Since the very first moment of our life, we've known how to breathe. Nobody had to explain us how to do so. We just knew. But as the time passes, we often lose the natural abilities we used to have. We forgot how to be feel happy because of the little things around us, we forget how to communicate naturally and create relationships. The same thing is happening to the breathing - we forgot how to breathe naturally. We either push our breath over the natural limits or we're not able use the full capacity of our lungs. The right breahting techniques can help us to calm down our body and our mind, to get rid of stress, fatigues as well as headaches :)
Before we start ... I want you to know that I'm definitely not telling you to think about your breathing ALL THE TIME - if you breathe slow or fast enough, strongly or gently enough ... Rather take this posts an an inspiration for your yoga and meditation practise, where you can focus on your breathing a bit more. By practising these techniques, they will get to your subconscious and you won't think about the way you breathe at all.
Before we start ... I want you to know that I'm definitely not telling you to think about your breathing ALL THE TIME - if you breathe slow or fast enough, strongly or gently enough ... Rather take this posts an an inspiration for your yoga and meditation practise, where you can focus on your breathing a bit more. By practising these techniques, they will get to your subconscious and you won't think about the way you breathe at all.
Natural limits
If you breath "normally", your breath is probably kind of short. If someone talls you to "take a deep breath", we usually imagine the medical examination so we take a very fast deep breath that only creates tension in our head. We're pushing our breath over its natural limits and we think that we're doing it correctly. So how can you find your natural limits? Inhale slowly and notice when you tend to stop. When you start feeling like you have to "help" your breath to go even further, you're getting to the point where you're starting to create tensions in your body and mind.
So sit down with straight spine (if you have problem with that, you can sit by the wall, but you should really try to sit straight), keep your shoulder down and the rest of your body relaxed. Close your eyes. Breathe in quietly - you shouldn't even hear your breath. Breath easily, freely and very slowly. The breath will stop on its own. From that point, you'd have to push your breath to get it further - and that's exactly what you don't want to do. Instead, hold your breath for a short moment then exhale - easily and slowly. Repeat for few more breaths and then try to breathe the way you're used to breath on medical examination. The first way of brathing should be relaxing and calming compared to the second one, which creates tension.
Posture
So sit down with straight spine (if you have problem with that, you can sit by the wall, but you should really try to sit straight), keep your shoulder down and the rest of your body relaxed. Close your eyes. Breathe in quietly - you shouldn't even hear your breath. Breath easily, freely and very slowly. The breath will stop on its own. From that point, you'd have to push your breath to get it further - and that's exactly what you don't want to do. Instead, hold your breath for a short moment then exhale - easily and slowly. Repeat for few more breaths and then try to breathe the way you're used to breath on medical examination. The first way of brathing should be relaxing and calming compared to the second one, which creates tension.
Posture
Our breath is affected by our posture a lot. Let's try another exercise - sit down with hunched back and shoulders pushing up. Keep your head slightly down and try to take few breaths. The breath will be slightly strangled, short and you'll feel tension in your temples. Now try to sit with straight back, open chest, relaxed shoulders pushed downwards and straight head ... the breath will get longer and much more relaxed.
Diaphragm breathing
Imagine a situation when you're stressed or scared of something. Where does your breath go? To the chest. If we breathe in to the chest, our natural breath is shorter and more closed. Unfortunatelly most of us breathe like this most of the time. Again, this way of breathing prevents us from relaxing our body completely so so we have to find a better way.
The natural breath is heading to our diaphragm - to the belly. When you breath in, your belly is rising, when you breath out, the belly comes down.
Lie down on your back, put your hands on your belly and try to breath into a place about 2 fingers above the navel - this place is called hara in yoga. Notice how you belly comes up and down when inhale and exhale ...
Imagine a situation when you're stressed or scared of something. Where does your breath go? To the chest. If we breathe in to the chest, our natural breath is shorter and more closed. Unfortunatelly most of us breathe like this most of the time. Again, this way of breathing prevents us from relaxing our body completely so so we have to find a better way.
The natural breath is heading to our diaphragm - to the belly. When you breath in, your belly is rising, when you breath out, the belly comes down.
Lie down on your back, put your hands on your belly and try to breath into a place about 2 fingers above the navel - this place is called hara in yoga. Notice how you belly comes up and down when inhale and exhale ...
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