Breathing is one of the most important functions you perform. Simply put, if you don’t breathe you die. That aside, breathing is the most important component to relaxation.
Balancing Act and Breathing
The balancing act between how you feel – your emotional side, your spiritual component, and your physical dimension are all constantly in a state of flux. That is a given. Life is not static but is in constant motion. And how you breathe is a reflection of the state you are in.
Notice how you breathe when you are excited about something. Do you hold your breath? Or when you are angry, does your breathing rate increase? When you are ill, have you noticed that your breathing is different from when you are feeling well? Or when you are calm and relaxed, is your breathing slower? And so on… Each breath you take can reflect how you feel and how you are feeling.
Breathing Vital to Feeling Well
Breathing is a vital component to healing and feeling well. It can also reflect a state of illness, disease or feeling unwell. It is the bridge between your emotional, spiritual and physical components.
There are breathing patterns that indicate how you are feeling. Observe your breathing when you are in a relaxed state – or observe a child or pet sleeping — you will notice the natural, undulating muscle ripple from the lower abdomen to the top of the body.
Now if you are engaged in an activity or under stress, you may notice your breathing comes more from your chest.
Belly Breathing a Relaxed State of Breathing
A relaxed state of breathing comes from the abdomen, while chest breathing reflects that you are cognitively engaged or under stress. Both breathing rhythms are important. But many people have lost the ability to “belly” breathe.
In fact, many people use only a small portion of their lung capacity. By improving your breathing, you can tap into that feeling of calmness, that relaxed state, and increase your energy level.
How you breathe is a direct relationship to how you feel internally and externally. It is this connection that plugs you into who you are and how you interact in your environment. In turn, who you are and how you interact in your internal and external environment reflect how you breathe.
Think about it. How are you breathing right this moment? Are you holding your breath? Or, did you just take a deep breath and released it slowly?
If you have, you have started on a path of increased awareness… by being aware of your breathing you may find that you become more aware of how you are feeling, and in turn how you are living your life and how your life fits in with those closest to you, your family, friends, community, society, and yes, the Universe.
You are not an island. Your lives are part of something bigger. Everything you do touches something and someone. And hence affects something and someone.
Think about. Positive gives positive. Negative gives negative. Health gives health. Wellness gives wellness. Each living being is part of a whole.