Breathe Well - Live Well
❓ Did you know that the greatest indicator of longevity, is not genetics, diet, or exercise, it is lung capacity
“From a randomly selected sample of 554 men and 641 women, aged 20 to 89 years, the results suggest that pulmonary function is a long-term predictor for overall survival rates in both genders and could be used as a tool in general health assessment.”
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10988186/)
Our ability to breathe full breaths is a measure of our living capacity
❓ Did you also know that our lungs lose 12% capacity from age 30 - 50 & continue to decline, with women faring worse off. As we get to 80s we decline more in capacity leading to the need to breath faster & shorter, which can lead to increased anxiety & other problems.
People have different breath patterns, some breathe shallow, some fast, some breath in their chest & some jump from one to the other.
Respiratory issues are highly emotive.
Our breath changes as our emotional states change. We hold, we sigh, we pant, we gasp. Each one, giving away strong clues as to what is going on for us.
Finding a steady breath is the first step towards finding steadiness in the body.
Inhale | Exhale | Repeat
Start small.
Maybe you have read somewhere what your breath SHOULD be like, ignore it.
Ignore ALL the rules.
Just try this
Inhale
Exhale
Repeat
Lift your arms on the inhale
Lower your arms on the exhale
Repeat
Let the breath come first
Let the movement follow the breath
Do this every day for 1 - 2 minutes
Notice how it feels, maybe even record it in a diary
See what happens over time