Tips On How To Breathe

As part of our 7 Days To Rediscovering Your Blogging Groove challenge on Write Tribe, today we write a tips post. Who better to ask to do that than the lovely, Vidya Sury. She’s here with her easy-to-do and necessary-for-survival tips on breathing. Thank you, Vidya!

Vidya Sury is a professional copywriter, editor and blogger. In a previous life, she was a corporate powerhouse. She now works from home crafting connections between businesses and their target markets, but prefers to focus on collecting smiles, playing with her dust bunnies, showing her diabetes who’s boss and celebrating the little things. She loves coffee, people, cooking, reading, writing, photography and travel. Vidya blogs at Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Coffee with Mi and Your Medical Guide.

 

Tips on how to breathe

 

No I am not joking. I’ll bet that you all use a keyboard and mouse every day. (and I’ll win that bet). If you said yes, then I must ask you – did you know that our breathing rate increases when we work on those devices? And yes, it is the same for children who are crazy about computer games. What this accelerated breathing leads to is a series of problems that, beside the time-waste, include a pain in the neck, tension around the shoulders and an “unexplained tiredness”. Ha – not really. We all know what we’re doing, it is just that we put “relaxing” at the bottom of our priority list.

I have an app a solution for that.

It is called “breathing”.

Really.

When you breathe in a certain way, you automatically relax and…problem solved.

How do you do that?

Here are my tips:

Step 1 – Observe
How is your breathing rhythm and movement a) when you sit quietly? And b) when you work?

Observe whether your chest moves more, or if your abdomen moves more.

If you’re wondering where this is going – most of us, while working, tend to breathe faster and in our chests…and this is what causes the pains and the breathlessness and fatigue. The tension builds up and invites stress in.

Step 2 – Breathe
Now that you know what’s up, (not Whatsapp!), you must learn to breathe easy. Slow down your breathing rate consciously. You want to make that abdomen, not your chest move. Visualize a pair of balloons sitting in your abdomen. Inhale, and let the balloon expand. Exhale and let it deflate.

Step 3 – Practice
Practice breathing where your abdomen moves. While practicing, remember to loosen that belt to let your abdomen move freely. When you exhale, smile. Concentrate on the “exhale” time and let it be double your “inhale” time. Pretend that when you exhale, the air is passing through your arms, via your wrist, hands and out, through your fingers.

Step 4 – Make it a habit
Repeat the breathe-easy routine consciously every day as many times as you can, when you sit and work at the computer. When you exhale, allow it to happen slowly so your abdomen moves.

Bonus Step 5 – What my physiotherapist taught me
Recline on your back. Put a pillow under your knees. Let your feet be shoulder width apart. Palms upwards, rest your hands a foot away from your sides.

Now take a 2.5 kilo weight – could be a bag of grains) – and place it on your stomach.

Inhale – pushing the weight up as your tummy expands.

Exhale – letting the weight bring your tummy back down

As you breathe, (you can’t stop, right? Ha, ha) let your “exhale” be slow – and concentrate on your abdominal movements. Focus.

Keep doing this for 20 minutes – and feel the difference. Your lungs become stronger and you feel fitter.

That’s it.

I just taught you how to breathe properly. You’re welcome!

 

I’m linking into Write Tribe’s – Rediscovering Your Blogging Groove – Day 3