Ask yourself, how often do you focus on your breath? Are you breathing deeply into your stomach or are you breathing shallowly? Most often with everything going on around you in your environment, you are breathing shallowly. The simple truth is, the deeper and slower your breaths, the more oxygen is supplied to your brain and body. We have all heard the phrase "Take three deep breaths". Why? Because it works in helping bring oxygen to the brain resulting in releasing endorphins to help you relax.
Did you know that your body is naturally suppose to release toxins through breathing? Up to 70%!!!But, if you are not doing it properly, you are not effectively ridding your body of the toxins. Thus, resulting in an illness.
Taking care of your organs:
Deep breaths will massage all of your vital organs in your body. Your stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, and the heart. They also need enough oxygen to function properly. So by deep breaths, you supply them with the essentials they need. Your digestive system also releases carbon dioxide which is also found in your bloodstream. By deep breathing you allow the carbon dioxide to be released from your body.
Every have any problems with digestion, stomach cramps, gas, or burping? Well when you take deep breaths, the food you intake becomes more oxygenated which will enhance the digestion of it. Also, the stomach will receive a boost and not have to exert itself.
Look at those muscles!
Are you an athlete, body builder, or aerobic performer? After working out, your muscles have either been stretched or torn. When they receive oxygen, they will utilize it toward the repairing process. Other benefits include healing soreness and helping them expand.
Releasing Tension:
How often do you get tense or have anxiety? I know I did almost everywhere I went outside of my house and even half the time I was in my house, until I learned about the power of my breath. It is such a busy world out there today, but that doesn't mean you have to become lost in it.
A really neat step you can do is to put your attention anywhere you feel stress or tension. It could be your jaw, lower back, stomach, foot, head, eyes, or even your thoughts. Now take a deep breath and imagine that area expanding. As you exhale, see it deflating effortlessly. Keep doing this until the anxiety or tension is gone. It really works wonders.
Taking deep slow breaths is what our body should naturally be doing. Then why don't we do it? Well, we spend too much time focusing on our thoughts and worries. We seem to be lost in the future of planning or resenting the present moment by trying to make it better. Face it, The awesome life that you deserve, begins in this moment that your living. Not next year and not even next week. It begins right now.
Take time to breath correctly. Listen, take it slow. When you breathe deeply, learn to breathe in slowly to where it seems almost effortlessly. Alan Watts described it greatly for me. It went somewhere along the lines of, let your body pull in the air without any effort on your part. You can literally watch your body slowly pull in air naturally. Then let your body release it as if there slight weight on your chest pushing it out
The benefits of spending at least 5 minutes a day focusing on deep, slow breaths:
- Calm mind
- Relaxation
- Clarity
- Seeing situations or current problems in a fresh perspective
- More energy
- More aliveness in your body
- Appreciation for life
- Creativity
- Releasing tension
By breathing deeply, you are releasing endorphins all across your body. The longer movements of your diaphragm will help eradicate toxins that you may have.
Fun fact: Cancer cannot survive in oxygen! So the more oxygen that is supplied throughout your body, the better you will be at killing the buildup of unwanted cells (cancer)
Here is what Richard P. Brown, M.D. and Patricia L. Gerbarg, M.D. in their book, “The Healing Power of the Breath.”
They write:
"By voluntarily changing the rate, depth, and pattern of breathing, we can change the messages being sent from the body’s respiratory system to the brain. In this way, breathing techniques provide a portal to the autonomic communication network through which we can, by changing our breathing patterns, send specific messages to the brain using the language of the body, a language the brain understands and to which it responds. Messages from the respiratory system have rapid, powerful effects on major brain centers involved in thought, emotion, and behavior."
So by taking time out of your busy day to focus on deep, slow breaths, your are making vital changes to your health, life, and the way you react to your surrounding environment.
A very good exercise to maintain your focus is the circuit breath.
As you take a nice slow inhale through your nose, imagine the breath rippling from the base of your spine all the way to the top of your head. As it reaches the top, let it naturally come to a stop. Then as you exhale, open the mouth slightly letting it gently flow out while imagining the breath gently drifting down to the base of the spine. Then repeat. Remember the best way to do this is to let the body naturally pull it in and let it naturally release out.
Next time you are feeling stressed out or worried, just remember the power of deep, slow breaths. As you begin to implement this into your daily life, you will see it take a drastic change. The life you want to live begins right now, in the most natural way. Much love, light, and blessings!
~ Randall