Wellbeing Wednesday Many of my clients (and sometimes myself) experience the same issues or problems every now and again. They are common to many people and so I’m starting a Wellbeing Wednesday Series. This will look at one topic a week, sharing some handy hints and tips and will be published every Wednesday – here on nicolameirholistictherapies.com and will be shared to my business Facebook page – Nicola Meir Holistic Therapies. Lets go back to basics for the first in this series. Are you breathing wrong? Most of us are shallow breathers most of the time. This means we don’t take in enough oxygen which can contribute to us feeling tense and tired.
What happens when we breathe?
When we take a breath in – our diaphragm moves down so our lungs can expand. We take air in through our mouth or nose and down through the windpipe to the lungs. It then passes through our blood vessels to the heart, which pumps oxygenated blood to ever part of our body. The deeper the breath, the more air and oxygen we take in to nourish and revitalise our body. Unfortunately too many of us sit in a hunched position, wearing our shoulders as earrings!! Therefore our body is tight with tension. These things make it hard to breathe properly.
Whenever you feel stressed, tired, can’t sleep or feel under the weather, make a conscious decision to spend five minutes on some healing breathing. These simple calming techniques below can help:
Stand up or sit up straight, feet firmly on the floor. Shrug shoulders right up to your ears and then push right down as far as possible. Imagine the top of your head is trying to touch the ceiling and gently move your neck from side to side. This should start to help release tension.
Breathe in for a count of 5, hold the breath for a couple of seconds, breathe out for 6. Keep it slow and steady. When you breathe in take it down to your abdomen and try to elongate your exhalation to 7 or 8 counts.
Lastly close your eyes and visualise your breath moving around your body – to your fingers and toes, head and shoulders etc. Give it a try. When you do you will realise that the way you were breathing before was much more shallow in comparison. For a time your breath with naturally slow down after these exercises. Calming and healing breathing is the answer to many things! I’ve been teaching my children these techniques too. “It’s great, it gets rid of anything I am worried about.” (My 11 year old). Next week I’ll have some practical tips on dealing with lower back pain and in particular sciatic nerve pain. Nicola