Have you ever been attentive to how you breathe? When youbreathe do your shoulders move up and down, does your stomach expand andcontract? 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 yearsago, encouraged me to breathe deeply – in through my nose and out through mymouth, causing my gut to expand with each inhale and to retract with eachexhale.

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’vepracticed Yoga or TaiChi, or meditation in general, you know breathing is importantto the meditative process. By slowing our breathing, we slow our mind.

We can enter what Deepak Chopra refers to as ‘slipping into thegap’ that helps us recognize our deepest desires and detach from them so thatthe 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 panicattack, you’ve experienced the benefit of slowing your breathing to youremotional state.

Deep, slow breathing can also help us deeply feel ouremotions.

By slowing our breathing and feeling our emotions, we areless prone to judging them as “good” or “bad” and more able to simply acceptthem 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 amoment 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 wewant 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 thegrocer, at a stoplight, on hold over the telephone, for a few minutes beforeeating.

Have you been ‘waiting to exhale’? Do you find benefit from long, slowexhales?  When do you practice exhaling?