BREATH PRACTICE

I have recently been re-reading my books on breathing and concentrating on ‘breath work’ again. It is fascinating.

As something that we all do every day, you would think we would be quite good at it, but apparently that’s not the case. Most of us just ‘breathe to get by’.

Improving your breathing can improve your health in numerous ways and you don’t need any special equipment or fancy clothes to do it.

I first learned about the benefits of various types of breathing several years ago – before the world discovered Wim Hof – and became quite a convert of some of the methods. But like a lot of things, I let the practice slip.

The majority of us are ‘mouth breathers’ – breathing through our mouths during the day, and often the night.

That can have detrimental effects on our health. When you breathe through your nose, you absorb more nitric oxide, and can absorb 18% more oxygen than by mouth breathing.

The amount of nitric oxide in your body influences your weight, immune function, concentration, blood circulation and mood.

I have found two things really doable and effective and suggest you look them up if you are interested in improving your own health with breath work.

The first is the 5.5 breath – the optimal breathing rate – and the second is taping your mouth shut whilst sleeping.

Please do your own thorough research – it’s really not as bad as it sounds and only involves a small piece of Micropore surgical tape … although when I explained it to my brother, he suggested maybe I should extend it to the daytime, too.