Sometimes, when life gives us lemons, it is best to take a deep breath and move on. In fact, these deep breaths can help us relax and gain control over our mental peace. Deep breathing serves a purpose of relaxation and vitality boosting, having a great impact on the way we feel and think about the problems burdening us.
However, when most of us try to take a deep breath, we end up raising our shoulders and pulling our stomach in. This is not a good way of taking deep breaths. Rather, it is an adequate technique for taking shallow, ineffective breaths which do little to help us regain mental serenity.
The following lines will teach you everything you need to know about the benefits of deep breathing and the methods used for practicing this form of useful respiration.
How To Relax with Deep Breathing
In order to master the art of deep breathing, you need to become aware of the mechanics behind this process. Basically, deep breathing takes place from the diaphragm, being a dome-shaped structure which helps you breathe, while, at the same time acting as a physical support for the heart, separating the upper organs in our body from the lower ones.
When we inhale, the diaphragm moves lower and when we exhale it moves up a bit. Therefore, taking full breaths requires the diaphragm to move more, making it possible for our lungs to get absolutely full of air. Subsequently, the more air we let inside our lungs, the more carbon dioxide we will remove during our exhalation.
Thus, deep breathing is more than just beneficial for our overall well-being. Deep breathing promotes health, massaging and removing toxins from our internal organs. Also, deep breathing increases our blood and lymph flow through the body, boosting our immunity, making us more resistant to various diseases.
We commonly breathe too fast for the situations we find ourselves in. This results in an excessively fast expulsion of carbon dioxide from our body, leading to numerous problems related to both our physical and emotional health. On the other hand, once we concentrate on breathing deeply and slowly, following a certain pattern or a rhythm, our body relaxes and our organism reaches a state of harmony, having a positive impact on our overall well-being. Predominantly, such breathing removes our stress and nervous system problems.
However, this does not mean that you should engage in breathing exercises excessively. Rather, we first need to get used to rhythmical deep breathing, before we can introduce any kind of yoga-related breathing exercises into our lives. The breathing patterns which are used in yoga and such disciplines require inner stability and advance levels of concentration. Thus, only when we are completely aware of the processes going on during deep breathing for relaxation can we truly manage to perform these processes successfully. Otherwise, we will merely strain ourselves in vain.
So, keep health in mind during your breathing exercises and do your best to relax during these procedures. If this is not possible, do not force yourself into something which can only make matters worse.
Deep Breathing Methods
Among many possible breathing methods, some are considered to be the most productive. These involve sitting down or lying in a comfortable position, wearing clothing which is loose, allowing our body to experience free perspiration itself. From any of the two positions, you are advised to place one of your hands onto the chest and the other on the stomach.
Once you are in the position, start taking deep breaths slowly, inhaling through the nose or pursed lips so that you can slow down the oxygen delivery. During the inhalation step, make sure you press your stomach, feeling it extending under the pressure of your hand. Do the same during the exhalation procedure, squeezing the stomach in order to regulate the expelling of the carbon dioxide. Again, during the exhalation procedure, make sure that you are releasing air through the nose or the pursed lips.
When your desired session of deep breathing has ended, you are advised to repeat the process after a short break.
We have little active control over our diaphragm since we are yet to discover the ways of fully mastering our breathing procedures. Thus, we commonly neglect breathing, hoping that our organism will deal with this vital action without our interference.
However, deep breathing does not happen on its own, even though it is one of the most beneficial relaxation techniques for anxiety, removing stress, helping us concentrate and delivering adequate amounts of oxygen to our lungs, expelling the carbon dioxide in great quantity.
Nevertheless, do not forget to go through the deep breathing exercises carefully. Many types of yoga require previous experience with deep breathing and practicing these without the necessary knowledge may lead to injuries or some other health complications.
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