Abdominal Breathing is a Simple Tool for Stress Relief
Abdominal breathing, AKA belly breathing, gives you resources to calm down and generate energy. I'll explain why from a physiological point of view and also from an energetic Chinese medicine point of view. Once you understand why it works, I'll show you a simple way to breathe deeply.
Breathing proves that you're alive. As a baby you breathed into your tummy. Watch any new born and you'll notice what they do is quite different from what you do. Abdominal breathing is therefore, natural.
Do you notice what you do when you're in pain (emotional and physical)? You probably hold your breath. Well, this makes the pain worse. So, I remind people to breathe. As I work on my clients and they're resting during their treatments, I often remind them to breathe deeply. It makes the treatment better as they become mindful and in the present.
So how does deep breathing calm you down? Here's a quick biology lesson. Your cranial brain consists of two parts. One is the corticol brain which corresponds to logic and thinking. The other part is the limbic brain which corresponds to emotions and feelings.
From your limbic brain, many nerves go through your face and all over the body. But the longest nerve in the body, called the vagus nerve, starts there. Then it goes to your organs and ends underneath your belly button where it explodes into millions of nerve endings. The heart and gut are two of the most important organs it connects to.
When you do abdominal breathing, you stimulate the millions of nerve endings in your gut and eventually your body releases high concentrations of oxytocin. Oxytocin is known as the 'love' hormone. And The heart releases quite a bit of it.
Oxytocin increases your feeling of well being. It calms you down and relaxes you, keeping you centred and focused. This is why happy feelings come from the heart. No wonder babies are often so happy!
Signals are sent to the brain to lower the heart rate and/or blood pressure. That’s when you’re relaxed. This is physical evidence of the mind, body, and spirit connection.
In Chinese medicine, the breath is one of two components of energy creation in your body. When mixed with the energy (nutritive qi) from nutritious food and drink, energy (qi) for the body is produced. Then the Lungs spread qi around the body. So the more air you get into your body, the better and the more abundant the energy you create. There's more to energy production, but this explains the importance of deep breathing.
How to breathe, then?
• Stand or sit up straight. • Shoulders set back and then down. Really pay attention to your posture. Too many people walk around with their shoulders at their ears. • As you inhale, try to keep both your shoulders and your chest down. • Breathe in through your nose. • And bring that breath slowly right down into your stomach. • So your stomach inflates like a balloon. That's how you know you've brought your breath all the way down. • Hold it for just a split second. • Then slowly, let out your breath, through your mouth. • Make a noise as you exhale, like a sh or haw sound • Notice the balloon in your stomach deflate. • Take as long as you want.
Do these breaths in sets of three. Do several sets in one time. But remember, go slowly. If you inhale and exhale too fast, you could hyperventilate, become light headed, which is no fun at all and does the opposite of calming you down! Remember to become conscious of your breath throughout the day. When you become aware of your breath, practice abdominal breathing and relax.
You can do abdominal breathing as a preventive action or you can do it whenever you really need it to calm down. Now, it's best that women do this all day long. Men should so abdominal breathing later in the day, after work.
Register NOW To Get The Video Course "How Stress and Energy Levels Are Related!" For Sustainable Personal Energy
Sign up now.
In these videos I'll reveal to you what human energy really is, how it's created, and how to sustain it. The bottom line is, the more you learn, the more energy you'll have.
"May I say I found your voice very soothing, very warm and humanely... I do think I suffer from "blocked" energy, as I haven't been well in the last 2-3 years and I am trying to regain my balance these days. I found your pages and video very helpful and personally would like to thank you for the work you have done. Lots of love from England."~ Deniz, England.
In my ezine, Just be Young, I'll teach you real life tips about how to deal with and eliminate stress from your life. I'll never tell you to soak in a bath!
