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Article by: Shawleen
Breathing is one of the most important parts of your daily life. It is a natural process which you do every second without even noticing and it is essential for the survival of every living being. However, many people don’t know the benefits of it, how simple breathing exercises can relieve stress, anxiety and even improve overall health.
How does breathing work? When you breathe in, your diaphragm contracts and moves downwards to increase the space in your chest cavity so that your lungs can expand into it. Air travels down your trachea then into bronchi and then bronchioles and finally into your alveoli, where gas exchange takes place. Oxygen diffuses into your blood capillaries surrounding the alveoli which can be transported to all parts of your body. When you breathe out, your lungs deflate as space in the chest cavity decreases due to the relaxation of your diaphragm and carbon-dioxide is released.
Hence, when we take slow, deep breaths, we increase the amount of oxygen delivered to our brain and by this we activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which helps to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. In addition, deep breathing triggers the release of endorphins which is a hormone to combat feelings of pain and stress as well.
There are several types of breathing techniques you can follow to focus on different parts of improvement in your body but most importantly you can make your lungs more efficient and increase its capacity. Furthermore, breathing is in charge of the cleansing of about 70% of toxins from your body.
Shallow breathing is what contributes to anxiety, these rapid breaths come directly from the chest. However, there are several breathing exercises to help with this and a simple breathing exercise can be done anywhere anytime by just inhaling slowly, deeply through your nose and then exhaling slowly through your mouth, and repeating this until you feel better.
So, the next time you feel overwhelmed or stressed, remember to take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Breathe in, breathe out, and let go of all your worries.
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