There are many reasons why people get sick and one of the more powerful notions is over-acidity of the body. This is certainly not some voo-doo conspiracy theory. Different tissues in the body require different Ph (potential hydrogen) levels.
People are obviously aware that one reason we breathe at all is to transfer oxygen to the lungs from the atmosphere and then shuttle it through the bloodstream to every cell in the body.
But, one possibly more important reason we breathe, and the reason we breathe hard during exercise, is to remove CO2 aka carbon dioxide from the body. CO2 is a means of removing lactic acid from muscle cells and then out of the body through exhalation.
Shallow breathing, which is very common, can result in acidity of the blood. It doesn’t have to be much, the body is very delicate in this regard. Enzymes and cellular processes depend on acidity for proper utilization.
One habit that I noticed in myself years ago and still notice in my clients to this day is shallow chest breathing instead of deep belly breathing. To show this in an example, people can put one hand on their belly button and one on their sternum and breathe noramally. The hand that moves will show you how your are breathing.
Deep belly breathing helps to fill the entire lung capacity with air, resulting in more oxygen being inhaled. It also results in more CO2 being exhaled in a deep, powerful breathe. This helps to alkalize the blood! Acidic tissues are implicated in all types of diseases Including cancer.
One of the reasons for improper breathing in so many people is a very simple one...they never learned how to breathe properly. We learn to drive cars, we learn to read and write, but rarely is someone taught how to breathe, which is one of the most important functions we have for survival!
So here’s a good strategy for proper breathing which will bring attention to the breath and increase breathing efficiency at removing carbon dioxide. Its a type of breathing called pranayama breathing that I learned from Dr. Andrew Weil.
There are different stages of pranayama but the beginning stage, the three part breath is what I think is most important for the majority of people, especially those without any yoga or fitness experience.
Very simply this breathing is a four second inhalation through the nose, deep into the belly...as deeply as you can comfortably, then a one second pause and hold, followed by a seven second exhalation. These are only ratios so as you improve you can do an eight second inhale, two second pause and fourteen second exhalation. I’ve even tried twelve second inhale, three second pause and twenty-one second exhalation but this seems to push my lung capacity and get uncomfortable.
The point that is important is it forces you to focus on exhaling at a much slower and controlled pace than the inhalation. This is not as easy as it sounds. You simply repeat the exercise, increasing the “reps” over time. And the beauty is, you can do this exercise absolutely anywhere above water. I do it all the time while driving, especially in traffic and my temper is so much better controlled.
Benefits you can expect form continued practice:
— more stable breathing throughout the day, instead of shallow breathing and even holding breathe under stress
- increased energy
- increased concentration similar to meditation
- increased immune system and overall system wide health
- alkalization which further improves health and helps to detoxify the body naturally
- less stress as you are breathing and exhaling fully instead of holding the breathe...notice how when anxious or stressed your breathing can at times completely stop!
More than anything else this is one more cog in the wheel of overall wellness as proper breathing is critical to all aspects of physical and mental health. This is one more tool in the toolbox for #naturalmedicine
What’s your favorite type of breathing? What benefits have you noticed? I’d like to hear any feedback or criticism below in the comments!
Zydane 🧘♂️