Take a Deep Breath
So many people feel “inexplicably” fatigued, run down, cloudy-headed, sick, physically weak, or a combination of these things. The good thing, though, is that it’s not inexplicable at all. In fact, everything that your body does to you is a reflection of what you do to your body. Though I’m a firm believer that your diet plays the most prominent role in dictating how you feel, there are plenty of other important factors such as the amount of sleep you’re getting, your level of activity, the amount of stress you are under regularly, and how much oxygen you’re allowing yourself to take in on a minute-to-minute basis. That’s right; I’m talking simply about the way we take every waking breath.
In a society where everyone seems to be entered in an unspoken contest to see who can hide his/her gut the most, we are subliminally discouraged from breathing deeply. Instead, most of us take what is known as a “shallow breath.” Even in my experience teaching private voice lessons and children’s choirs, the first time I ask anyone to take a deep breath, it’s not deep at all. The mouth opens wide, the shoulders raise, and the exhale takes about half as long as it should. The key to a deep breath is not in how high you can raise your shoulders, but more or less how still you can keep them. There’s more. Let me explain.
In order for us to be able to take in as much oxygen as possible, nature provided us with a muscle called the diaphragm, which sits just under the ribcage. Every time we breathe properly, the diaphragm pushes downward and outward so as to move the organs in our midsection out of the way, hence the dreaded expansion of the abdominal region. The lungs then have adequate room to expand to the best of their ability, allowing the blood to deliver as much oxygen as it can to all of the body’s organs and muscles, including the brain. When we take shallow breaths, we are depriving our entire body of one of its most vital needs.
So why do so many of us breathe improperly? As I mentioned briefly, it is a learned subconscious habit that society has helped us develop. If you watch an infant breathe, his/her stomach expands with every breath. The baby doesn’t know that our country is the fattest in the world and also the most afraid to expose any bodily flaws. That baby is simply breathing the way nature built it to breath: to obtain and to use as much oxygen as it possibly can. The same evidence is present in any human who is sleeping. Consciousness is temporarily turned off, and breathing becomes a purely biological function. The result: expansion of the midsection and a solid supply of oxygen while the body recovers from the day.
So how do you get into the habit of taking deep, life-giving breaths? Well it’s more difficult for some people than you may imagine, so here are a few tips:
-The breath comes from below. Think about the breath coming from under your belly button instead of from the top of your chest. The lower you can visualize the breath “pulling” from, the better.
-Maintain good posture. If you are hunched or collapsed, your lungs and midsection have much less room to expand. Also, if you’re standing up straight, the expansion that you may think is so detrimental to your image (it’s not; people don’t even notice) is even less noticeable.
-Breath through the nose. We have more of an inclination to raise our shoulders and take a shallow breath if we breathe through the mouth. Instead, stand up straight and inhale through the nose while making a conscious effort to avoid moving the chest or shoulders at all. I’ve found this to be a very effective method of training oneself to breathe deeply.
I encourage everyone to make it a habit to breathe the way we were designed to breathe. I think you’ll find that you have more energy and vigor, even if it’s just a slight increase. It’s even more important to breathe efficiently while exercising or doing anything active, so getting in this habit will undoubtedly give you that extra spurt of physical drive when you need it during a workout (trust me on this one). Most importantly, though, by breathing properly you are giving your body what it needs, and that is the most important concept when it comes to staying well. Treat your body in a way that is harmonious with nature and you will begin to find that you’ve never felt so alive.
Stay well,
Griffin
