Breathing is life! That life is fueled by the oxygenation (breathing) process which cleanses the cells with every inhalation and filters out toxic carbon dioxide from the body with every exhalation. Breathing is so necessary to our existence that we took our first breath in our mother's womb. The great we breathe, the more efficiently our bodies will function. Elementary instruction schooled us that breathing was an involuntary action, implying everyone was born breathing the right way.
Really?
Like most things in life, the truth is not as unavoidable as it first appears. Studies show as habitancy age the reality of life causes them to breathe shallowly when they should breathe deeply. This stress-induced shallow breathing habit exacerbates existing harmful stress in people's bodies and could prematurely take their breath away (no joke intended) for good, unless proactive steps are taken. It is high time habitancy re-learned to breathe with their bellies, not just their chests, like newborns. Deep and aware oxygenation is the right way to wellness, per experts.
Thank goodness, achieving deep breathing proficiency is easy, it takes awareness and practice. "The simplest and most considerable technique for protecting your health is de facto free - and de facto right under your nose," according to Harvard trained Dr. Andrew Weil and author of the Bestseller 'Spontaneous Healing'. This is part of the healthy Body healthy Mind movement gaining traction in the medical field.
Studies show allowable breathing techniques conduce to thriving rehabilitation and administration of discrete diseases such as asthma, depression, high blood pressure, high (bad) cholesterol, headache, anxiety, phobia, chronic fatigue, etc. However, the same studies cautioned these benefits shouldn't be supplanted for your doctor's rehabilitation and prescription.
Experts vouch great oxygenation skills are also sufficient in helping habitancy plainly fall asleep, improving good mood and sexual pleasures. Granted I've not read it, on a lighter note I say this: Oh Yeah, there's a book out there subtitled: "Breathing Exercises for Heightened satisfaction and Deep Intimacy" in bed. There you go, my friend! Eat your heart out on that one; don't be shy. And don't ever say I never did anything for you. Do I still have your undivided attention? Let's get back on track. Ha..ha..ha!
But seriously, what is stress, any way?
"Stress is your body's way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. When habitancy feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood. These chemicals give habitancy more vigor and strength, which can be a good thing if their stress is caused by bodily danger. But this can also be a bad thing, if their stress is in response to something emotional and there is no outlet for this extra vigor and strength", per the Mountain State town for Independent Living.
The main types of stress are:
1.Survival Stress uses "fight or flight" reflexes to talk to danger in habitancy and animals.
2.Internal Stress is when you're confronted by things you have no control over or worrying for no apparent reasons. Some habitancy take this to dizzying heights. They are worrying addicts who worry themselves to sickness.
3.Environmental Stress is when your surroundings breed the stress. This is global but is virtually unavoidable in African cities where poor sanitation, ubiquitous noise and air pollution from vehicles and their non-stop loud horns, exhaust fumes, generators, overcrowding, work and family pressure, fear of armed robbers, kidnappers, assassins, bombers, sectarian violence, vehicular crashes caused by bad roads and drivers, abject poverty, etc.
4.Fatigue and Overwork stress takes time to obtain before it starts to emit deadly toxins straight into one's blood stream and ravages one's body from inside out. Working in an air-conditioned environment or living in relative luxury won't forestall one from being a victim. Google and read my well-received article: Working Until You Drop In America, Is It The Best Way To Live? This is a difficult stress to avoid because habitancy feel it's beyond their control. Many of us abroad are afflicted because we select to be all things to all habitancy both here and in Africa,forgetting that "weta suya, weta suya, o bu n'ahu nama" or we're only humans.
Breathing exercises are highly recommended stress relievers because:
They can be practiced any where.
They work rather quickly.
They are Free.
They take very little institution to learn.
They enrich your blood with oxygen as you inhale and remove harmful carbon dioxide as you exhale.
They can be used before, during, and after any stressful situation.
They can effectively reverse accumulated stress to mitigate the harmful effects of chronic stress.
Renowned Western medical doctors Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra continue to accomplish overwhelming work in teaching these holistic approaches to great health. Monumental benefits stem from the unavoidable methods of our ancestors. We're so eager to discard our good former ways (in favor of contemporary medicine)that we forget to explore their merits. Keep the good ones! Both the Chinese and the Indian maintain theirs, why not Africans?
Please note, I'm neither a medical doctor nor do I play one on the Internet. When it comes to the numerous things I don't know, I listen to and learn from the experts, and do my own study prior to adopting any recommendations. Even for things I know something about, I still keep an open mind to learn more to add to my repertoire; I advise you do the same to maximize what you get out of this article.
When, not if, you find these deep breathing exercises helpful as I did, pass it send to others now; don't hoard it or take it to your grave! You don't have to be Md or Rn to spread the word, especially to those with little access to good medical care in Africa. After all, it was an Indian engineer (not Md)who enlightened me a few years about the benefits of allowable breathing exercises. everyone should dare to make a unavoidable impact, albeit small. Yes you can! It was one lunatic from Aba, Nigeria, who ingenuously uttered in a composition of Igbo and English languages that, "ama m ihe n'abia na hour na hour". English for: anything can be a purveyor of wisdom.
Conduct your own experiment by checking your blood pressure (Bp) before and then after thoughprovoking in some deep breathing exercises. Try it, you will be amazed.
According to the town for Disease control (Cdc), one out of every three American adults (the number could be higher for Africans) have high blood pressure and many of them don't even know it because Hbp is a silent killer. Lives would be saved via instruction and allowable diagnoses in Africa where some deaths and mysterious sickness are falsely attributed to voodoo, juju, poison, or witchcraft.
To improve diagnosis starting from your home, every family should own and ordinarily use a good (not the cheapest) blood pressure monitor (Bp) to ascertain each member's perfect Bp story. Take the reading while laying down and several times a day and chart the reading whether manually or use the computer ware that come with the great Bp monitors. Play active role in your wellness in partnership with your physician. Though useful, the snippet Bp reading taken at your doctor's office may not be frequent sufficient to contribute perfect picture of your Bp. Moreover, the 'White Coat syndrome' could skew Bp reading the Doctor's Office.
Importantly, consider donating a few battery-operated blood pressure monitors to habitancy in your own community or town in Africa, if you can afford to do so. They are relatively cheap and are easy to operate. If everyone one of us abroad donates just two Bp monitors, costly lives will be saved. None of the governments that we often complain about, or any personel (but yourself) can stop you from doing this good deed. The countless African associations in Diaspora can play a unavoidable role in this area. Such meaningful projects are easier and more transparent to administer thereby fostering verifiable deeds. Let us all take this uncomplicated proactive portion to help our habitancy while they and we are alive. Wake-keeping is wasteful "medicine after death."
Uncontrolled Hbp claims its victims in rather miserable ways. Children and adults alike are afflicted. "High blood pressure and cholesterol are two major risk factors for heart attacks, strokes, and linked vascular diseases, which kill more than 800,000 Americans each year - more than any other condition", per Cdc. Who knows what the numbers are in African countries.
Wellness coach Elizabeth Scott stated "breathing exercises bring overwhelming benefits because they can reverse your stress response, which, if chronically triggered and not reversed in a timely manner, can lead to chronic stress. This can de facto wreak havoc on your body. [Breathing Exercises are] 'golden' stress relief strategies that work simply, easily, and are sufficient for virtually everyone.
Start your day with 15 minutes of belly breathing. This will help relax your mind and muscles and help you power through stress that crops up while the rest of your day, says Woodson Merrell, Md, of the agency of Integrative rehabilitation at Beth Israel medical Center. The morning is de facto when our bodies feel the most stressed, because it's when we're transitioning from inactivity to performance and producing the top levels of cortisol". This may justify why strokes and heart attacks often occur in the early morning hours.
A Breathing Exercise: While maintaining unavoidable reasoning attitude by replaying a peaceful events in your life, sit tall at the edge of a bed or in a chair. Breathe in for a count of four, pause a moment, then breathe out partly via your mouth for a count of six. Repeat a few times. How do you feel? It becomes easier with practice.
As your deep breathing skills improve, up the ante by breathing in deeply but gradually through your nose and counting to six. Hold your breath and count to four. Then exhale gradually through your mouth while you count to eight. The rational is by exhaling more breathes (8 of count) than you inhale (6 of count), you fully cleanse all the toxic carbon dioxide (stale air) in your lungs. It takes time and practice; remember Rome was not built in a day!
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. After reading this article, watch this 4-minute YouYube video of the bellows breathing by clicking on: breathing Youtube video or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe2pgNp3jBq
If you google "breathing exercises" and read some of the findings on the Internet, you might think studying to breathe properly is the panacea for all that ails humankind. I don't know about such claims, but there's no denying the benefits of great breathing techniques.
In closing, modern studies show the first four months of each year are when most stress-related illnesses are diagnosed. Also, they are the deadliest for strokes and heart attacks and depression, after the chickens have come home to roost. The calculate could be, many of us tend to come to be extra stressed even as we over-eat, over-drink, and over-spend while the preceding ('Ber) months with the holidays. The health benefits of socializing while the holidays ameliorate the terrible statistics some.
A Breath of Fresh Air, Literally: Breathe Deeply, It's Good For You!