Tuesday, June 24, 2014

10 benefits of deep breathing

. 10 benefits of deep breathing

Deep Breathing should be a part of our everyday life. It not only can lengthen the years that we get to live, but can make us happier, more productive and energetic living them too. Breathing deeply is a well-known stress reliever and has a multitude of health benefits as well. However, in our high stress busy lives, we often breathe very shallowly most of the time. But with a little effort, deep breathing can become an easy and unconscious part of our daily life. By making a conscious decision to focus on our breath for a part of each day, we can make it so that we regularly breathe deeper without having to think about it at all.  

Deep Breathing makes you calmer. Breathing deeply and feeling calm is your natural state. Deep breathing naturally relaxes the mind and  body. Breathing deeply is the fastest way to stimulate the
parasympathetic nervous system, aka the relaxation response, which  makes you feel relaxed. Stress is at the core of most diseases and most of us live stressful busy lives, which is commonly accompanied
with shallow breathing. When we breathe shallowly, the body does not receive as much oxygen as it needs and it makes our muscles constrict. You can almost feel this tightening when you are stressed or tense.
The sympathetic nervous system is triggered when we feel stress or anxiety and sends out spikes of cortisol and adrenaline. It is the parasympathetic nervous system which counteracts this and breath is
the fastest way for these two systems to communicate. With deeper breathing you can turn the switch from high alarm to low in seconds. Remember if you ever feel anxious to breathe deeply. Pay attention and
you can feel the peace coming in and the tension being released as you
simply (but deeply) breathe in and out.

 

2. Deep Breathing helps to detoxify the body. Our bodies are designed
to release 70 percent of its toxins through breathing. Carbon dioxide
is a natural toxic waste that comes from the body’s metabolic
processes and it needs to be expelled from the body regularly and
consistently. It gets transferred from the blood to our lungs and we
expel it with our breath. However, when our lungs are compromised by
shallow breathing, the other detoxification systems in the body take
over and have to work harder to expel this waste. This overload can
make the body weaker and lead to illness.

3. Deep Breathing relieves pain. Studies have proved it yet when we
feel pain our instant unconscious reaction is to hold our breath.
Remember that breathing deeply and breathing into pain will help to
release it. Deep breathing releases endorphins which are the body’s
natural feel good pain killers.

4. Deep Breathing makes you happier. Breathing deeply will increase
the neurochemical production in the brain and release more of the ones
that elevate moods and control pain.

5. Deep Breathing helps to improve your posture. Bad posture is often
directly linked with incorrect breathing. Try it yourself and as you
practise breathing deeply watch how you naturally straighten up.
Filling your lungs encourages you to straighten your spine and stand
or sit taller.

6. Deep Breathing stimulates the lymphatic system. The lymphatic
system is a crucial system in our body that most of us are fairly
unaware of. We know much more about our circulatory systems but we
have twice the amount of lymphatic fluid in our body as we do blood.
Our circulatory system relies on our heart to pump it, while the
lymphatic system relies on our breathing to get it moving.  The blood
pumps oxygen and nutrients to the cells and once they absorb what they
need they excrete their waste back out into the sea of lymphatic fluid
that our cells constantly swim in. The lymph fluid is responsible for
ridding the body of the debris the cells excrete and also dead cells
and other waste. As our breathing is what moves the lymph, breathing
shallowly can lead to a sluggish lymphatic system which is not
detoxifying properly. Deep breathing will help get that lymph flowing
properly so your body can work more efficiently.

7. Deep Breathing increases our cardiovascular capacity. It gives many
of the same benefits of exercise and can enhance the benefits you get
from exercise.  Aerobic exercise (cardio) uses fat as energy, while
anaerobic exercise (strength training) uses glucose as energy. By
expanding our cardiovascular capacity from deep breathing we can do
more cardio easier, which also increases our cardiovascular capacity
and burns more fat cells as well.

8. Deep Breathing gives you energy.  Drawing air deeper down into the
lungs greatly increases blood flow as this is where the greatest
amount of blood flow occurs, according to the American Medical Student
Association. This increases energy and also improves stamina. The
higher oxygen content of the blood, which  cleanses the body and all
its cells of debris and toxins, along with better circulation, better
sleep, stress reduction, your body working more efficiently, and all
that goes along with these naturally gives you lots more energy.

9. Deep Breathing improves your digestion. More oxygen is supplied to
the digestive organs and thereby helping them to work more
efficiently. Deeper breathing also results in an increased blood flow,
which in the digestive tract encourages intestinal action and will
further improve your overall digestion. It addition, deeper breathing
results in a calmer nervous system which in turn also enhances optimal
digestion.

10.  Deep Breathing strengthens the major organs of the body, such as
lungs and the heart. Deep breathing expands the lungs and makes them
work more efficiently. It also brings in more oxygen to the blood
which gets sent to the heart and makes it so that the heart does not
have to work so hard to deliver oxygen to the tissues. Also, with the
lungs working a little harder pushing out oxygen into the blood it
eases the pressure needed by the heart to pump it through the body.
This improves your circulation and gives the heart a bit of a break.

Bonus: 11. Deep Breathing helps to regulate weight. If you are
underweight, the extra oxygen will help to feed the cells and tissues.
If you are overweight it will assist with weight loss. The extra
oxygen in the body will help to burn up excess fat more efficiently.
When we are stressed, and most of us live day to day in a fairly
stressed state, your body tends to burn glycogen instead of fat. Deep
breathing triggers the relaxation response which encourages the body
to burn fat instead.



Source : http://www.robinskey.com/10-benefits-of-deep-breathing/

No comments: