Over the years, I’ve heard many versions of “the proper way to breathe”. Some say to breathe into your belly. Others say that the proper way to breathe is to breathe into your belly until it spreads up into your chest. And there are other versions.
What I think that is much more important is not how you breathe, but that you’re aware of how you’re breathing in any moment. If you’re not aware of how you’re breathing, it’s like being blind. Your brain is missing vital information that influences so many things. Feedback from our breathing can tell us how we’re reacting to our environment: are we feeling stressed, panicked, calm, peaceful, threatened, in charge, fearful.
Apart from providing us with oxygen and discharging carbon dioxide, breathing provides with information about our environment and our inner state.
Should we be aware of our breathing every second of the day or night? No, at least not in my experience. But we should be able to check in and feel in some way, what our breathing is telling us. For example, there is a connection between breathing and “over-thinking”.
The other day, Norm was in and he told me that he noticed a connection between his breathing and thinking. He said that he was able to notice that when he’s thinking about something, really thinking about it, focusing on it, he holds his breath. While he was off thinking about stuff, he noticed that he all of a sudden took a deep breath in, expanding not only his belly but also his chest and stomach. It felt like not quite a sigh but a breath of relief. He could feel how he was tensing his body as he let go and breathed out.
It’s when we don’t realize the tension that we hold that leads us down the wrong road. Breathing can give us feedback as to HOW we’re holding tension in our bodies and WHEN we’re holding tension in our bodies. Are we holding tension when we’re focused on a problem? Are we holding tension purely out of habit? Are we holding tension because we’re feeling scared, or are we feeling anxious and depressed? Or excited?
Being aware of our breath can open the door to our inner world of thoughts and feelings. We can begin to associate what’s going on inside our bodies and minds through feeling how we’re breathing.
Rather than follow an external model of “how we should be breathing”, when we are aware of our breath, when that connection is made between the body and brain, we automatically start to breathe differently. The body knows how to reset itself. Maybe all it takes is a couple of deep breaths. Maybe it takes some deep breathing and some stretching. Or maybe our bodies are craving some sort of breath work, to help move stuck tension and energy.
NeuroSpinal Optimization helps us to make that connection between our brain and body, and it helps us be more aware of our breathing as well as what that breathing means. We’re able to get more in touch and have real time feedback moment by moment. We’re able to be more adaptable and resilient because we’re more in touch and connected.