Basic breathing techniques

The Importance of Breathing

Breathing can be described as our inherent respiration, of which we are often not aware. Yet, this action helps us greatly since, logically, without breathing air, we cannot possibly exist. Therefore, these are reasons enough for the justification of this life-giving action. However, often, most of us do not breathe properly, or use smaller portions of our lungs in order to reduce breathing to a minimum, without even being aware of this fact. Nevertheless, proper breathing is crucial for the proper functioning of our organism. Both physical and mental aspects of our existence, rely greatly upon proper respiration. We need to enable our body enough oxygen while expelling sufficient amounts of carbon dioxide. If this does not happen, we are bound to experience some negative effects, often reflecting on our physical and mental health as well. Therefore, improper breathing may lead to many different illnesses, spanning from depression all the way to heart problems.

How To Breathe Properly?

First of all, you have to relax. Therefore, lie down in a comfortable place like a clean bed in a peaceful room and start breathing, remaining conscious of the action. Note that you should not influence the breathing patterns of yours in any way. Only, you need to be aware of them and activate your consciousness during the action.

Then, to relax even further, you might start counting in your mind, during your breathing exercise. Namely, two numbers per inhaling and two following numbers while exhaling. You might continue this action until you count to 100, or you might stop somewhere before this number.

The next exercise is done while sitting with your back straight. Then, you are to breathe in while counting to four, hold your breath while counting to four again and breathe out. This way, you will distribute oxygen to all parts of your body.

Additionally, you might consider practicing deep breathing. This type of breathing involves our diaphragm instead of chest, during breathing. Lie down in a comfortable position, place your hand on your diaphragm area, which is the part of your stomach below the bellybutton, and start breathing deeply, so as to feel your hand being lifted while inhaling and lowered while exhaling.

Finally, you might involve your chest into deep breathing when you lie down on the ground, with your hands and legs widely spread and breathe stretching your chest during the process. Make sure you expand your lungs and contract them completelyafterwards.

Yoga also has many breathing techniques which may be useful for these purposes. You might try to breathe relaxed and then suddenly breathe quickly and forcefully, or inhale through one nostril and exhale through the other. There are more Pranayama exercises of this type and if you are interested, you can look further into them.