Breathing.
If there was ever an action that the average human animal most commonly takes for granted…its breathing.
Considering that the average human performs this action approximately 20 000/day, you would think we are all experts at it…after all, practice makes perfect. But as is often said, "perfect practice makes perfect," and the truth of it is, most of us do it wrong.
Why does that matter? Well, by simply improving the quality of your breathing, you can improve a long list of bodily functions that can positively effect your health in the long run. Breathing can have effects on chronic pain, digestive issues, depression and stress-related illnesses, tissue healing rates, heart problems, mental acuity, physical performance, etc (its actually an impressively long list).
Newborns come into the world with proper breathing patterns that can be appreciated visually. Watch a newborn breath and you will notice many differences vs. the average adult. The rate is decreased, the depth is greater, and the movement is focused on the abdomen.
Stress, as is felt by many, and mis-managed by most, leads us to become shallow breathers. Watch the average adult breath (or become mindful of your own breathing for a minute). What do you notice? Most will notice motion concentrated not in the abdomen, but in the chest. You will notice that instead of taking long deep breaths, you breath shallow…and more often (3-4 times that of a newborn). And the most dysfunctional finding of all…most of you will be doing it in the exact opposite way than is intended!
When people breath in deeply, you will notice that their stomach 'sucks in.' Conversely when they breath out, their abdomen expands. This is the exact opposite of what is supposed to happen…after all, when we breath in we take in air/oxygen, which means that we need room to hold it. Thus our abdomen needs to be expanding. This is because the as we breath, the diaphragm (our breathing muscle) moves down allowing for greater lung expansion needed to hold the incoming air. When this happens, your 'belly' protrudes outwards as the abdominal content is compressed.
The main problem is that adults tend not to breath with the diaphragm, but with the accessory breathing muscles (the muscles who's function is supposed to be reserved for panic breathing). Panic breathing, rapid shallow breaths, send a message to our adrenal glands (via sympathetic nervous system activation) that we are in danger causing the body to release our stress hormone cortisol in abnormally high amounts. Chronically high levels or circulating cortisol (and chronically high sympathetic nervous system activity) is bad for a number of reasons that I will leave up to you to look up (one being it dramatically lowers immune function).
There are a number of specific breath training exercises that can be done…but lets start with the basics. On several occasions through out the day, place a one hand on your stomach and other on your chest and 'feel' your breathing pattern. Make conscious effort to allow the abdomen to expand with each inhalation, and 'deflate' with exhalation while minimizing the movement of the chest. After a few weeks of this, begin to slow the rate of BOTH your inhalation and exhalation.
With time your nervous system will re-set the normal pattern and you will enjoy the benefits of breathing as one should. Beyond this, research more advanced breathing practices and train the breathing muscle (the diaphragm) as diligently as all of the others….even more diligently considering that the "life energy" that people often talk about….is simply breath.
Master it.
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