Yes, with mindful breathing you can feel better by breathing better! You can live a week without water, a month without food, but only a few minutes without oxygen.
You can’t generate energy in your body without oxygen. And many people equate energy with life itself. Energy is essential for your physical and emotional health. Thinking, moving, sensing, digesting and every other function require energy. That’s where mindful breathing comes in!
Mindful Breathing
We can improve our body’s ability to deliver oxygen through mindful breathing.
Diaphragmatic Breathing: Muscling your breath
Breathing involves the chest, abdominal and back muscles, and the diaphragm, a bell-shaped muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen. The diaphragm is the primary muscle of respiration, but many people don’t use it efficiently. Instead, people often overuse the muscles around the ribs to inhale. But these muscles don’t push fresh air into the lower lungs the way the diaphragm is designed to do. If the lower lungs don’t receive enough air, the body cells don’t get enough oxygen. In addition, when people overuse the chest and back muscles to breathe, muscle tightness increases in those areas, which can lead to chronic tension and pain.
I go into more detail on diaphragmatic breathing here.
Poor posture, muscle weakness, lung disease and even lack of understanding of the breathing process can contribute to inefficient breathing.
Releasing your breath
Through observation and bodywork to your upper body, your practitioner can help evaluate your breathing habits. She or he can apply techniques to release trigger points and tight muscles that restrict the breath, and demonstrate better breathing habits. Practicing breathing exercises can help you become more aware of your tension and help you let it go and feel better.
When you improve your breathing habits, you increase the oxygen to the lungs which can increase your energy, and mental clarity, and decrease tension and pain.
Bodywork can help release tension that restricts your breath. I incorporate mindful breathing into my treatments as a way to treat the whole person, mind & body. Read more about Heavenly Embrace here. When you are ready, Book your session or contact us for more information about the benefits of our massage treatments and other therapies.
“When you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace.”
~Author Unknown
Take a deep breathe in 🙂
Love and Light,
Liraz
Liraz Bergman-Turner is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Reiki Master & Reflexologist. She owns Heavenly Embrace Wellness, a massage and energy healing practice in Boulder, CO.
Liraz is the best massage therapist I have worked with. She combines expert knowledge of anatomy with her sensitive intuition. She takes time to talk with you to learn your specific needs and follows up on future visits. She adapts her approach based on your preferences. She has alleviated pain in several areas for me, and suggested exercises and stretches I can do at home to maintain the improvements. Her office setting and personality are serene and relaxing. I always leave feeling significantly better physically and spiritually. I highly recommend Liraz and Heavenly Embrace Wellness.
