Are You Breathing Wrong?
In this episode we examine how we tend to learn unhelpful breath patterns as adults and what we can do to help to bring us back to a more instinctive breath.
You can practice with me at eqyoga.co.uk
Transcript
Vicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga. Today we're going to think about breath. And if you're breathing all wrong, well, are you breathing all wrong? The answer may well be yes. As strange as it may sound, as we get older, we forget how to breathe properly. If you watch a baby or child or even pet's breathing, you may notice that their tummy area expands on the inhale and then contracts on the exhale. Adults. Well, those that don't practice yoga anyway don't tend to breathe in the same way. Somewhere on our journey of growing up, we somehow start to think that breathing is all about getting air into our chest area with an expansion of the ribs as we inhale. Weirdly, if you ask an adult to take a deep breath, they're likely to expand their chest but suck in their tummy area. This is often referred to as reverse breathing, as it's the opposite of how natural breathing really should work. Using our chest area to breathe really reduces the capacity of air that we can intake to our lungs.
Vicky (00:01:17) - This means that we're not getting as much oxygen into our bodies, which is needed for our brain and our muscles to function well. Additionally, shallow breathing is often linked to anxiety and panic, so short, shallow breaths can signal to our nervous system that we need to switch to fight or flight mode, which isn't ideal unless there is actually a real threat present. So when and why do we lose the ability to breathe properly? I have a theory about this, and as unlikely as it may sound, I suspect that it's down to fashion, vanity, and social pressures. Now bear with me. Let me explain. When we hit adolescence, we start to become more aware of our appearance. Social pressures to look a certain way start to creep in, and we worry about how we look and what other people think of us. I have a feeling that this is the point when we change from that intuitive, childlike breath to our adult reverse breathing pattern. We start to hold our bodies differently with pressure to look slim or trim no matter what our gender.
Vicky (00:02:26) - We hold our tummy area, restricting that room that we have to breathe. Added to this, many items are clothing are fitted and require our bellies to be a little constricted. Culprits are present in clothing for everybody. Tight jeans, tights, fitted dresses and the dreaded support underwear like Spanx. Now all of these restrict our ability to breathe as tummies just don't have that freedom they need for a good deep breath. Now here I must explain that we don't actually breathe air into our bellies and tummies. There'd be a bit of a problem if we were doing that. What actually is happening is we are allowing for our lungs to expand now. Our lungs expand in all directions. They expand front to back, side to side and top to bottom. When we breathe in, the expansion at the bottom of the lungs pushes our organs down a little to make space for the air in the lung. And this is what we see happening in our tummy. That's why we get that feeling of our tummy poking out a little when we take a deep breath into that belly area.
Vicky (00:03:38) - It works the other way around too. Have you ever eaten too much and felt that it was quite difficult to breathe afterwards? That regretful last piece of Christmas pudding? Maybe that was your organs encroaching on your lungs. Space to expand. Now you may be thinking, how can I change this habit of reverse breathing now that it's so ingrained in my breath pattern? Well, perhaps it's best not to aim for changing how we breathe all the time, but to practice how to breathe differently for short periods of time but regularly. Sometimes called yogic breath breathing with a focus on the whole of the lung, can be a great way to train your brain to use all of your lungs to full capacity again. There are various methods that can be used to achieve this, but the most simple and effective that I found is to focus on the movement just in one point of your body. That is the area just a few centimeters north of your navel, sometimes referred to in yoga as the solar plexus, although that's actually a bundle of nerves at the back of the body.
Vicky (00:04:43) - I suggest wearing non restrictive clothing, finding a comfortable seated or lying position, and allow your attention to move to that solar plexus area. If it helps, you may want to gently place your hand on that area. Then all you do is start to breathe and allow your breath to gently move that area in and out with each inhale and exhale. It's great if you can let this breath happen in and out through your nose, as it lets the breath be a little bit longer than when we breathe through our mouth. It's important not to force the breath, but to keep the depth and length of the breath feeling natural and comfortable. And at all times when we're taking this yogic breath. Focus in on that gentle movement of the solar plexus. This encourages our lungs to work to full capacity, not only chest, but also down into the bottom of the lungs too. Now, using this technique, when practiced regularly, even just for five minutes at a time, you may find that your brain starts to tune in with this sense of a fuller breath, and over time, you may find it becomes your natural default breathing pattern for most of the day.
Vicky (00:05:57) - It feeds your body with more oxygen and helps you to keep your mind from triggering that stress response in the body. So for a healthier way to breathe, let's throw away our skinny jeans and Spanx pants and start to breathe like babies again. Please remember to hit subscribe and if you'd like to contact me, you can through my website eqyoga.co.uk. Thank you so much for listening.
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