Breathe better

It seems that lots of people don’t realize how important the way they breathe is. They have habits like taking shallow breaths or sometimes holding the breath. When these habits occur unconsciously, they can contribute to back and neck pain, and increase your stress. Fortunately, we can learn to breathe better.

Take a minute – or several – to breathe fully through the nose. Allow the breath in softly. Focus on letting the diaphragm, ribs, and belly move. Allow the lungs fill all the way up then softly exhale.

Frequently taking shallow breaths means the smaller muscles of the chest and neck are doing the work instead of the larger and stronger diaphragm.

CNN has a series by Dana Santas on breathing. I was glad to see them giving coverage to this topic. Part 1 is Breathe Better to Live Better: Why Breathing is Your Superpower.

For a deeper study of the breath, I recommend two books.

• Breath by James Nestor. James Nestor covers recent science and personal experience about breathing in an easy-to-read style. He explains the differences in the body of consciously engaging in breathing exercises compared to unconscious habits. I found this book to be very informative. He also links to practice videos on the website.

• The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi. My yoga teacher talked about this book for years before I finally went through it and did the exercises. I found it to be transformational! This work eliminated my chronic upper back pain.
  
  This is slightly updated from a 2010 post.