Practice Your Breathing and Upgrade Your Vibration
Are you Breathing Correctly? Are You Kids Breathing Correctly?
The question, “are you breathing,” seems kind of silly when you’re an alive person fully conscious and upright. Obviously you’re breathing to some degree because you’re alive. Obviously your children are breathing because they are alive…right? Breathing is a funny thing though, because it’s both a conscious effort and it’s a subconscious effort and it is often overlooked when considering the health and well-being for both an adult and a child.
Improper Breathing Will Cause Dis-Ease & Anxiety
When the body isn’t receiving the oxygen needed to function the cells become anxious. Anxiety is an epidemic. According to the website Mental Health Stats, 20% of adults are diagnosed with anxiety. This doesn’t include the kids, teenagers, and adults that aren’t officially diagnosed, but know that they live with the burden of anxiety. Most of the time anxiety is treated with drugs, but I can’t help but wonder if their breath was considered before they were prescribed a lifetime of chemicals? Probably not.
Anxiety in the body will affect the mind because they are not separate.
There are 3 major breathing issues that I recognize with people on the day-to-day in my chiropractic office as well as in passing in public. These can be corrected, just like anything else, with awareness and practice.
Shallow Breathing - Shallow breathing is exactly how it sounds. You are inhaling and exhaling but the breath is shallow and not oxygenating the complete surface of the lungs. If you think of your lungs as 2 large balloons that inflate and deflate with each breath, shallow breath doesn’t inflate them much at all.
Because there is a minimal supply of oxygen to the vital organs, the body prioritizes the little oxygen it receives and disperses it accordingly, leaving your muscles deprived. This is why so many people struggle with neck and upper back tension and pain. There is a severe deprivation of oxygen to those tissues.
Reverse Breathing - So this is a very common problem that causes anxiety in the body and then translates to the mind. A correct inhale will bring oxygen in through the nose or mouth, fill the lungs with air, push the diaphragm down, and the belly will protrude. Then, it will be followed with the air flowing out of the lungs, nose/mouth, and the belly will contract. Please check in with yourself and your family! Is this how everyone is breathing?!?!
Holding Your Breath - Yep. That’s it. You forget to breathe and hold your breath. This is often a subconscious result of stress. Catching yourself doing this is the first step to making a change. Outside stressors do not improve by withholding breath. If anything they will only get worse because you don’t have the oxygen needed to adapt to them internally, so practice by gently telling yourself to breathe when you catch yourself in this pattern. Do not beat yourself up about it or judge yourself. Kindly remind.
Prana is the Vital Life Force
Prana is the vital/life force. It makes up the entire universe. When you breathe, you take in prana. It enters the lungs, gets diffused into the bloodstream and it enters every area, the physical, vital, and mental. Every cell in your body vibrates with new life force.
You get prana from from food, water, the sun, the air, etc. You can live many weeks without food, days without water, but only a fraction of a second without prana.
Pranayama literally translates to restraint or control (ayama) of the life force (prana). By controlling the breath, you can control the prana, not only within, but also without.
Deergha Swasam - Yogic 3 Part Breath
Deergha Swasam is a 3 part breath that utilizes the full capacity of the lungs. It incorporates the diaphragm, which is at the midline of the torso in the belly, the lungs which are in the rib cage and chest, and all the way up to the apex of the lungs, which are located at the level of the collarbones/clavicles. By doing this breath, your lungs are filled and emptied thoroughly, allowing 7 times more oxygen and prana into your body, as opposed to a normal breath.
The 3 parts of the breath flow together as one complete breath.
It begins with slow exhalation and the belly contracts…
1. Now inhale slowly into the lungs allowing them to fill with air…
2. Continue the inhalation as you fill up lungs, expand the rib cage…
3. Continue the inhalation allowing the upper chest to expand until the collarbones rise very slightly.
To exhale, let the breath move out in the reverse order of inhalation.
1. The air moves out to drop the collarbones…
2. The air continues to move out to gently contract the chest…
3. The air continues to move out to gently contract the abdomen.
Repeat for 2 - 5 minutes.
Deergha Swasam is an ancient breathing technique and can be found in the book, Breath of Life: Integral Yoga Pranayama by Sri Swami Satchidananda.
The yogis understood the importance of the breath for the mind-body, and spirit and it was part of their lifestyle. I simply want to bring this old information to you today to share with your family.
Nerve Regulation and Breath
Breathing is also intimately connected to the nervous system. Your breath is one of the few functions of the body that happens automatically but can also be consciously controlled. Because of this, breathing can become a powerful way to influence your autonomic nervous system—the part of your nervous system involved in regulating physiological functions such as heart rate, digestion, blood pressure, and your response to stress. Slow, comfortable breathing, especially with a relaxed diaphragm and longer exhalation, can help shift the body away from a constant “fight-or-flight” state and toward a calmer, more regulated state.
It’s also important to point out that breathing does not happen separately from the spine. With every breath, your spine and cranium should move and expand ever so slightly. When posture is poor or areas of the spine and rib cage are stiff and restricted, taking a comfortable, expansive breath may become more difficult. This is one reason many reasons why chiropractic, breath, movement, posture, spinal function, and nervous-system regulation should be considered together rather than as completely separate pieces of health.
Why Chiropractic Care Matters for Nerve Regulation
Chiropractic care is important because the spine provides protection and support for the spinal cord, which serves as a major communication pathway between the brain and the rest of the body. When the spine dysfunction and not moving well, when joints are restricted, or when surrounding muscles are holding excessive tension, the body will have a more difficult time breathing and responding efficiently to everyday demands. Cypress Chiropractic care focuses on evaluating spinal movement, nerve function, joint function, posture and the how how the whole person matters when getting to the root of pain, discomfort, disorder, and disease.
A chiropractic adjustment is not intended to “control” the nervous system or treat every health condition. Rather, it helps open up the nerve channels, it improves joint motion, reduces musculoskeletal tension, and provides the body with clearer communication between the mind-body so that breath happens more efficiently.
So, check in with yourself throughout the day. Check in with your kiddos. Do you find yourself breathing dysfunctionally? If so, change practice on changing those patterns now so you can have a better more healthier future.
Thanks for reading.