Life itself is breath, which runs through all of our cells and systems without being seen. It is one of the most basic forces that keep us alive. It brings oxygen to our tissues and gets rid of carbon dioxide, which is produced when cells respire. However, breath is important for many more reasons than just its physiological functions.
Our breathing has a lot to do with how we feel and think. When we are under a lot of stress, anxiety, or strong emotions, our breathing tends to get shallow, quick, and tight. On the other hand, when we are calm and at ease, our breath flows freely and deeply.
So, we can directly change our physical, emotional, and mental responses by learning to consciously change the way we breathe. This can help us feel calm, clear, and balanced inside.
Recently, I sat down with a Breath Jedi Master, Mark, to discuss breathwork, a vital aspect of life that often goes unnoticed, and here’s a breakdown!
How Restorative Breathing Works
Many people, mostly women, breathe through their mouths while they sleep, which can lead to a lot of problems. We often use the wrong breathing muscles because we do not understand how the chemistry and electricity of breathing work. We can get our energy and vitality back by breathing naturally, like we did when we were kids.
Restorative breathing helps us get back to our original shape, which lets us feel alive and fully express ourselves. It is about taking back our freedom and power and choosing how we want to live and act in the world.
This practice is especially good for women over 50 because it helps with depression, anxiety, mood swings, and keeping your mind clear. Breathwork practice is for you if you want to feel good and improve your mood.
READ ALSO: Surprising Breathwork Tips for Wrinkle Reduction, Restful Sleep, and Longevity
The Blue Zones and Longevity
In regions known as Blue Zones, people live longer, healthier lives by living in alignment with nature. These centenarians have larger lung capacity and volume, breathing less but more efficiently. This is something we can all strive for, especially women over 50 who experience a sharp decline in lung function.
Breathing exercises have recently gotten a lot of attention as a way to live longer. They are a great addition to the practices popularized in Blue Zones.
Blue Zones health practices that focus on whole-person wellness are similar to adding breathwork to daily routines. In line with the holistic secrets to longevity found in Blue Zones, women over 50 who practice breathwork can get a lot of benefits, such as better lung function, less stress, better brain function, better heart health, and emotional well-being.
As we age, starting in our late 40s and 50s, we often notice rapid aging if we continue with the same habits. Breathwork can help slow this process, promoting longevity and vitality. It is not enough to just get by; you need to thrive.
READ ALSO: How Women Over 50 Are Redefining Longevity and Successful Aging
Simple Techniques for Better Breathing
When you do breathwork, you need to use your diaphragm correctly. Learn to feel your diaphragm tighten and loosen up without breathing. Once you get good at this, add the breath while making sure your body does not move up. Your health and vitality will improve as you retrain your diaphragm over time.
First, let us do a simple exercise to work your diaphragm, which is the main muscle that helps you breathe. When you breathe in, put your hands on your floating ribs and feel your diaphragm push your hands outward. The movement should go back and down, not up. Many people breathe with their chest muscles instead of their shoulders, which can cause stress and reduce oxygen intake.
If you breathe with the wrong muscles, you might feel tired, have a bad mood, and feel more stressed. It also changes the way you stand and the way your face looks, which makes you look older. If you use your diaphragm correctly, you can counteract these effects and feel better all around.
Case Study: This is the case of a student who has long struggled with sleep due to nasal congestion and dryness. After a weekend course on breathing techniques, she experienced significant improvement, no longer relying on antihistamines. Such small changes in breathing can lead to transformative results.
It can also be very helpful to include short, manageable workouts. Simple five-minute sessions can build up to thirty minutes of practice over time, creating a healthy habit. It is important to make small changes that you enjoy and are easy to keep up with this method.
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Breathwork Techniques for Better Sleep and Better Performance
Breathing is something we often take for granted, yet it significantly impacts our well-being. Going back to natural, effective ways of breathing can make a huge difference, especially for athletes and people who have trouble sleeping. Getting better at breathing for health and performance is what we are talking about most of the time.
For instance, athletes must breathe efficiently to perform at their peak. Many people, like swimmers, get asthma because they breathe a lot through their mouths during long workouts. This method of breathing brings a host of issues, including poor sleep quality.
Mouth breathing makes you take short, quick breaths, which keeps your body in a state of sympathetic arousal, which is like being ready to fight or run away. This makes it hard to sleep and can cause snoring and sleep apnea, which are bad for your health and performance in general.
Here are some breathwork techniques that can help with better sleep and performances:
Mouth taping
Mouth taping at night is a simple but effective way to deal with these problems. You can breathe better through your nose by putting a small piece of tape over your mouth. It might feel weird at first, but many people find that it greatly reduces snoring and improves the quality of their sleep. Better sleep can have a big impact on the health of both the person and their partner.
Balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide
The right balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide is an important part of healthy breathing. While oxygen is crucial, managing carbon dioxide levels is equally important. When you overbreathe, your carbon dioxide levels drop, which makes you breathe faster and makes you more stressed. For cells to properly use oxygen, they need the right amount of carbon dioxide to make energy and get rid of waste.
READ ALSO: How Nitric Oxide in Breathwork Promotes Healthy Aging
Light, Slow, and Deep breathing (LSD)
Light, Slow, and Deep (LSD) breathing is a useful way to improve the efficiency of your breathing. This involves taking smaller breaths—about 10-20% of a full breath—and exhaling slowly to build carbon dioxide tolerance. This method helps get more oxygen into the cells, which gives them more energy and gets rid of waste faster.
Always breathe through your nose, because that is how it was meant to be used. To begin, take small sips of air and slowly let them out. It might feel uncomfortable at first, but if you keep at it, you will eventually get used to it and be able to handle more carbon dioxide.
Finally, learning the right way to breathe can make a huge difference in how well you sleep and how well you do in sports. Making a few simple changes and sticking to them can have big effects on your health and your daily life. If you start slowly and keep at it, you will soon be able to breathe better.
The Mechanics of Mouth Breathing and How It Affects You
Breathing is a fundamental activity often taken for granted. Many people develop habits such as mouth breathing, which involves using auxiliary muscles in the neck and shoulders rather than the diaphragm. This is a common issue, particularly among women over 50.
As the diaphragm weakens from disuse, the rib cage becomes more rigid, hindering the heart and lungs’ ability to expand fully. Consequently, we rely on mouth breathing, which further exacerbates these problems.
The Consequences of Mouth Breathing
Mouth breathing leads to several adverse effects. One major issue is muscle overuse. Overusing muscles in the neck and shoulders, like the scalenes, trapezius, and sternocleidomastoid (SCM), can make them overly tight and tired.
Additionally, prolonged mouth breathing can result in jaw and facial changes. It can make the jaw smaller, the palate higher, and the space in the nose smaller. This can make the nasal passages dry, swollen, and stuffed.
Posture issues are another significant consequence of mouth breathing. This habit often leads to a forward head posture, rounded shoulders, and a tilted upward head, all of which put extra stress on the shoulders and neck.
Furthermore, mouth breathing can alter facial appearances. When you breathe through your mouth, your face changes. Your chin recedes, your cheekbones drop, your eyes sag, and your wrinkles get deeper. These changes have an effect on both your physical health and the way your face looks in general.
READ ALSO: How Humming Breathwork Can Slow Down Aging Process
How to Restore Proper Breathing For Women Over 50
You need to retrain your diaphragm and fix your posture to counteract these effects. Here are some important steps to get your breathing back to normal:
Diaphragmatic Breathing: Stretch the diaphragm by doing deep belly breathing. This helps the lungs work properly and makes the rib cage expand.
Posture Correction: When you sit or stand, keep your body in the right position. If you are sitting, make sure your hips are higher than your knees and your head is straight back. Here’s a posture workout you can try out!
Nasal breathing: Learning to breathe through your nose will help keep your jaw in the right place and improve your overall respiratory health.
Mindful Practice: Check and adjust your breathing and posture often during the day, especially when you are doing things like watching TV or working at a computer.
Benefits Beyond Breathing: Inner Radiance and Beauty
Breathing better improves respiratory function, well-being, and appearance. Breathing correctly reduces neck and shoulder tension. Good diaphragmatic breathing can ease stress and pain in the neck and shoulders by easing the strain on those muscles.
Furthermore, using the right breathing techniques can enhance the look of your face and skin. As long as you breathe through your nose instead of your mouth, your jaw will not get smaller, your palate will not rise, and your nose will not get stuffy.
This keeps your face more balanced and lowers your risk of changes like sagging eyes and more wrinkles that come with breathing through your mouth.
True beauty and radiance come from within, reflecting overall health and well-being. Practicing healthy habits like breathing properly, eating well, and thinking positively can make you look and feel much better. It’s important to focus on:
- Healthy Lifestyle: Eat a balanced diet, work out regularly, and get enough sleep.
- Positive Mindset: Keep a positive attitude and do not think bad things about other people or yourself.
- Daily Practices: Stick to simple routines that are good for your mental and physical health.
Our Personal Journey with Breathwork
Mark and I are siblings and we have been in the health and well-being space for a long time. We aim to share their knowledge to help you age well, ensuring your body thrives rather than declines.
Breathwork has been a cornerstone of Mark’s life since 1984, leading him to train over 3,000 teachers in mindset training and breath coaching. He has collaborated with Olympic gold medalists, world champions in surfing and swimming, and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
Mark’s journey has taken him back and forth to India for three decades, where He has been privileged to learn from master teachers who shared hidden knowledge and secret practices.
We grew up in a strict, authoritarian family where expression was limited, leading to habits of shallow breathing and muscle constriction. Over time, these habits became default behaviors. Restorative breathing can help us change these patterns and get back to a state of balance and health.
According to Mark, “Breathwork practices are simple and always with you, making it easy to incorporate into your life. I’ve taught these techniques in 10 countries, and my goal for this class is to share simple, time-efficient methods to drastically improve your health.”
Closing Thoughts
Breathwork is a simple yet powerful tool for enhancing your health and longevity. You can feel more in tune with your body and get your energy back by focusing on the right way to breathe. You will notice big changes in your overall health and happiness if you practice regularly.
Getting better at breathing can have huge effects on your health, looks, and general happiness. You can counteract the bad effects of mouth breathing by retraining your diaphragm, fixing your posture, and switching to nasal breathing.
In addition, focusing on your inner health and living a healthy life will make you look and feel better inside.
Remember, the journey to better health starts with a single breath. Try restorative breathwork and feel how proper breathing can change your life.
♡ Love ♡,
Schellea
