HEALTH Take a deep breath

Take a deep breath


Yoga
Lee Kennedy

The Complete Breath, Part 2
The breath, a prerequisite for staying alive, is intimately connected to how we feel. It reflects our emotional, mental and physical states in every moment. It follows then that changing the breath, consciously, can alter these states.
Deep breathing engages an automatic relaxation response throughout the whole body. It increases cellular respiration, boosts immune-system response and improves digestion. The breathing technique described in my article last week (available at www.mayonews.ie/living)  is like filling a glass of water – first the bottom of the glass is filled then the middle and finally the top… We fill the belly with air first, then the lower rib cage and finally the upper chest. Then we reverse the action on the exhalation – first with the upper chest, then the middle rib cage and finally the belly. It’s much like the way a baby breathes.

Deep breathing tips
Never compromise your own ease; allow the full yogic breath to flow in a gentle rhythmic pattern that enables you to breathe completely, but at an easy pace. Watch as the rhythm settles in, as there may be some shorter breaths, followed by longer ones. Take an interest in the rhythm and cultivate awareness as you watch for the comfortable rhythm to arise. After a while it should simply feel effortless, as if the breath and the body have become great friends, so that the breath simply lets itself into the body without effort, and lets itself out again with ease.

Benefits
With regular practice, the full yogic breath can rapidly become second nature and you can reap some of the benefits. Deep breathing releases acute and chronic muscular tensions around the heart and digestive systems; helps sufferers of respiratory illnesses, such as asthma to overcome the fear of shortness of breath (it actually increases lung capacity!); encourages proper nerve stimulus to the cardio-vascular system; dramatically reduces emotional and nervous anxiety; improves detoxification through increased exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen; and calms the mind.
So go on, inhale deeply and get the most out of that thing that we take most for granted, the very thing that gives us life: our own breath.