Deep Breathing for Health & Spiritual Development

[Guest guest]

I thought some of you might be interested in this short article on

deep breathing. Full, deep breathing can have an enormous impact on

our health but, unfortunately, many of us are not able to take a deep

breath intentionally. In trying to breathe deeply, many of us end up

taking shallow breaths. Here's the article:

 

" Deep breathing is important from the standpoint of both health and

spiritual development. Deep breathing increases our vitality and

promotes relaxation. Unfortunately, when we try to take a so-called

deep breath, most of us do the exact opposite: we suck in our bellies

and raise our shoulders. This is shallow breathing. To learn deep

breathing we need to do far more than learn new breathing exercises.

Before deep breathing exercises can be of any lasting value, we need

to experience and understand through the direct inner sensation of

our own bodies the function of the chest and diaphragm in breathing,

as well as the function of the belly, lower ribs, and lower back. We

also need to observe how unnecessary tension in our muscles impedes

our breathing.

 

The Mechanics of Deep Breathing

 

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped structure that not only assists in

breathing, but also acts as a natural partition between our heart and

lungs on the one hand, and all of the other internal organs on the

other. The top of the diaphragm, located about one and one-half

inches up from the bottom of the sternum, actually supports the

heart, while the bottom of the diaphragm is attached all the way

around our lower ribs and connects also to our lower lumbar

vertebrae. When we breathe, the surface of our diaphragm generally

moves downward as we inhale and upward as we exhale. (See if you can

sense these movements periodically throughout your day.) When we

breathe fully and deeply, the diaphragm moves farther down into the

abdomen, and our lungs are able to expand more completely into the

chest cavity. This means that more oxygen is taken in and more carbon

dioxide is released with each breath. Deep breathing takes advantage

of the fact that the lungs are larger toward the bottom than the top.

 

The Impact of Deep Breathing on Our Health

 

Deep breathing can have a powerful influence on our health. To

understand how this is possible, we need to remember that the

diaphragm is attached all around the lower ribcage and has strands

going down to the lumbar vertebrae. When our breathing is full and

deep, the diaphragm moves through its entire range downward to

massage the liver, stomach, and other organs and tissues below it,

and upward to massage the heart. When our breathing is full and deep,

the belly, lower ribcage, and lower back all expand on inhalation,

thus drawing the diaphragm down deeper into the abdomen, and retract

on exhalation, allowing the diaphragm to move fully upward toward the

heart. In deep, abdominal breathing, the downward and upward

movements of the diaphragm, combined with the outward and inward

movements of the belly, ribcage, and lower back, help to massage and

detoxify our inner organs, promote blood flow and peristalsis, and

pump the lymph more efficiently through our lymphatic system. The

lymphatic system, which is an important part of our immune system,

has no pump other than muscular movements, including the movements of

breathing.

 

Deep Breathing for Relaxation

 

Many of us breathe too fast for the conditions in which we find

ourselves, that is, we actually hyperventilate. This fast, shallow

breathing expels carbon dioxide too quickly and has many bad effects

on our physical and emotional health. When our breathing is deep,

however--when it involves in an appropriate way not only the

respiratory muscles of the chest but also the belly, lower ribcage,

and lower back--our breathing slows down. This slower, deeper

breathing, combined with the rhythmical pumping of our diaphragm,

abdomen, and belly, helps turn on our parasympathetic nervous system--

our " relaxation response. " Such breathing helps to harmonize our

nervous system and reduce the amount of stress in our lives. And

this, of course, has a positive impact on our overall health.

 

Breathing Exercises Can Be Harmful to Your Health

 

Everyday we see more and more books being published outlining various

advanced yoga breathing exercises. But until we learn how to

integrate natural breathing into our lives, many of these advanced

yoga breathing exercises (pranayama) can be harmful to our physical

and psychological health. (Such exercises include alternate nostril

breathing, reverse breathing, and breath retention.) The key to deep

breathing is to begin to learn to sense unnecessary tension in our

bodies and to learn how to release this tension. This requires great

inner attention and awareness. It requires learning the art of self-

sensing and self-observation. A beneficial work with deep breathing

begins with increasing our internal awareness. Without sufficient

awareness, without great sensitivity to what is happening inside our

bodies, any efforts to change our breathing will at best have no

effect whatsoever (we'll quickly stop our breathing exercises), and

at worst will create more tension and stress in our lives and thus

undermine our health and well-being even further... "

 

Copyright 1997-2004 by Dennis Lewis

 

You can read some of the other articles and try some free breathing

practices on the website listed below to give you further insights

into the meaning of full, natural breathing.

 

With my best wishes,

 

Dennis Lewis

http://www.authentic-breathing.com