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Breathing for life - are we suffocating ourselves?

How are you breathing right now?  Are you taking in full, deep breathes?  Short, shallow pants?  Holding your breath even?  I’ve noticed my own breath getting so shallow recently I thought I was going to stop breathing altogether!

Life can sometimes seem like a big competition - a race to the finish line of achievement, with the focus on who has the nicest car, the best career, the most perfect body, and so on. We spend our time seeking that end goal, striving toward the future, always looking for tomorrow, and restlessly just getting through today.
                                               
With the current economic crises and stress levels at an all time high, how many of us stop to take a breath in the moment and just enjoy the getting there? It's so easy to get caught up in our very fast-paced lives, when what we really need to do is slow down for a minute and learn to find peace in the here and now. I know I am guilty of this all the time.

Breathing is a process categorised as "unconscious" by most medical texts, yet many of us need to relearn how to breathe properly - both consciously and fully. It is our unawareness of this life function that may sap us of life-giving energy.

Don't Hold Your Breath

Breathing incorrectly for three minutes is enough to lower the amount of oxygen to the brain and heart by 30 percent. If this goes on for years, there's an increased risk for conditions ranging from chronic headaches, digestive disturbances and neck, back and shoulder pain, to more serious illnesses such as high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma and chronic fatigue. In fact, some experts estimate that improper breathing can be associated with 50 percent to 70 percent of all diseases.

Emotional reactions also affect our breath: fear, anger, sadness and low self-esteem can make us hold or limit our breathing patterns. However, breathing fully can have a positive effect.  It helps move these emotions through the body, instead of allowing them to constrict our breath, tighten our muscles, and affect other systems and organs in the body.

Full, relaxed breathing can, among other things, improve our resistance to stress, lower blood pressure, improve sleep, ease pain, and help release muscular and emotional tension. It can calm and focus us. Studies have shown that when the breath is relaxed, brain-wave patterns change, the mind quietens and the body relaxes.

Be Here Now

Beyond the physiological perks, there's an emotional and spiritual benefit to conscious breathing. We can use it to remind ourselves we are here now, in this body and in this moment, not pondering in the past or worrying about the future. There's peace to be found in being present: as we focus on our breath and our bodies, we can also focus on our emotions and regaining perspective.

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who has written numerous books and lectured worldwide on meditation, peace and mindfulness, says: "Our breathing is the link between our body and our mind. Sometimes our mind is thinking one thing and our body is doing another, and mind and body are not unified. By concentrating on our breathing, we bring body and mind back together and become whole again. Conscious breathing is an important bridge."

So stop for a minute, and look around. Enjoy today. Live in it. Savor it. Take a big deep breath because tomorrow will come with or without our reaching for it, and the years will go by faster than we know.

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