Consious Breathing: Quiet Your Mind and Change Your Life
http://www.TarotReadingSecrets.com/articles/225/1/Consious-Breathing:-Quiet-Your-Mind-and-Change-Your-Life
By
Published on 07/20/2011
MEDITATIVE BREATHING RELIEVES STRESS AND IMPROVES HEALTH
Martial arts practitioners, yoga instructors and Lamaze coaches all know the value of deep, healthful breathing. Conscious breathing is a natural breathing technique in which you’re fully aware of every breath you are taking, merging your inhalation and exhalation with your conscious awareness.
MEDITATIVE BREATHING RELIEVES STRESS AND IMPROVES HEALTH
Martial arts practitioners, yoga instructors and Lamaze coaches all know the value of deep, healthful breathing. Conscious breathing is a natural breathing technique in which you’re fully aware of every breath you are taking, merging your inhalation and exhalation with your conscious awareness.
This simple act, which can be done almost anywhere at any time, can lower your blood pressure, relieve stress and actually give you better health and more energy.
Most of us don’t breathe correctly. For years, I never realized that there was anything wrong with the way I breathed – I inhaled, I exhaled, I was alive, what was there to think about? But breathing brings oxygen to our blood vessels, and we breathe shallow, short breaths, we don’t oxygenate our blood efficiently.
Toxins build up, we feel sluggish and sad, and nothing heals as well as it should. But breathing consciously – just breathing! – can improve your health and well-being in the most fundamental of ways!
BREATHING WITH PURPOSE
The first thing you need to do to breath consciously is to find a quiet, comfortable spot where you can sit uninterrupted. Close your eyes and breathe slowly in through your nose while counting to five. Don’t think about anything in particular, just focus on your breathing. As thoughts come into your head, allow them to flit past and go away. You only want to think about your breathing right now.
As you focus on your breathing, you’ll feel your worries and stresses falling away. Before this happens, however, you may find deep emotions bubbling up to the surface unexpectedly. This is natural – by consciously breathing, you're telling your body that it's safe for your stress and bad emotions to exist, and that you can handle them, and that you’re willing to let them go.
Because by concentrating on nothing but breathing, you’re living in the present moment and letting go of past worries. Your body will be grateful for this moment of perfect peace, and the longer you can stay that way, the better!
The technique is similar to many meditative practices like visualization and mindfulness, as it helps to create a balance that allows you to handle future stress in a more efficient way.
When your body learns that you’re willing to regularly allow the stress and anxiety that you hold in each day a chance to be acknowledged and set aside, it will handle stress in a healthier fashion.
BREATHE THE WAY THE YOGIS DO
Conscious breathing is an important element in yoga, and there are a number of methods that practitioners recommend. Three of the most common are Savasana, Nadi Sodhana and Deergha Swasam.
Savasana (corpse-pose breathing): Lie on your back with your palms upturned at your sides and your entire body relaxed. Inhale and exhale deeply and deliberately through your nose, paying attention to the rise and fall of your chest and stomach, and to the sound of your breathing. Feel your lungs expel each breath, then concentrate on the air rushing in to expand your lungs fully.
The reason this works well is that, when you lie on your back, your diaphragm can expand and contract to its fullest. If you can’t lay on your back comfortably (or you’re not somewhere with a convenient place to lie down) you can do this exercise while seated with your head resting on a table or your desk.
Nadi Sodhana (alternate-nostril breathing): Press your right nostril closed with your right thumb and inhale through your left nostril. Then, close your left nostril with your right ring finger and little finger, and at the same time remove your thumb from the right nostril and exhale through it.
Then inhale through the right nostril, then close the right nostril with your right thumb and exhale through the left nostril. Be thoughtful and focused with each inhalation and exhalation – each should last between four and eight seconds.
The name means "purification of channels" and it seems complicated at first, but it’s really not. Yoga practioners believe that alternate-nostril breathing restores balance to brain function, and scientists have tested it.
They found that when one nostril is blocked, brain activity increases on the same side. Apparently, breathing helps stimulate our brains!
Deergha Swasam (three-part breathing): Sit with your spine erect and your stomach relaxed. Then, all in one breath – inhale completely, filling up your midsection, the area of the diaphragm, and your chest, allowing the upper chest and the shoulders to rise. Then thoughtfully release the air, emptying your upper chest, your mid-chest, and finally from your diaphragm and midsection, sucking in your stomach muscles to force out the last bit of air.
This technique is effective because by drawing a full, deep breath uses your abdomen, diaphragm and chest muscles, exercising them and fully oxygenating your lungs.
Whichever technique you use, conscious breathing definitely helps to relieve stress, providing necessary oxygen to your blood vessels and helping to bring you peace of mind. Give it a try!
MEDITATIVE BREATHING RELIEVES STRESS AND IMPROVES HEALTHMartial arts practitioners, yoga instructors and Lamaze coaches all know the value of deep, healthful breathing. Conscious breathing is a natural breathing technique in which you’re fully aware of every breath you are taking, merging your inhalation and exhalation with your conscious awareness.
Conscious Breathing: Quiet Your Mind and Change Your Life!
MEDITATIVE BREATHING RELIEVES STRESS AND IMPROVES HEALTHMartial arts practitioners, yoga instructors and Lamaze coaches all know the value of deep, healthful breathing. Conscious breathing is a natural breathing technique in which you’re fully aware of every breath you are taking, merging your inhalation and exhalation with your conscious awareness.
This simple act, which can be done almost anywhere at any time, can lower your blood pressure, relieve stress and actually give you better health and more energy.
Most of us don’t breathe correctly. For years, I never realized that there was anything wrong with the way I breathed – I inhaled, I exhaled, I was alive, what was there to think about? But breathing brings oxygen to our blood vessels, and we breathe shallow, short breaths, we don’t oxygenate our blood efficiently.
Toxins build up, we feel sluggish and sad, and nothing heals as well as it should. But breathing consciously – just breathing! – can improve your health and well-being in the most fundamental of ways!
BREATHING WITH PURPOSE
The first thing you need to do to breath consciously is to find a quiet, comfortable spot where you can sit uninterrupted. Close your eyes and breathe slowly in through your nose while counting to five. Don’t think about anything in particular, just focus on your breathing. As thoughts come into your head, allow them to flit past and go away. You only want to think about your breathing right now.
As you focus on your breathing, you’ll feel your worries and stresses falling away. Before this happens, however, you may find deep emotions bubbling up to the surface unexpectedly. This is natural – by consciously breathing, you're telling your body that it's safe for your stress and bad emotions to exist, and that you can handle them, and that you’re willing to let them go.
Because by concentrating on nothing but breathing, you’re living in the present moment and letting go of past worries. Your body will be grateful for this moment of perfect peace, and the longer you can stay that way, the better!
The technique is similar to many meditative practices like visualization and mindfulness, as it helps to create a balance that allows you to handle future stress in a more efficient way.
When your body learns that you’re willing to regularly allow the stress and anxiety that you hold in each day a chance to be acknowledged and set aside, it will handle stress in a healthier fashion.
BREATHE THE WAY THE YOGIS DO
Conscious breathing is an important element in yoga, and there are a number of methods that practitioners recommend. Three of the most common are Savasana, Nadi Sodhana and Deergha Swasam.
Savasana (corpse-pose breathing): Lie on your back with your palms upturned at your sides and your entire body relaxed. Inhale and exhale deeply and deliberately through your nose, paying attention to the rise and fall of your chest and stomach, and to the sound of your breathing. Feel your lungs expel each breath, then concentrate on the air rushing in to expand your lungs fully.
The reason this works well is that, when you lie on your back, your diaphragm can expand and contract to its fullest. If you can’t lay on your back comfortably (or you’re not somewhere with a convenient place to lie down) you can do this exercise while seated with your head resting on a table or your desk.
Nadi Sodhana (alternate-nostril breathing): Press your right nostril closed with your right thumb and inhale through your left nostril. Then, close your left nostril with your right ring finger and little finger, and at the same time remove your thumb from the right nostril and exhale through it.
Then inhale through the right nostril, then close the right nostril with your right thumb and exhale through the left nostril. Be thoughtful and focused with each inhalation and exhalation – each should last between four and eight seconds.
The name means "purification of channels" and it seems complicated at first, but it’s really not. Yoga practioners believe that alternate-nostril breathing restores balance to brain function, and scientists have tested it.
They found that when one nostril is blocked, brain activity increases on the same side. Apparently, breathing helps stimulate our brains!
Deergha Swasam (three-part breathing): Sit with your spine erect and your stomach relaxed. Then, all in one breath – inhale completely, filling up your midsection, the area of the diaphragm, and your chest, allowing the upper chest and the shoulders to rise. Then thoughtfully release the air, emptying your upper chest, your mid-chest, and finally from your diaphragm and midsection, sucking in your stomach muscles to force out the last bit of air.
This technique is effective because by drawing a full, deep breath uses your abdomen, diaphragm and chest muscles, exercising them and fully oxygenating your lungs.
Whichever technique you use, conscious breathing definitely helps to relieve stress, providing necessary oxygen to your blood vessels and helping to bring you peace of mind. Give it a try!
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