Most people breathe shallowly. They hold in their stomachs and fail to engage their diaphragms when breathing. You want to breathe slowly and deeply from your abdomen, that´s your goal. Breathing incorrectly causes more harm to your body than you realize.
Here is the very good way to work on your abdominal breathing in the comfort of your own home:
• Lie down on your back and bend your knees while leaving your feet flat on the floor. You should make a little teepee with your knees.
• Put one hand on your chest and one hand on your abdomen.
• Breathe in slowly through your nose and from your abdomen. The hand you placed on your abdomen should be rising as it expands and the hand on your chest should stay at its present level.
• It is important that you inhale from your diaphragm and allow your belly to expand. You could just stick it out but that´s not engaging your lungs, abdomen and diaphragm in the way they were intended to be used.
• Exhale through the mouth. Your exhale should be longer than your inhale.
• Practice this breathing for 10 minutes. This type of breathing is slow, about 4 breaths every minute.
• After you feel comfortable, work your way up to 20 minutes than 30 minutes a day.
This type of breathing is very effective in triggering the calming or relaxation response. Even though you are only taking a few breaths a minute you are dramatically increasing the supply of oxygen to your body.
Normally we take approximately 15 breaths a minute, when we hyperventilate we can take as many as 30 or even 40 breaths a minute. However, this type of breathing is from the chest and doesn´t allow the full supply of oxygen to reach your body. Even practicing abdominal breathing with 8 or 9 breaths a minute will produce visible results.
Abdominal breathing is a method of breathing employed by many professional singers because it supplies the necessary oxygen and lung capacity to hit and sustain those high notes.
Placing your hands on your chest and abdomen are just an aid to help you realize when you are breathing from your chest and when you are breathing properly from your abdomen. You don´t need to leave them there once you have practiced and feel comfortable with this type of breathing.
If you need assistance timing your breathing, try counting to 5 when inhaling and counting to 10 when exhaling. This counting will help ensure that you are exhaling longer than you are inhaling.
Again, once you have mastered this breathing technique you won´t have to worry about the placement of your hands although you´ll probably still want to keep them on your chest and abdomen because it serves as a nice self checking mechanism.
Breathing is not only a great source of relaxation but it can be a great source of energy as well. People who suffer from GAD in particular, often describe themselves as feeling fatigued. Fatigue can affect us all at sometime so breathing our way to more energy is great solution to try. Over time, abdominal breathing can lead to increased energy and alertness.
Anxiety and Stress – A Risk of Heart Attack?
Anxiety and stress are known to make a patient get a feeling like heart attack due to rapid pulse and shortness of breath. According to a study it is suggested that shortness of breath or rapid pulse experienced due to stress may evoke a feeling similar to heart attack and even result in serious heart troubles in the long run.
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