Breathing Exercises For Health.
To Improve Students’ Mental Health, Yale Study Finds, Teach Them to Breathe
This is just one headline in the vast array of benefits from targeted, deliberate breath training. Mental health and general wellbeing can be impacted by focused breath training. So can immune system, sleep patterns, stress response, weight management, physical training performance, concentration, blood pressure management, and happiness- legit!.... This takes nothing more than a SHIFT to intentional breathing, from the autopilot type of breathing we do all day, every day. Most of us have been breathing for a lifetime without realizing that this automatic system that keeps us alive, can be deliberately controlled to make us thrive...
Stress. We are all experiencing stress, anxiety, and fear on a multitude of dimensions. Breathing. We all do this involuntarily every day. Controlling our breath. Combats stress. Arguably the most powerful tool to activate our own internal machinery (biology) to move from an automatic stress response to a calm nervous system. Respiratory physiology. Use our own neural circuitry and neurochemistry mechanisms to activate relaxation- because we can't think our way out of stress.
Let's pause on the technical and make this personal. I tend to lead with technical, because it makes breathing as a practice legit. And it only needs to be legitimized because it is more likely you will be prescribed a drug that prescribed breath....
I have been "prescribing" breath to my patients and students for years, based on the biology, neurochemistry, and respiratory physiology I am writing about today. I have also been using breathing to treat my own stress and anxiety for years without realizing it. As a life-long competitive swimmer, one of my deepest passions is being in the water, where effort and exertion are balanced with calm surrender and the sense of being safely enveloped. Beyond that, I am in a state of rhythmic breathing and synchronicity as I move my arms through the water. This level of connection of breath, body, and movement has been a great source of stability and immersion into a deeper understanding of the value of breathwork and my own inner healing. Yoga has further invigorated my intimate connection and strength through breath. Concentrated focus on managing each breath is an immensely empowering practice. I can attribute my 4-minute handstands and arm-balance transitions to focused breath. These are not feats of strength or inaccessible practices, in fact, there is so much open access when we fully utilize our breath.
Now, a bit more about stress....because we all have stress, and it actually has a biologic purpose....
When we are in stress or panic, our breath is rapid, shallow, or holding. We are retaining CO2, which turns up stress levels even more. PRACTICE- Right here: Control Your Breath. Slower, deeper, intentional- blow off that CO2. All effective relaxation practices involve releasing CO2. So, bring conscious control to breathing to inform your brain of calm. There is real-time communication from body to brain to body. Take control and manage the way you are breathing to immediately alter your brain. PRACTICE Right here: 2 inhales, then a long exhale. Try it. INHALE - INHALE - EXHAAAALE. The double inhale expands alveoli and pulls CO2 out of your bloodstream. This simple practice is available to you all the time, wherever you are. Try it. Because remember, trying to control your thoughts doesn’t work. Use your biology and neural circuitry, evolved over thousands of years. Focused breath. It’s more than a tool right now; it’s a necessity.
No amount of strength, power, endurance, stamina, speed, flexibility, youthfulness, what you eat, how much you weigh, matters, if you don't know how to breathe well. You cannot out-exercise this paradigm, you must SHIFT your ability to breathe well.
Neurochemistry and Biology with Breath Training...So, it’s actually not about how much air you get in and out- it’s about how well you manage CO2. YOU CAN manipulate the CO2 in your blood. Breath efficiency enhances performance and makes oxygen more readily accessible to muscle tissues. Shifting your breath focus is the great equalizer. PRACTICE- Right Here-:Long EXHALE. Take control of your pattern of breathing - this IS the training. This intrinsic shift directly stimulates the phrenic nerve (diaphragm control) and vagus nerve (parasympathetic nervous system control- think calming and ease). Breath training is preventative- like going to the dentist- think of it as flossing for your body and mind.
Nasal Breathing- a must-do training.... your nose is a natural filter, trapping inhaled pathogens and killing or isolating those germs, reducing the particle deposits in the lungs, that occurs with mouth breathing. The exosomes secreted to kill germs in your nose produce T-cells, which boost your immune response, further producing Nitric Oxide (NO), which is a potent anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial agent. So, close your mouth! SHIFT your breath to your nose.
It takes practice, as simple as the few I laid out above- to SHIFT the way you breathe to directly influence your mental and physical state. You have this accessible tool (BREATH) that can transform and optimize your health and performance. This is widely known, but not widely practiced; perhaps because there is no big pharma company producing breath and no money to be made on these practices. So, take these practices and take conscious control over your breath to manage stress, improve your mental resilience, maximize your energy output, and access parasympathetic state (calm your fight or flight reactions). Optimize every breath. Learn to move your body in synchronicity with your breath.
Start here. Inhale. Exhale.
