring more oxygen to our extremities. With five of ten minutes of conscious breathing at this rate each day, your body will feel more relaxed.

The first few times you try it, the feeling might only last a short period of time, but as with anything, the more you practice the better you’ll get at it and the more lasting the benefits will be. With time and practice, you will learn to breathe more slowly and gently. Once you’ve mastered the art of conscious breathing, it will become an anchor that helps you to unify your mind and body.

In my practice I incorporate breathing techniques accompanied by visualization and body scanning in order to help my clients to immediately feel more secure and calm. Once they learn the exercises, my clients can use them at any time whenever they encounter stress, anger or sadness.

With just a little time and determination, we can all harness the power of breathing to boost health and happiness. By breathing in a peaceful, conscious manner, we can reduce chronic stress, physical pain, increase cognitive functions among many other benefits. In future articles, I will expand further on mindful breathing.