10 Amazing Benefits of Breathing: Guide on How to Incorporate Beneficial Breathing
It’s easy to think, hey breathing is natural, there’s no need to learn how to do it better. However, you can unlock the amazing benefits of breathing if you just learn how to breathe correctly. Plus, it’s much easier to do than you think, all it takes is knowledge and practice.
Breathing is more than just something to keep you alive, it can keep you healthy if you do it right. Here are 10 amazing benefits of breathing. Plus, find out how to easily incorporate beneficial breathing into your daily routine.
Why We Should Breathe Better
Why should we attempt to breathe better in the first place? Breathing is something that we do from birth, we do it unconsciously even while we’re asleep. There’s no thought behind it, it just happens. Research has found that when we breathe in a certain way, we can actually gain many health benefits and change our lives. For more information on why breathing matters, check out this article here!
Benefits of Breathing
Let’s jump right into it and get into 10 amazing benefits of breathing. Plus, check out the guide at the end on how to incorporate beneficial breathing into your daily life with ease.
1. Improve Sleep
Breathing can help you sleep better. It’s a simple way that we can calm the mind and body, allowing us to deal with insomnia. Breathing helps us overcome daily stressors and worries that keep us up, signaling to the mind that it is time to shut down and enter a restorative rest.
2. Raise Cardiovascular Health
Not only that, breathing is a great way to increase heart health. This is because deep slow breathing can help facilitate oxygen flowing throughout the body. This increase in oxygenation helps to strengthen the heart, stabilize blood pressure, and even increase our count of red blood cells. Plus, breathing deeply and slowly can help promote blood flow and the expansion of blood vessels.
3. Strengthen Immune Health
Our immune system is strengthened when we breathe deeply. This is because of the extra flow of oxygen throughout the body. Oxygen is needed to transport nutrients around and turn them into energy. Breathing well can help the body absorb vitamins and nutrients, allowing our immune system to use them to protect us.
4. Lower Stress
When we breathe, we activate the parasympathetic nervous system in the body. This is the part of the body responsible for turning off fight or flight, a rampant stress response that can be very detrimental. Deep conscious breaths reduce cortisol in the body, which is a stress hormone linked to inflammation and other detrimental conditions. For a full guide on how to control stress, check out this article here!
5. Increase Nervous System Health
Breathing is one of the best ways to activate the Vagus nerve. This is a part of the body that transfers information from the heart, lungs, and digestive system to the brain. It controls involuntary bodily functions and helps us rest and digest. Breathing can help activate a physiological change that stimulates the vagus nerve. In fact, certain breathing techniques can purposefully stimulate this nerve. For more information on how to activate our vagus nerve, check out this article here!
6. Improve Oxygenation
As stated before, breathing deeply increases oxygen flow throughout the body. This is highly important to physical health as an increase in oxygen promotes an increase in nutrients and energy throughout the entire system.
7. Increase Lymphatic Drainage
Deep, slow breathing is a good way to get your lymph movement. The lymphatic system is a series of organs, vessels, and tissues responsible for immune defense, detoxification, fluid movement, and more. Unlike the circulatory system which has the heart to pump and fuel movement, the lymphatic system mostly relies on breathing to move it.
8. Boost Mood
Just taking a deep breath can boost your mood! This is because it signals to the brain that it is time to calm down and relax, that there is no need to run or fear. Try it right now. Simply pause, take a deep breath in through your nose, and slowly let it out through your mouth.
9. Increase Digestion
Because deep breaths stimulate the vagus nerve, it activates our rest and digestion response. This also signals to the parasympathetic nervous system that we can concentrate on processing nutrients, creating necessary hormones, and other normal biological processes.
10. Improve Posture
Finally, the cherry on top, deep breaths can even fix your posture! This is because deep breathing activates the diaphragm, making it so you sit up straighter with every inhalation.
How to Incorporate Beneficial Breathing
So, how exactly should you incorporate this beneficial breathing into your life? It’s very simple! All you need to do is sit, stand, or lie down in a comfortable position. Place your hands on your stomach so that you can feel your inhalation fill the body with air. Breathe in for 4 seconds and hold the air for about 7 seconds. Next, exhale for about 8 seconds. Repeat this until you feel calm and relaxed!
Another way is to simplify it even further. Take a deep breath, as deep and slow as you can. Hold it for a couple of seconds, then let it out really slowly. Repeat as needed. For a full guide on how breathing can change your life, check out this guide here!
The Takeaway
Breathing correctly can be extremely beneficial. It can improve many aspects of overall health, including heart health, digestion, posture, and immune health. The benefits of breathing make it a great option for people that need to de-stress and it can even help improve your quality of sleep!
Remember that health comes from within. Eat nutritious food, exercise when you can, and take care of your mental health. The small daily habits you cultivate become the basis for overall wellness. Don’t forget about microbiota health too! Gut microbiota affects the entire body, from the skin to muscles, to immune and mental health! Get all the resources you need about microbiota health for free here!
