We can go weeks without eating, days without drinking, but only a few moments without breathing.
Such a simple thing, which we have always done, unconsciously, yet so much underestimated.
We are taught a thousand things in life: how to hold a fork, tie your shoes, cross the street, math, ... but no one has ever taught us to breathe.
Still, learning to breathe properly and deeply can change your life.
One thing we learn from an early age is to hold our breath when we feel an unpleasant or painful emotion that we don't want or we don't know how to handle. In this way, these painful emotions, instead of being experienced, processed and let go, are stored in the physical body.
Furthermore, holding your breath does not allow proper oxygenation of the body, which leads to poor vitality, tension, anxiety, depression and even tumors.
We live in a constant state of alert where our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is always overloaded. We breathe badly because we are tense and we are tense because we breathe badly.
So what to do?
It is actually very simple. We learn to breathe.
Breathing deeply has a myriad of benefits, starting with releasing those painful emotions you had hidden under the rug; brings greater oxygenation to the organs, restoring vitality and balance; alkalizes the blood better than water and lemon in the morning; eliminates toxins; improves blood and lymphatic circulation as well as facilitating access to states of altered states of consciousness (more on this in another post).
You can try a little exercise right away.
Sit with your back straight, hands on your knees, close your eyes.
Watch your breath. Inhale and exhale through your nose.
Breathe with your belly. When you inhale the belly swells, when you exhale the navel goes towards the spine.
Inhale and exhale deeply.
Keep doing this for a few minutes and notice what happens.
How do you feel?
Breathing in this way activates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) thus allowing your body to regenerate.
Take a few minutes each day, several times a day, to observe your breath and breathe mindfully and start noticing the difference.
See you soon
cinzia