December 8th, 2008 | by Riki Quinn

In today’s speedy, high-strung environment, where we want and need everything right away and right now, it’s not easy for us to relax. In fact our bodies have become so accustomed to this abuse that even when we do have time to relax, our bodies just refuse to let go. Hence the epidemic of high blood pressure, heart attacks, obesity and other diseases caused by things that are too much and too fast. What we used to do naturally, just nothing, is now considered a waste of time or laziness. But by constant stress we’re killing ourselves.

So if you want to live longer and healthier you have to teach your body what it already knows. Relax! If you think about it, everything in our body is a cycle of tension and relaxation. Even our heart is only actually contracting half of the time. If our body didn’t take the time to empty itself and relax there would be no life. So here is my first tip to help you relax.

Breathe!

Yes, I know, of course, that you are breathing all the time, or else you wouldn’t be reading this at all. However, it has become one of those things that we take for granted. We don’t think about our breathing and so, most of us don’t breathe correctly. Our cells are simply not getting the oxygen they need to work properly.

So what is the correct way to breathe, pray tell. There are a number of opinions. The most common says that we should breathe in the most natural way. And what is more natural than breathing like babies do.

If you have ever watched a baby sleep, and were not just focused on how cute it’s little cheeks and little fingers are, you would notice that when babies breathe, either their stomach alone moves or their stomach and chest move up and down simultaneously. However, when you tell your 7-year-old to take a deep breath, what does he do? He puffs up his chest as much as he can.

According to many, this is incorrect. We should be breathing “from our stomachs” like babies. This actually means that we are focusing on extending our diaphragm when breathing in, which causes our stomach to expand, as opposed to focusing on expanding our chest. Truthfully, breathing requires both the extension of the diaphragm and the expansion of the chest. When trying to breathe deeper it is easier for us to expand our ribcage, a more external organ, than to extend our diaphragm which is more internal. Thus, in teaching “correct” breathing we focus more on diaphragm breathing because we are less aware of it and a lot of us have trained it out of our bodies once we reached the “age of reason”.

So, a first step in getting more oxygen to your cells is this: take a few minutes out of your very busy schedule. And I don’t want to hear that you don’t have time for this. Who doesn’t have 3 minutes? Now, sit in a comfortable chair or lie in your bed (it is ideal to do this as you are going to sleep, it can help you fall asleep faster and sleep better). Think of your stomach. Ideally think of a point that is two fingers under your navel (this point is called the dan tien in Chinese and is the main energy point in the body, it being in the center). To make it easier put your hand lightly on this point.

Now, breathe in and try to fill up your tummy, and have it push your hand up. Do this slowly. Try to count to four as you breathe in, and then breathe out freely. Do this a few times each day at a set time, like when you go to sleep, on your lunch break or when your driving or riding home from work/school. Or, better yet, do it whenever you happen to think about it. The more you practice diaphragm breathing the more naturally you’ll do it without even thinking about it the more your body will get the oxygen it needs to relax.

image credit: peasap

Tags: baby sleep, deep breath, heart attacks, high blood pressure, relaxation, stress

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Build Yourself, Live in Balance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.