Natural Breathing

Not so long ago, women fainted for just about everything. A mouse, sudden noise, bad news; down they went. People still faint, but clearly a lot less, why? Well, when we get startled or frightened our bodies produce adrenaline, which alerts every muscle we have to get ready to fight or to flee. Subsequently, we need more oxygen to "feed" our muscles. In order to accomplish this, we need to breathe in more air. We start to use our lungs more fully and breathe more frequently. Makes sense right? However, there was a time that women wore corsets, very tight corsets, which only allowed them to breathe very superficially. Result: in times of stress their bodies did not get the oxygen they needed, they became light headed, dizzy--and fainted. Still, even without corsets, many people do not use the full capacity of their lungs and breathe shallow. When they are under stress, they tend to become nervous and panicky--partly due to lack of oxygen. That’s why it is so important to breathe the natural way: always breathe from the abdomen and expand the rest of your lungs when you need more oxygen. Do you breathe the natural way? Well, let's explore. Put your hand on your abdomen; what do you feel? Do you feel movement? And what happens when you are stressed? Did you know that mindful breathers can reduce their stress by changing the way they breath?  Become a mindful breather and help your body remember the natural way of breathing. This week, claim time to reacquaint yourself with the three movements of Natural Breathing: belly breathing, median chest breathing and shallow breathing. Practice the exercises below in bed before you go to sleep and before you get up in the morning. Almost everyone breathes from the abdomen in the early morning. Be gentle, and only practice for a couple of minutes at a time.    1. Abdominal Breathing or Belly Breathing ► Relax the belly muscles and concentrate on your abdomen. ► Inhale through the nose, bring the air to your abdomen and feel your belly rise. ► Breathe out calmly through the mouth and gently tense your belly muscles. Continue with phase one until you can do it without any effort. Check the movements by putting your hand on your belly, just under your navel. 2. Median Chest Breathing ► Inhale by expanding your rib cage ► Exhale by contracting your rib cage Check the movements by softly pressing your hands against the sides of your rib cage. When you expand your rib cage, your stomach muscles may tighten up a little bit. That's Okay. Your body might have forgotten what it once did, naturally. But with a little training, your body will soon remember.   3. Shallow Breathing ►  Inhale by raising your sternum (chest bone) ►  Exhale by lowering your sternum Check the movements by putting one of your hands on your sternum.  4. Full Breathing ►  Inhale calmly; raise your abdomen, followed by your rib cage, and sternum. ►  Exhale by lowering your abdomen calmly, followed by contracting your rib cage, and lowering your sternum.  5. Natural Breathing The above exercises help you rediscover the movements of full breathing. The main message is that you always breath from your abdomen. When you are truly relaxed, you will notice that your breathing is low: your belly goes up and down, while your chest remains at rest. This is natural. When you need more oxygen you will start using more of your lungs by moving your rib cage and sternum as well. All this will happen naturally. Do the breathing exercise every day before going to bed, until you have mastered "Natural" or "Full Breathing."  Monitor the way you are breathing throughout the day for the rest of the week. Check regularly. How do you breathe during calm moments and stressful moments? Just monitor and gently deepen your breathing. Whenever you feel that you are becoming tense, check the way you breathe. Take a deep breath and relax your body. Think of something pleasant and bring your breathing down to your abdomen. This is a very effective way to relax and regain control.     Mrs. Bridgewater Many years ago, John touched me on the shoulder after a workshop on self-esteem. He told me about his mother, who lived alone and was too scared to go outside. Apparently, she hadn’t been outside the house for almost three months. John shared that the situation was almost impossible, especially since he was the only child who lived in the same town. He almost begged me to do a house visit to assess the situation. I agreed, and a week later I rang the bell of a small town house. John opened the door and led the way through a long hallway. In the living room, he introduced me to his mother. She was in her early eighties, she looked healthy and offered tea. After the initial small talk, I asked her to go to the front door. Immediately, panic broke out. Her muscles tightened, sweat appeared on her forehead and her shallow breathing became very fast. It seemed like a typical case of agoraphobia. Mrs. Bridgewater was extremely afraid that she would get a panic attack when being outside in the public.  I met with her weekly for six weeks. At first, I concentrated on her breathing. During guided relaxation exercises, she learned how to breathe more deeply. For homework, she did her breathing exercises three times daily. In the meantime, I asked her--under hypnosis--to walk through the long hallway to the door, while maintaining natural breathing. During 20 short hypnotherapy sessions over a period of five weeks, she pictured herself opening the door, standing on the sidewalk, walking to her son’s car, sitting down in the passenger seat, riding through town and walking into my practice. In a deep state of relaxation, she would do the baby steps in her mind, while holding her hand on her belly and breathing deeply.  The big day arrived. She already had been standing at the door opening on several occasions, but that day she made it back and forth, from her house to my practice. During the whole trip, she kept one hand on her belly to check her breathing. Of course, there were still a few more issues to be addressed, starting with the secondary gain of having her grocery shopping done for her and her son visiting her every other day. Luckily, John was willing to continue to do this for another month and slowly tapered off after that. During his visits, he took his Mom on small trips. And during her weekly visits at my office, she was able to process some underlying mental scars. A year later, I received a postcard from Mrs. Bridgewater and son from a vacation trip at the shore.       YOU ARE PART OF A COMMUNITY     Take a deep breath. How does all this resonate with you? Questions? Comments? We love to hear!     Go to the Village and share your thoughts. In the Village, go to the forum to join this week's discussion.   The link will take you to the inter-active section of our website for which you need to sign in. Signing up takes 20 seconds. You will get your own page, but it's up to you whether you put any information on it.

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