Breathing is known to have many benefits for the body and the mind of a person. When you inhale and exhale while being mindful about it, you can understand your body on a deeper level.
It’s no wonder why most of the yoga practices focus on breathing. In our hectic lives, we tend to stress to extreme levels and forget one simple rule – to breathe properly.
However, if you haven’t been to a yoga class or you haven’t done any of it, it’s okay. In the next few paragraphs, we’ll briefly go over some of the most important benefits of deep breathing.
You don’t need any equipment, and you can do it anywhere – in the car, at home, at work, or at the park. Follow guided meditations or just breathe in, hold it for a couple of seconds, and breath out.
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It can heal pain, improve the blood flow and the immune system
Deep breathing can make your body release endorphins, which are happy hormones. This creates a natural painkiller, and it can make you feel better physically. Breathing can also improve your blood flow since the diaphragm movement removes toxins. This reflects on all of your organs.
Another physical improvement is on the immune system. Since breathing can remove toxins and bring fresh oxygen to the body, it improves your organs’ functionality and your immune system.
When your blood is clean, this can prevent infections from going into your body. It can also make absorbing healthy nutrients and vitamins better, and your recovery from illnesses faster.
It improves your mental health and your sleep
This is a widely known fact backed up by experts. Anxious thoughts are treated best with deep breathing. Breathing slows your heart rate, and your body takes more oxygen. This makes the brain calmer.
Deep breathing can also balance the hormones by cutting down cortisol and improving the endorphin levels. It also helps you sleep better. Before you go to sleep, breathe in, count 5,4,3,2,1, and breathe out. If you have insomnia, it’s good advice to meditate before bedtime. Also, during the day, if you practice deep breathing, you can boost your energy levels.
Some little known benefits of deep breathing
There are other benefits that are not that popular, and we thought we might present them to you with little introductions.
- Posture
Little did we know that bad posture is connected to breathing the wrong way. If you breathe deeply, you can see how your body straightens up right away. Once your lungs are full, your spine elongates.
- Minimizing Inflammation
It’s said that many diseases prefer very acidic bodies to grow in, for example, cancer. Breathing deeply can reduce acidity in your body, so it turns alkaline. This acidity is the amount of stress you have most of the time.
- Improving the lymphatic system
Breathing moves the lymph, so when you don’t breathe deeply, your lymph starts to get a bit sluggish. This makes detoxifying the body far more difficult. Once you start practising deep breathing, your lymph will thank you since it will do its job better.
- Better digestion
As we already said, when more oxygen is transported to your body, it impacts all organs and improves all systems. This is the case with the digestive system, as well. The blood flow makes the intestines work better.
Verdict
To sum up, it may sound strange for someone to teach you how to breathe or to tell you that you don’t do it right. However, there are some tips and tricks that yoga and meditation can give you to improve your body and mind by doing it.
For more tips on how to boost your well-being check out our article 6 Reasons why houseplants are good for your well-being.
