Last time I mentioned how breathing rate is important to health. The way you breathe is also crucial to optimal health.
Most people today have what is known as an inverted breathing pattern or sometimes known as chest breathing. This is when the chest rises too early with every breath (at rest). If when you breathe in your chest rises, you are not utilising your diaphragm effectively.
Your diaphragm’s primary job is to aid breathing. As you inhale, your diaphragm should drop downwards in your abdominal cavity allowing your lungs to fill with air. As the diaphragm drops down it compresses and massages your internal organs which aids their function and digestive processes.
Without proper use of your diaphragm, your organs aren’t as healthy as they can be and other muscles known as accessory respiratory muscles have to work harder at rest. The accessory respiratory muscles are only meant to aid breathing under high physical exertion. Therefore, many people get tired aching muscles around the top of the back and neck. This wastes a lot of energy all day long and makes you feel much more tired than you should be.
So learning how to breathe properly is important to your digestion, internal organ function, disease prevention, relaxation and energy levels. A good diaphragmatic breath includes the abdominal wall rise and the chest should only rise for the final 1/3 of the breath.
Breathing correctly should be practised daily and may take a long time to correct as most of us have breathed incorrectly for so long. Why not put an alarm on your computer every 30 minutes to remind you to focus on your breath?