Healthy Breathing Tips
Follow these healthy breathing tips. As you find they work for you, you can contact Linda Meads on 01789 298290 or complete the contact form for the advanced techniques given in the Buteyko breathing re-training courses in Birmingham, Bristol, and Stratford-upon-Avon.
"The perfect man breathes as though he is not breathing"
(Lao Tzu)
TIPS FOR OPTIMAL BREATHING
1 Be aware of your posture
Sit up straight, stand straight and walk upright. Feel how having your shoulders back opens the airways and makes it easier for you to breathe from the diaphragm. Standing and sitting straight enables the diaphragm to do the job for which it is designed.
2 Breathe through your nose - both in and out
This means - nasal breathing - keep your mouth closed at all times, except when eating and talking! Breathing through the nose means the air is filtered, warmed and humidified before it enters the lungs. On the course we outline the many other benefits arising from nasal breathing - as you start to breathe this way you'll start to experience these benefits
3 Avoid sleeping on your back
Respiration is deeper when we sleep on our back - also when we are on our back it is easier for the mouth to open during sleep so try to sleep on your side, preferably the left side.
4 Practise awareness of your breathing process
Be aware of where you are breathing from - just putting your attention on your breath from time to time can help you to relax. Let the exhale go right out. You will feel the shoulders drop and relax.
Simply increasing the awareness of posture, nasal breathing and diaphragm breathing will start the process of resetting your breathing to a more healthy pattern.
How was the Buteyko Method developed?
Professor Buteyko, whilst completing his medical training, did a piece of work on breathing and health. He found that the sicker someone was, the more they breathed. So he set about exploring the connection between breath rate and disease. He found that during periods of disease the breath rate increased way over what is considered normal. He found that over 250 medical complaints responded favourably to breath reduction, the most noticeable being asthma and he then spent over 40 years perfecting this breathing method.
How does the Buteyko Method work?
The Buteyko Method normalises breathing. The exercises result in a gradual reduction in the overall intake and output of breath. Oxygen levels remain optimal, as with normal rate breathing oxygen levels are 98%, but what does change are the exhaled levels of carbon dioxide. This important gas is produced in the body and serves to keep the airways open and improve oxygen absorption.
What is hyperventilation?
The World Health Organisation states normal breathing to be 8 to 10 breaths per minute taken through the nose at rest. Hyperventilation or over-breathing is when either more than the stated number of breaths per minute are taken or when air is taken through the mouth rather than the nose.
Breathing, Stress & Anxiety
A typical reaction to a stressful event is to take short, sharp, shallow breaths and breathe with our upper chest. Studies have shown that breathing like this for only one minute can reduce oxygen to our brain by up to 40%! No wonder we find it difficult to think clearly when we feel stressed.
Our stress reactions typically trigger the fight/flight response. This instinctive response is vital to help us get out of a dangerous situation. However, modern life has many everyday stresses. Such frequent triggering of our fight/flight response can quickly mean that breathing patterns intended only for short-term emergencies (e.g., mouth breathing) become the way we breathe most of the time. This directly impacts our body chemistry balance which affects the way we feel and the way we think.
Unhealthy breathing patterns and anxiety or stress symptoms form a vicious circle, one contributing to the other. You may experience symptoms of stress or anxiety, which then leads to over-breathing, or you may first notice signs of over-breathing leading to feelings of rising anxiety and/or panic. Each feeds the other in an increasing spiral of symptoms.
The Buteyko exercises and strategies act like a circuit breaker. You learn to change your breathing patterns over a period of weeks/months reducing associated symptoms of stress, anxiety or panic. Buteyko helps you to establish a healthy breathing pattern so that you no longer have to live in an unnecessary state of flight or fight.
- Buteyko is the most simple, relaxing and effective way to change your breathing and sort out your health problems.
Breathe less ......live more!
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