Just Breath? its not that simple!
Breathing
As you know having visited me, I like to bookend each session with a breathing enquiry. I do this for many reasons.
It helps to ground me and connect us
It creates a ritual
It helps us switch on the parasympathetic nervous system, and switch on our bodies healing mechanisms.
It takes attention from the "headquarters" in our heads and into the seething, often forgotten intelligence of our body
I love to learn, and Audiobooks are a favourite way for me to do this. The most recent book I have been listening to is Breath by James Nestor.
We breathe over 20,000 times a day, most of us take too many short and shallow breaths.
“Mouth breathing can cause all kinds of neurological damage
, respiratory damage, it can even cause some metabolic problems.”
Our mouths have become too small, this all started when we began to farm, we stopped chewing so hard. This has made it harder to breathe well.
We have forgotten how to breathe and here are a few ways to get you back on track.
The perfect breath
breathe in for about 5.5 seconds,
then exhale for 5.5 seconds.
That's 5.5 breaths per minute
for a total of about 5.5 litres of air
James Nestor.
Now, this guy did heaps of research, including radically taping his own mouth shut and sifting through 1,000's of skulls in the catacombs of Paris
Shut your mouth
Mouth breathing contributes to periodontal disease and bad breath.
Mouth breathing is the number one cause of cavities, more damaging than poor hygiene, sugar, or an unhealthy diet.
Mouth breathing worsens snoring and sleep apnea.
In contrast - nose breathing
Nasal breathing boosts nitric oxide sixfold, a molecule released by the sinuses
and that regulates mood,
immune function,
sexual arousal,
blood circulation, and weight.
Nasal breathing
allows us to absorb around 18% more oxygen than mouth breathing.
Nasal breathing during sleep can
dramatically reduce or even eliminate snoring and sleep apnea.
Jump-start athletic performance
Rejuvenate internal organs,
halt allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disease,
and even straighten scoliotic spine!!!
“No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. ”
He has very generously shared some videos on some simple ways to breath,
including Asleep in 60 seconds
Would you like to listen to this audiobook? I have a copy can share with you, please email me