Connecting to the power of a function that, on average, you perform about 20.000 times a day automatically, brings many benefits. Find out about them!
Breathing: our vital act par excellence. We officially come into the world with a breath of air, the first of thousands that we take from that moment on, constantly and without interruption, until our last breath of life. But even though breathing is performing an essential function all the time, we rarely manage to perceive it in its immensity and obtain all its benefits.
Sometimes, when we dance or exercise, we hear it agitated. Before we go to sleep, we often notice it calm. When we have a cold, we remember its value. But at all other times, around 20.000 times a day, we automatically assume it. In fact, breathing expert Rebecca Dennis recently told the BBC that “as we grow older, we breathe worse.” This is because our lung capacity increases with age, so many adults take shallow inhalation, making the wrong muscle movements. The solution: go back to doing it like babies.
How? Activate your senses and start responding to you These questions are: Where does your breath come from? Do your shoulders rise when you inhale? Does the air that oxygenates your body reach your chest or your stomach? After identifying your breathing habits, repeat the action, making sure that your diaphragm and abdomen expand with each inhalation, not your thorax or chest, feeling how the oxygen travels from your nostrils to your entire respiratory system, until it is released as carbon dioxide in a gentle and slow manner.
La technique 4 – 7 – 8 It is one of the best known and simplest ways to train conscious breathing, and consists of:
- Inhale for four seconds
- Hold your breath for seven seconds
- Exhale for eight seconds
It is ideal to do this exercise for 10 minutes at the beginning of the day, in the midst of moments of stress or anxiety, and before going to sleep.
This is just one of the many ways you can receive the benefits of mindful breathing. We invite you to make this exercise a habit in your life, so that the oxygen that travels from your nose to your lungs not only nourishes each of your cells, but also softens your mind and strengthens your body.
For millennia, Eastern philosophies have given breathing a special meaning, considering it a purifying flow of energy. Today, science has demonstrated the validity of these theories. Doctor Jairo Noreña tells us that, although “Breathing is something we don’t normally worry about because we learn it automatically from childhood. Doing it consciously brings many benefits: it helps regulate blood pressure, reduces heart rate, decreases anxiety and stress levels, ensures adequate lung ventilation, improves sleep and strengthens the immune system.”
In fact, breathing can prepare our body to fight respiratory infections and common colds. Dr. Noreña explains that inside our nose there are hairs and cilia that are capable of containing viruses and bacteria. By inhaling nasally and not through the mouth, these prevent diseases from reaching our lungs. In addition, by exercising attentive and active breathing, our lung and cardiovascular capacity improve considerably, which translates into the ability to recover more quickly and effectively from respiratory illnesses.
Take and exhale consciously! Although inhaling and exhaling are involuntary impulses, like the heartbeat, unlike the seconds, we can control, lengthen, retain, train and play with this vital function, making it a powerful tool within everyone's reach to cultivate health and well-being in our lives, while connecting with ourselves.