My New Year's Breath-olution

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you all had a safe and healthy holiday.

On New Year’s day I woke up to see Toronto festooned with a fresh frosting of snow; bright and clean and ready to take on the New Year. I felt so inspired by the sight of it all, I grabbed my camera, water bottle and headed out to the woods around my house. The things I saw that day were truly breathtaking – and I spent a good deal of time lying in the forest like a crazy person. I lay there in the quiet, looking up through the snowy trees and was suddenly compelled to breathe very deeply. Once I started I couldn’t stop and each time I inhaled, I let more and more oxygen into my starving lungs. I felt the long, slow deep breaths radiate through my whole body. It was then that I realized how long it had been since I had taken a proper breath! Weeks for sure, since my yoga routine was thrown out the window during the holiday rush.
So there, on the forest floor, my New Year’s resolution was decided: breathe deeply and often. I’m not sure what you’ve resolved to do to better your health, but if you’ve only cut back from eight coffees to seven, I invite you to join me in my breath-olution.

One of the reasons aerobic exercise is good for you (and is so good at clearing away mental cobwebs) is that it ups your heart rate and forces your lungs to take in more oxygen while expelling more carbon dioxide. This gives your heart a good workout - it is a muscle after all - and pumps a quick jolt of oxygen through your cells, even those that may have been operating at reduced capacity.

Shallow breathing (or chest breathing) causes a constriction of the chest and lung tissue over time, decreasing oxygen flow and delivery to your tissues. Deep, rhythmic breathing expands the diaphragm muscle, the cone-shaped muscle under your lungs, expanding the lung’s air pockets, invoking the relaxation response, and massaging the lymphatic system.

Breathing serves as the pump for the lymphatic system, just as the heart serves the circulatory system. Your cells must have oxygen to survive moment to moment. To thrive, they rely on a complex exchange between the circulatory system and the lymphatic system. Blood flow carries nutrients and ample amounts of oxygen into the capillaries, while a healthy lymphatic system carries away destructive toxins. Proper breathing is the moderator of this exchange.
The consequence of a sluggish lymphatic system is that you cannot detoxify properly. And if you aren’t breathing deeply or moving regularly, chances are your lymph fluid is not flowing as well as it could. As you can well imagine, this can lead to health concerns over time, including weight gain, muscle loss, high blood pressure, fatigue, and inflammation.

But the great news is that you can improve your lymph system cleansing by learning to practice deep breathing. The expansion and contraction of the diaphragm actually stimulates your lymphatic system and massages your internal organs, helping the body rid itself of toxins, and leaving more room in the cells for an optimal exchange of oxygen.

Remember to breathe through the nose, as it is axiomatic to invoking the parasympathetic nervous system and the attendant relaxation response.

By taking a few moments in your day to really pay attention to the inhalation and exhalation that supports your life, you will slowly and surely move toward a healthier and happier place. Try 5 minutes right now. Tomorrow, 10 minutes. You'll become addicted, I swear. Remember, small changes add up to big improvements - and what better way to begin than breathing?

My best to all of you in the coming year! May you all breathe deeply, sleep soundly, and of course, eat well. Love, Sarah

information reference: http://www.womentowomen.com/fatigueandstress/deepbreathing.aspx