How to Breathe Deeper

Take a deep breath, relax. Do you? Can you?

Often when someone tells someone else to relax by taking a deep breath, they do just the opposite and don’t relax. Most people don’t like to be told to relax. Let’s assume you are somewhat stressed, experiencing shortness of breath from minimal activity or know that you are not as healthy as you would like to be. How do you go about breathing deeper in order to reduce stress or just feel more relaxed?

I see people try to take a deep breath (usually one only) when frustrated, angry or anxious. It is usually a big gulp of air coming from an exaggerated sucking action from their mouth. This amounts to taking in one mouthful more of air for about 1 or 2 seconds.  That doesn’t really accomplish much.

Instead of the gulping air method, I suggest trying abdominal breathing. by moving the abdomen outward during inhalation, the diaphragm is engaged allowing the lungs to draw in more oxygen. Squishing the stomach muscles on the exhale pushes more of the carbon dioxide enriched air out of the lungs. Breathing all through the nose also helps with this method of breathing. If you can breath like this regularly and not just once in a while, you can gain more benefits over time. This is how babies and young children breathe instinctively; we change to chest breathing by our habits as we age.

Diaphragm movement pushes lymph throughout the body, eliminating toxic waste consequently strengthening the immune system.

Other benefits of deep breathing include:

• Improves blood circulation and oxygenation of cells
• Changes the blood chemistry to produce “happy” hormones beneficial to organs
• Toxic C02 waste is eliminated through your breath
• Stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system
• Abdominal breathing acts as a pump to massage internal organs
• Reduces mental and physical fatigue

Ok great, you now know how to breath somewhat deeper.  The other important factors is breathing slower. Why is slower better than faster breathing?

Most humans are breathing on the average, with normal activity about 12-18 breaths per minute (BPM). This amounts to very shallow breaths, using primary the top 1/3 of the lung’s capacity. Shallow chest breathing fills only the upper portion of the lungs. This reduces the ability to effectively oxygenate the circulation system.

This “over-breathing” and “under-inhaling” causes an imbalance in oxygen/carbon dioxide gas exchange. This further leads to a ripple effect of other chemical (and hormonal) imbalances.

Poor oxygenation is linked to many modern chronic conditions such as asthma, COPD, obesity, diabetes, insomnia and cancer.

• Emotions affects breathing rhythms.
• Emotions effect the sympathetic nervous system which changes the blood chemistry.
• The body releases cortisol into the bloodstream to counter stress.
• Chronic elevation of cortisol effects other bodily functions in a negative manner.

How do you get the breath to be slower? With a concentrated effort to change your breathing rhythm. Breathing is one of the few bodily rhythms that we can consciously adjust, along with sleep and elimination. All of these rhythms directly effect our body’s delicate blood chemistry. However, our breath is the root power in bringing oxygen (qi) into our body to nourish it down to the cellular level.

Sitting or standing while trying to deliberately slow your breathing rhythm is sometimes considered meditation; some just call it mindful breathing exercises. Certain activities can help to slow the breathing by just following the rhythm of the activity. Examples of this are slow walking, relaxed swimming, tai chi, qigong, yoga and Pilates.

Study the chart to see that if a deliberate effort is made to take a 4 second inhale, followed by a 4 second exhale, one can drop the breaths per minute (BPM) to 7.5 BPM.  10 breaths per minute or less activates the parasympathetic nervous system and the chemical release of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. Add a 4 second pause before and after the exhale brings the BPM even lower for more health benefits.

The following graphic might give you a better idea of the pros and cons of managing the frequency of your breaths.

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