Which Way Should I Breathe

 The perfect man breathes as if he is not breathing"

-          Lao-Tzu (circa 4th century BC)

 Breathing is the only major function of the body we can regulate ourselves. You can sit and breathe  a lot of air in and out or you can breathe very little air in and out. You can do this at will.

 So what is best?

 Which Way Should I Breathe.

 Breathing is like eating too much is not good for you. You should breathe as little as you need to in order to fulfil the body’s needs.

 This still does not answer the question. Which way should I breathe?

 Firstly always breathe through your nose. The nose filters the air very, very effectively before it reaches the lungs. The lungs can be regarded as a collection of 300 million bubbles each 0.3mm in diameter. These very small bubbles (alveoli) are waiting next to your bloodstream, ready to get the oxygen of the air into the blood. The lungs appreciate filtered air, they also appreciate the fact that breathing through the nose warms the air.

 Breathe through your nose.

 Secondly become conscious of which parts of your body move as you breathe in and out. You can breathe with movement in three different areas.

1.       You can chest breathe where the movement is high up in the chest area. Your chest moves up and down.

2.       You can belly/abdominal breathe where movement is in your abdominal area (tummy/belly). Your tummy moves out as you breathe in and your tummy moves in as you breathe out.

3.       You can do true diaphragmatic breathing. This is where movement is in the middle of your torso. Your lower rib cage/chest, on both sides of your body, moves outwards as you breathe in. This moves your diaphragm downwards sucking the air into your lungs. The sides of your lower chest move back in, as your diaphragm moves up, as you breathe out.

This true diaphragmatic breathing is the most relaxing and anti-anxiety breathing you can do. If I am relaxed and belly breathing I can get my heart rate to decrease by simply changing to true diaphragmatic breathing.

Unfortunately most people are chest breathers. This is the worst of the three options I have described. Chest breathing is not a good thing. Remember we are trying to develop a breathing pattern which is healthier and helps us deal with the stresses and anxiety that life brings us.

Chest breathing activates the sympathetic (wind up) part of the autonomic nervous system saying to your body “Get ready to fight or flight, something is going to happen” This activation of the sympathetic (wind up) is not a good thing all the time. It makes you more susceptible to stress and anxiety. Chest breathing is for exercise, “fight or flight” and emergencies, NOT for sedentary work (the office) or relaxing.

Rubbish you say!! I have always been a chest breather. Well try this little exercise which I use to show people how much different breathing styles can affect your mind and stress levels.

Think of a situation where you have become very annoyed/cross be it with your boss, road rage, the referee or just your family. Go through the story of the incident in your head for about 2 minutes. Do it twice. The first time breathe large volumes of air by chest breathing.( If you are asthmatic or have any other breathing/blood pressure problems please be very careful with this hyperventilation (over breathing)). The second time run the same story through your mind while belly breathing or if you can do it true diaphragmatic breathing.

How did you feel after each run through of the story?

This exercise shows most people how effective belly or diaphragmatic breathing is in reducing stress. Most people are much less annoyed with the incident while belly/diaphragmatic breathing. The beauty of this demonstration is the fact that there is a scientific explanation for the mental affect.

Which Way to Breathe?

1.       Nose Breathe

2.       Diaphragmatic breathing is best but if you find this to difficult do belly/abdominal breathing. Convert yourself to NOT CHEST BREATHING. Remember we are trying to increase our ability to deal with stress and not let it upset our bodies.

3.       Breathe less. Breathe only as much as your body needs.

 Bruce Large is a Buteyko Practitioner. brucel@enterprise.net  Buteyko Breathing is a method that helps people get over asthma, anxiety, stress and other conditions. Bruce uses Colour Breathing to help people to relax and slow their breathing. This slowing of the breathing is one of the first steps in learning and successfully incorporating Buteyko into people’s asthma/life control strategy.