Breathing is without a doubt the most important need in our lives. Without breathing you can only survive for a few minutes. Nevertheless, the way of breathing is essential.
Most people breathe very shallowly, as if they’re afraid to let their gut do the work. Watch a baby breathe and see how that entire abdominal area works with each breath.
Take the test yourself now…
Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. Take a very deep breath and notice how one hand moves up and down more than the other.
If your hand on your chest moves up and down strongly, while your hand on your stomach barely moves, your body will feel this breath as stressful.
If, on the other hand, your hand on your stomach moves up and down a lot and the hand on your chest hardly moves, think of yourself as a good breather.
Let me explain what is happening. Your body is controlled by two central nervous systems: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system controls the “fight and flight” attitude that we may be familiar with. The parasympathetic nervous system mainly regulates our rest and our digestive system.
Chest breathing (where your abdominal region does not move) activates our sympathetic nervous system and abdominal breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
This means that when you do chest breathing throughout the day, your body feels like it is in a constant stress situation. This is definitely not good if you like to feel energized and relaxed.
