Have you ever been attentive to how you breathe? When you breathe do your shoulders move up and down, does your stomach expand and contract? Does your chest move slightly? How many breaths do you take a minute? Have you ever watched a baby breathe while they sleep?
Body:
A natural medicine doctor I visited in Hong Kong many years ago, encouraged me to breathe deeply – in through my nose and out through my mouth, causing my gut to expand with each inhale and to retract with each exhale.
Once I got the hang of it, this process helped my shoulders, stomach, and back muscles to relax. I noticed improved digestion, decreased cravings and emotional eating, and increased lung capacity when exercising.
Mind:
Taking long, deep, slow breaths also slows the mind. If you’ve practiced Yoga or TaiChi, or meditation in general, you know breathing is important to the meditative process. By slowing our breathing, we slow our mind.
We can enter what Deepak Chopra refers to as ‘slipping into the gap’ that helps us recognize our deepest desires and detach from them so that the universe takes care of the rest.
We can more readily, “let go, let God.”
We can live in the present.
Spirit:
If you’ve every hyper-ventilated or experienced a panic attack, you’ve experienced the benefit of slowing your breathing to your emotional state.
Deep, slow breathing can also help us deeply feel our emotions.
By slowing our breathing and feeling our emotions, we are less prone to judging them as “good” or “bad” and more able to simply accept them for what they are – feelings.
We get to decide how we will honor and respond.
Our thoughts and feelings do not control us. They do, however, offer us the gift of insight. When we slow our breathing and take a moment to exhale, we have the opportunity to listen to the secrets our body, mind, and spirit hold for us – about who we are, what we desire, and how we want to ‘be’ in the world.
In practice:
Being constantly alert to our breathing can be taxing, especially at the beginning. So, I find moments to exhale – in line at the grocer, at a stoplight, on hold over the telephone, for a few minutes before eating.
Have you been ‘waiting to exhale’? Do you find benefit from long, slow exhales? When do you practice exhaling?
Hi Janet, there are times when it seems like I forget to breathe and then I take a long slow breath. I love that your holistic view to self-care and to achieve the full benefits we need to tie in our mind, body and spirit. Without the three aligned we can never be 100% healthy. Enjoying your series. x
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Sue – isn’t it lucky that our bodies know how to breathe at least enough to keep us alive when we forget?! I’m delighted you are enjoying the self-care series. And yes, I do find giving attention to all three provides the most bang for the buck! Thanks for joining the conversation!
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Great reminder! Thanks Janet.
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You are welcome!
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I do practice yoga and it has taught me how to breathe better. I need to remember to use breath at other times of stress!
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Isn’t it such a simple thing that we can so often forget? Hopefully, you aren’t facing too much stress though! Thanks for joining the conversation.
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Hi, Janet – Breath is so simple, so important and so easy to overlook.
Thank you for the reminder to exhale — and to do so deeply!
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You are welcome. And yes, isn’t it so simple – and so easy to forget. We all need reminders here and there. Thanks for joining the conversation.
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My counselor taught me to practice exhaling because of my anxiety. It really makes a difference!
The Multicolored Diary
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So good that you found something to help with your anxiety! Isn’t it interesting how sometimes a very small thing can have such a big impact? Thanks for joining the conversation.
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You are on a roll! So far this A-Z theme has been about simple ‘no-brainer’ concepts that somehow we’ve managed to forget about. This is another one.
I’m having a rather frantic grouchy day. I’ve read this post, taken a few deep breaths and now I have a smile on my face. Woo-hoo. Sometimes we just need a nudge to do the obvious 🙂
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Joanne, I’m sorry you’re having a frantic grouchy day and I’m so happy that this little nudge helped put a smile on your face! Sometimes we do just need a gentle reminder. I’m delighted that you’re finding this A-Z theme engaging. I hope I can keep it up. Remember, honor the ‘grouchy’ – it is telling you something! Thanks for joining the conversation!
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Now you just made me laugh out loud – “honour the grouchy”!! YES! That’s going to be my new motto 😆
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