Breath Practice: Mental Health Awareness
 By: Dr. Scott Greenapple Some of the most chronic and debilitating diseases that affect most North Americans if not all populations can be greatly helped with something as simple as the breath.By changing the pattern of your breath, you can get almost instantaneous changes in your physical and emotional well-being.
With deep breaths and longer exhalations.Your body starts to increase and decrease certain neurotransmitters and hormones that have positive effects on your overall well-being. In the most basic sense, just by changing your breath to one that involves more of the diaphragm, a large muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen, we can shift the body into more of the parasympathetic response of the autonomic nervous system. The parasympathetic system is more of what is termed the rest and digest mode vs. the sympathetic system which is more of a flight or fight system. When in the parasympathetic mode we release more chemicals and neurotransmitters that are cholinergic in nature like acetylcholine; more about relaxation, digestion and healing. We increase what is called vagal tone (Vagus nerve) which stimulates the parasympathetic response.
When we inhale with deep belly breaths, the diaphragm moves downward to increase the space for our lungs in fully expand.This not only makes more room but pushes down on the organs under like the intestines causing an increase of motility for digestion, the liver to aid in detoxification etc. The diaphragm acts as a pump to push blood in the chest to the heart and lungs and to pump blood and food through the digestive tract. It also helps pump the lymphatic system for detoxification, getting rid of metabolic waste.
Most people take shallow breaths with their chest.If we can start to use our belly on the inhale for deeper inhalation and then exhale longer, we slow down the respiration rate, decrease blood pressure and increase heart rate variability, allowing for a more flexible response to our complexities we face on a daily basis.
Just altering our breath, slowing down our breathing from 14 cycles per minute to 5-7 breaths per minute, we can increase our immune system; decrease our stress hormones; aid in digestion; promoting a clearer mind, which will affect us in many positive ways including physical and emotional/psychological well being.
We are literally making medicine within our bodies.In fact, some of the most profound medicine, all at no cost! Just with simple breathing exercises with intention and relaxation, we increase our use of oxygen utilization and increase our energy metabolism. That is correct; we actually increase our energy by slowing down using a mindful intentional breath.
There are many breath exercises including mindfulness breathing, Qi Gong breathing, Tai Chi breathing and yogic breathing.
Below, are three breathing exercises to try.
All in all, just by learning how to use the breath, diaphragm, and chest correctly, you can increase wellness and decrease anxiety and inflammation creating balance and harmony in the body and mind.
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