Practice Belly or Diaphragmatic Breathing

by | Oct 13, 2014 | Body

Practice Belly or Diaphragmatic Breathing

Diaphragmatic Breathing – What could be more natural than breathing? It may sound surprising, but most people don’t know how to breathe.

Which is a shame because proper breathing can do wonders for stress and digestion.

Not only that but breathing incorrectly can produce tension and lead to exhaustion.

Diaphragmatic Breathing - healthy lifestyle fitness sporty woman running early in the morning in forest area fitness healthy lifestyle concept

The truth (unfortunately) is that most of us are shallow breathers.

This is a problem because shallow breathing leads to poor oxygenation of our blood (breathing oxygenates every cell of our body).
Poor oxygenation means that our body is not able to function optimally – everything from our muscles to our metabolism.
Therefore, the easiest way to get more oxygen into your body and in every cell of your body is… to breathe properly!
Proper breathing dramatically increases exercise endurance and mental clarity elevates your mood and helps the body detoxify more efficiently.
For those of you who have practiced yoga, you’ll know that there are many ways of breathing – I am going to focus on diaphragmatic breathing.
Diaphragmatic breathing, or deep breathing is breathing that is done by contracting the diaphragm, a muscle located horizontally between the thoracic cavity and abdominal cavity. Air enters the lungs and the chest rises and the belly expands during this type of breathing. Diaphragmatic breathing is also known scientifically as eupnea, which is a natural and relaxed form of breathing in all mammals. Eupnea occurs in mammals whenever they are in a state of relaxation, i.e. when there is no clear and present danger in their environment. –Wikipedia

Belly or diaphragmatic breathing is a completely different way to get oxygen to your cells from a physiological standpoint.

This breathing is deep; it causes your belly to push out rather than your chest to rise up.

This breath is accomplished primarily by the contraction of your diaphragm, a muscular umbrella at the bottom of your ribcage that separates your chest and abdomen – it pulls air in and gently massages your internal organs in a rhythmic way.

This is the way children breath, and it’s how we were meant to breath pretty much all of the time.

This triggers the parasympathetic nervous system for rest and repair.

Diaphragmatic Breathing - Beautiful Healthy Girl lying on summer field with flowers. Outdoors. Enjoy Nature. Healthy Smiling Girl on spring lawn. Allergy free concept. Freedom. Happy person outdoor

Here’s how to get started with diaphragmatic breathing:
1. Assume Proper Posture: Stand (or sit up) straight and drop your shoulders back and down. Or even lie down.
2. Inhale slowly through your nose trying to get the air down as far as possible into your belly.  (Your belly will push out, that is normal).
3. Pause for a second or two.
4. Exhale slowly through nose (This should last twice as along as inhalation).
5. Repeat 10 times.
6. Ideally every few hours….but three times a day would be a great start.
 I suggest practicing diaphragmatic breathing for 10-15 breaths three times a day (just before you go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning and half way through the day).

A great ratio is 1 count in, 4 counts hold, 2 counts out. So this may look like, count for 4 in, hold for 16, breathe out for 8.

I challenge you to try it – I bet you will actually feel your stress levels diminish after just a few deep breaths!

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