Breathing for Health and Wellness

Hello everyone,

Breathing is key to our health. The average person takes between 20 000 and 26 000 breaths per day. This is between 16 and 18 breaths per minute. In my opinion this is far too much. Ideally you should breathe between 6-8 breaths per minute. This adds up to 8640 to 11520 breaths per day. This is far more economical and far healthier.

16-18 Breaths per minute can be considered as hyperventilation. The symptoms of hyperventilation include increases stress hormones, muscle tightness, compromised digestion and increased feelings of anxiety. In fact, many practitioners believe that hyperventilation can bring on anxiety rather than anxiety bringing on hyperventilation!

The question is how do we bring our breathing down to an acceptable rate? There are a number of factors to look at, structural, emotional, physiological and spiritual.

On a structural level one of the main issues is posture. The majority of people today fall into a Kyphotic or rounded shoulder posture. This posture is often coupled with forward head posture. This posture ordinarily creates muscle tightness in the sub occipitals, sternocleidomastiod, Levator scapula, Upper trapezius and Pectoralis Minor.
These muscles should be stretched on a regular basis. A good resource for this is the text 'Stretch to Win" which is in the recommended text side bar. Another good idea is to purchase a pool noodle or foam roller and lie on it longitudinally for up to 15 minutes a day. This stretches out the ligaments at the front of the spine allowing you to come back into a nice, upright posture. This is also a good time to practice your diaphragmatic breathing, effectively killing two birds with one stone.

In future posts I will deal with the other issues that restrict proper breathing. Until then keep stretching, moving and eating high quality food and love your life!!!

Namaste

Paul