Stress, fear and anxiety are factors that can interfere with full, flowing breathing patterns. Physical problems like tension, headaches and even panic attacks are manifestations tied to your inability to breathe fully. Practicing abdominal breathing can change your response to stress, relax the sympathetic nervous system and improve the overall quality of life.
Identification
Abdominal breathing expands the abdomen on an inhalation and deflates the abdomen on an exhalation. When you inhale (for yoga, through the nose only), the diaphragm and intercostal muscles, the muscles between your ribs, contract and expand the chest cavity. This expansion lowers the pressure in the chest cavity and oxygen flows through and inflates the lungs.
When you exhale, the diaphragm and intercostal muscles relax and the chest cavity gets smaller. Oxygen from the lungs flows out of the airways to the outside air. The cycle repeats with each breath.
Misconceptions
Abdominal breathing deepens your breath in that it fully engages the diaphragm power. The main muscle of respiration or breathing, is the diaphragm. It's a common misconception that the lungs are the main function of breathing; they are crucial, but the diaphragm is primary.
Awareness of Breath Patterns
When you breathe in, your belly draws inward and outward on the exhalation, which is known as reverse breathing. Because it's usually a lifelong pattern, the body has to be trained to unlearn reverse breathing as it's a confusion of the respiration muscles and diaphragm. Reverse breathers experience tension in the neck, shoulders, back, and jaw and struggle with learning movement because they've adapted a pattern of breath confusion.
Natural Breath
Practice makes perfect, especially with breathing. Start with noticing the natural breathe by placing both hands on your abdomen. Sit in a comfortable cross leg position. The healthy breathing pattern is when your belly goes outward on an inhale and is drawn inward on an exhalation. Simply noticing your breathing patterns and adjusting if needed is the first step towards abdominal breathing.
Practicing and Noticing
A simple yoga posture can aid in opening the diaphragm and intercostal muscles, and relieve tightness throughout the abdomen so the focus can be on abdominal breathing. Come to lie on your back with arms extended out. Bring awareness to your breathing, feel your diaphragm relax on the exhale and contract with the inhale. Lift your buttocks and position it 6 inches to one side. Draw your knees into your chest, and on an exhalation let your knees fall to the opposite side that you moved 6 inches to (6 inches to left, let knees drop to the right). Bring the hand to the knees and allow the opposite arm to extend out. Notice the abdomen loosening and draw full breaths in and out.
References
- "The Breathing Book"; Donna Farhi; 1996
- "Yoga for Wellness"; Gary Kraftsow; 1999
