12/04/2024
If you’re not doing breathing exercises daily, now is the time to start.
Personally, understanding how my body breathes has helped in so many aspects of life, in particular concentration and application during times of stress.
The scientific literature backs up what I felt during the process.
Increasing your lung capacity is one of the most powerful and effective ways to improve your health.
Your lungs not only exchange vital gases to all the cells in the body, they also relay information to the immune system. By slowing and increasing the amount of surface area that air has to your lungs, you increase the amount of time that your immune system gets to ‘look’ at the air around you.
Then your immune system can respond as needed.
Simply put, breathing is a fast tool to calm your nervous system. In order to do so, you need to have a handle of the muscles that control breathing.
While breathing is complex, the first step is to understand your diaphragm. Breathing properly allows the calm, which activates your vagus nerve, the cranial nerve that triggers the relaxation response.
In a 2017 study, highly anxious people were assigned to take a course in diaphragmatic breathing relaxation
After eight weeks, they reported feeling less anxious compared to a group that didn’t receive the training. They also showed physical signs of reduced anxiety: lower heart rate, slower breathing, and lower skin conductivity.
The truth is your lungs can do more than you think they can. You just need to connect to their ability.
Try this exercise daily to increase lung capacity:
1) Take a deep breath in expanding your diaphragm and taking as much air in as possible.
2) When you reach your peak, pause for 2 seconds, then breathe in further
3) Pause again, and breathe in further
4) Pause again (don’t think about it) and breathe in further again.
Now the exhale:
1) Exhale all the way to the bottom when your lungs feel empty
2) Pause for 2 seconds, then exhale again
3) Pause again, exhale further
4) Pause again (don’t think about it) exhale again.
Take a deep breath in again and repeat 10 times.
Did your lungs do more than you expected them to?
