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Insights Foundation Inc. 501(c)(3)
2701 Harbor Blvd E2-53
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
ph: 949.723.5255
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The stresses of everyday life tend to affect the way we breathe. Often this becomes a vicious cycle, where faster breathing can increase tension, which in turn can increase breathing and so on. If we learn the most relaxing ways of breathing, it can be positive for our short and long term health and well-being. When we are particularly stressed and not thinking clearly in a focused manner, taking a short break and practicing focused breathing can help us relax. For reducing stress, short periods of as little as 3-5 minutes, as needed during the day may be sufficient.
To attain relaxation through proper breathing, the objective is to lower your breathing rate to about six breaths a minute, with a longer time of expiration, that is breathing out, than inspiration, or breathing in.
When this is practiced regularly, it begins to unconsciously carry over to a better breathing pattern the rest of the time.
"Within a few weeks, the deep breathing exercises can help lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure — the top and bottom numbers in a blood pressure reading. The theory is that slow, deep breathing reduces activity in the part of the nervous system that controls blood flow (sympathetic nervous system), which allows blood pressure to return to normal.
As long as you continue doing the breathing exercises, you're likely to enjoy the effects on your blood pressure. If you stop doing the breathing exercises, your blood pressure is likely to increase again."
Sheldon G. Sheps, M.D.
Mayo Clinic Emeritus Hypertension Specialist
roper Breathing Technique
Breathing is best done through the nose. The air we breathe is warmed, moistened and filtered as it passes through the nasal passages. People with allergies and colds, who are mouth breathers, find that their mouths become dry, because the mucous membranes lining the mouth are not designed to work nearly as well in this regard.
The lungs fill with air when the chest cavity expands. Many people think of doing this by raising their upper chest; but in fact the chest cavity expands better and more fully when the diaphragm does its work. The diaphragm separates the chest from the abdominal cavity. Proper breathing involves expanding the lower part of the chest, so that the diaphragm descends and air is pulled down towards the bottom of the chest, filling the lungs entirely. In order to see if you are breathing properly, put your hands on your sides, at the bottom of your rib cage. When you breathe in, you should feel your hands being pushed outwards as the bottom of your chest expands. You may also note your abdomen pushing outwards as you breathe in. Another way to get used to this is to put your hands behind your head; now as you breathe in, you will notice that you can’t really raise your chest very much, but your breathing will be done lower down in your chest.
Breathing in is the active or excitatory phase of the breathing cycle. It requires some muscular effort; and it is important that this muscular effort include the lower part of the chest. Breathing out is more passive; unless you are asthmatic it requires no significant muscular effort. It is the relaxing phase of the breathing cycle. During inhalation the heart rate speeds up, and during expiration it slows down. In relaxation techniques, you should focus on feeling muscular tension flow out of your body as you breathe out. Some techniques have you imagine that you are breathing out through your heart; and even though this is not what is really happening, using that visualization seems to help many people to relax mentally.
Breathing Technique for Reducing Stress and Helping to Lower Blood Pressure
Focused slow breathing can help to reduce stress. Over the ages this has been found to be true. Yoga tradition teaches breathing technique as a way of relaxing. Meditative techniques often focus on breathing. Modern medicine has found that slow focused breathing is useful in relaxation and in lowering blood pressure.
We all know how to breathe; but there are breathing techniques that help us to achieve specific desired effects. We know that inspiration (breathing in) is the ‘excitatory’ phase of the breathing cycle; and expiration (breathing out) is the relaxing phase of the breathing cycle. We know that in general, slow breathing, with a longer expiration than inspiration, affects our Autonomic Nervous System and moves us from more of a Sympathetic predominant state to more of a Parasympathetic predominant state. You may read more elsewhere on the Autonomic Nervous System; for the moment it is enough to say that when we are in a Parasympathetic predominant state, we are more relaxed mentally, and more relaxed physically. The physical relaxation tends to carry over to the smooth muscle that is in our arteries, so that our arteries tend to be less ‘tight’ and our blood pressure may be lowered by 10-15 ‘points’ (‘mmHg’).
During our normal day, the stress of everyday life tends to affect us. The Central Nervous System, the ‘newer’ part of the nervous system that is more concerned with the world outside of us becomes predominant. That part of the nervous system is closer to the Sympathetic, or activity part of the ANS. Our breathing tends to speed up somewhat, and often we get into a more inspiratory breathing pattern. Things like caffeine, nicotine news reports and our work contribute to this largely stressful breathing pattern. It tends to become self-continuing.
Fortunately, even short pauses during the day, as few as 4-5 times for as brief as 3-5 minutes can carry over to keep us more relaxed. To help with with better blood pressure readings, we suggest four 15 minute sessions during the day. The more we focus on our breathing, the more we tend to temporarily shut out the outside world and go into more of an ANS predominant state; and as we spend more time on expiration than on inspiration, we tend towards a Parasympathetic state. Just short frequent breaks in this mode can carry over to the rest of the day
PURPLRFIRE — February 20, 2008 — Of course, everyone alive breathes, right? Yet,9 out of 10 Americans breathe inefficiently, putting their health at great risk. Relearn How to Breathe for better life and health from Ayo Handy-Kendi, CEO, PositivEnergyWorks, Breathologist and Stress Manager. www.myspace.com/breathepositiv
Most people do not breathe correctly. Considering that breathing is something we do 24/7 to keep us alive it is odd that we do not breathe in an efficient way. Most of us are shallow breathers and this creates a whole gamut of problems. Breathing exercises can strengthen the muscles we use to breathe and allow us to get the most bang for our breath.
Read more: The Effects of Breathing Exercises | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5084611_effects-breathing-exercises.html#ixzz0uG1HCIw1
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Insights Foundation Inc. 501(c)(3)
2701 Harbor Blvd E2-53
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
ph: 949.723.5255
helping