Why you should focus on your breathing

We can go forty days without food, three days without water and yet only minutes without oxygen. 

In this simple steps blog, I'm going to go through some reasons to be more focused on your breathing, and how we can calm your mind and body really simply and quickly. ​

In this blog we're going to cover three holistic reasons to be more consciously aware of your breathing. 

Often most people would go through life breathing very shallowly from the top of our lungs. This actually suggests to our body, it triggers the fight and flight response because if we were running, if we were in danger, we would be taking short breaths and that's where we would be taking it from. 

Whereas being able to fill our lungs fully, so that our abdomen expands actually triggers what's called the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and repair, and supports us to be in a calmer state. And also to allow our immune system to do its job rather than feeling like we're having to fight or flight and run from something. 

So with that in mind the first reason is simply that you'll feel more relaxed straightaway.
By triggering those receptors at the bottom of the lungs you're going to feel calmer, you're going to be able to put things into perspective more easily, and you can notice it throughout your mind and your body. 

Second reason is it can improve your focus. 
When we have a whirring of thoughts and different things that we must do, must get on with, then just by taking a few breaths and actually focusing on your breath, takes your mind away from those thoughts, and when you come back to it you can think more clearly, and be able to be more productive. 

Another reason, a physical reason this time, is that it can help with pain. 
Breath work and breathing techniques are often used to combat chronic pain, or short-term pain, to help manage, but also to help relieve some of that pain. 

I'll go into a bit more of a simple way to do that in the second part of this blog, where I'll go on to how to simply get started with incorporating simple breathing exercises into your day-to-day life.

Anna
Owner of Pura Vida Living
Helping busy people with the common stresses of life to be able to incorporate some simple habits for them to be able to then be more productive and calmer with their mind and body throughout their life.


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