BreathingTechniques

Conscious breathing

If you want to Think Positively, it’s essential to understand the basic mechanisms of breathing so that you can practise controlled or conscious breathing as often as possible.

You can go without anything to eat or drink for several days but the time for which you can stop breathing is counted in minutes. Breathing is therefore the most important living act. As you breathe, you do two things: you nourish your body (by supplying it with oxygen) and you cleanse your body (by eliminating carbon dioxide). These two functions must operate well, because excesses and deficiencies can cause serious physical problems or even death. That’s how fundamental breathing is!

Nevertheless, you have probably been breathing away, until now, without being fully conscious of what you are doing, and it’s precisely this lack of awareness that will have deprived you of the benefits of controlled breathing.

Only conscious breathing can:

l rid your body of all that excessive tension

l improve your state of health by purifying your organism

l help you to Think Positively by better oxygenating your brain.

Breathing for relaxation

To convince yourself of the benefits of controlled breathing, do this simple respiratory exercise when you feel anger or anxiety building up inside you. You can, for example, do it when you are at the wheel of your car stuck in a traffic jam, or sitting outside a potential employer’s office waiting for a job interview. Rather than getting impatient, or nervous thinking about the important meeting that lies ahead:

l Breathe deeply, clearly emphasising the two phases: inhalation (when the air is drawn into your lungs) and exhalation (when the air is expelled from your lungs).

l Prolong each of these two phases for as long as you can; then you will absorb much more air than you do when breathing unconsciously.

l On the third breath, you are going to feel all your anger or anxiety fading, and a feeling of calm flooding through you.

l You should limit this exercise to 5 breaths, because your body won’t be able to cope with excessive oxygenation.

The breathing mechanism

The first step in learning to breathe properly is to make yourself aware of what is happening as you breathe.

l Sit on a chair in a quiet place, with your back straight and your hands resting on your knees.

l Draw air into your lungs, feeling your chest and particularly your abdomen swell. Your shoulders should naturally be forced back slightly; then you should feel your diaphragm pushing downwards into your abdomen, until you have the impression that your ribcage is like a well-inflated balloon.

l When you can’t get any more air into your lungs, you should begin the exhalation phase which pushes the air back out of your lungs. Your shoulders will come forwards again, your back will bend a little and you should have the impression that your ribcage is like an empty pocket.

Note that what you have just done is very different from unconscious breathing. The fact is that you seldom breathe “abdominally”. You normally breathe with the upper part of your chest, which means that you are only using 50% of your respiratory capacity, especially if you are wearing restrictive clothing (tight belt, bra, etc.)

Learning abdominal breathing

Women often tend to breathe with the chest whereas most (but not all) men are more naturally inclined to adopt abdominal breathing. However, only abdominal breathing can get rid of excessive tension. Train yourself to do some conscious abdominal breathing several times a day. Here is a simple exercise that you can perform anywhere.

Standing up straight, place one hand under your sternum (on your stomach).

Breathe in slowly, in such a way that your abdomen swells more than your chest. Make sure you’re not using your muscles to push your abdomen out: this effect should be produced by the air you draw in, and this alone.

Practise abdominal breathing, particularly in the evening when you are lying in bed. It’s an excellent way of getting ready to go to sleep and may prevent you from having to resort to sleeping tablets.

Controlling emotions through controlled breathing

If you control the rhythm of your breathing, this can help you to gain partial control of your emotions. First of all, you should be aware that:

a)  If you are breathing normally, you take less time over inhaling than exhaling: the ratio is roughly 1:3 or 2:3.

b)  If you don’t take the time to breathe out properly, you are not expelling a sufficient amount of the carbon dioxide your body has produced.

c)  If you don’t take the time to breathe in properly, you don’t absorb a sufficient amount of oxygen, which your body needs.

d)  Deep, slow breathing is very relaxing.

e)  Shallow, rapid breathing heightens your emotions.

f)   To breathe properly: as far as possible you should breathe through your nose, holding your trunk straight, with your arms hanging down by your sides and your body free from any restrictions (no tight belts or bras).

Breathing pattern to be adopted for 2 minutes to help you to relax:

l Inhale for 5 seconds, hold your breath in for 10 seconds, exhale for 15 seconds.

l When you first do this exercise, use a watch to time the different respiratory phases until you become familiar with the rhythm; then you will be able to do this exercise whenever you feel anxious, nervous or angry.

Breathing pattern to be adopted for 3 minutes to help relieve tiredness:

l Inhale for 15 seconds, hold your breath in for 10 seconds, exhale for 5 seconds.

These extremely simple exercises can really help to improve your physical and mental well-being. If you want to take your quest for equilibrium even further, practice YOGA. This centuries-old system uses breathing (and also special postures and controlled effort) to maintain