Breathing Tips to Reduce Stress and Improve Health

We breathe every day. Yet, many of us are not breathing fully. We do not inhale from our lower diaphragm enough oxygen to be healthy beyond belief.

How long can you hold your breath? It depends. Are you sitting relaxed in a chair or lying on a couch versus underwater? Holding your breath can be learned.

World Records

Aleix Segura Vendrell of Barcelona, Spain, has the Guinness World Record for holding his breath for 24 minutes and 3 seconds. (https://www.healthline.com/health/holding-your-breath#:~:text=The%20record%20for%20holding%20your,3%20seconds%20in%20February%202016)

Stig Severinsen from Denmark held his breath underwater (202 meters below the surface) for 20 minutes and 10 seconds. https://www.sportalsub.net/en/stig-severinsen-record-guinness-2020/

Holding your breath for a long time is not the same as talking on one breath. Check out these two YouTube videos of people counting as high as they can on one breath. The first record of counting out loud to 210 (https://youtu.be/DwaPH--Kvf8) was beaten quickly by another person counting to 265 on one breath (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzjK5g85174&t=0s). Guinness World Records did not sanction the records of counting on one breath, but the photographic evidence is stunning.

Breathing Techniques

The proper way of breathing can help most people. Wim Hof discusses a breathing technique in this YouTube video and how it allows him to swim in arctic waters with ice flows around him. (https://youtu.be/d_lMsY1KUss). This Wim Hof video shows you a beginning breathing technique (https://youtu.be/0BNejY1e9ik).

Why so much information about breathing? Several years ago, I started following pranayamas (breathing exercises). This short video demonstrates three pranayama breathing techniques (https://youtu.be/395ZloN4Rr8). Proper breathing reduces stress and improves your immune system.

Breathing Exercises

https://www.healthline.com/health/breathing-exercise There are ten breathing techniques, several involving pranayamas, that can help you begin to breathe again to improve your health.

We breathe every minute of every day and never think about it. Yes, sometimes we become winded and are forced to think about our breathing, but it is not that we often concentrate on the air coming in and out of our lungs. The more oxygen you can circulate in your body, the healthier you become.

Conclusion

Concentrate on your breathing for more than a couple of minutes. It is hard to do. Distractions grab our concentration. Yet, learning how to breathe and practicing better breathing techniques can be done for free and at home, work, or commuting. Does anyone commute anymore during the pandemic, I wonder?

I believe all of us want good health. We may not eat right or exercise often, but we can improve our breathing. Take a quick challenge before you go to your next distraction. Take a deep breath, start counting out loud on one breath and see how high you can count. If that number is under 60, learn to breathe better.

Live Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughin – RedOLaughlin.com