Breathe in, breathe out!

Something we do all the time, without much thought; we just know that it happens and that is why we are alive. We do it around 20,000 times a day.

Our brain needs the oxygen that we breathe in and when we take deep breaths we allow more exchange of gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) in the lungs. Thus more oxygen is provided to our vital organs and this helps the brain function better, stress levels are lowered, immunity is boosted and our heartbeat slows down.

It is useful to breathe right, else we rob the body of the right amount of oxygen. Additionally, it is important to use larger portion of the lungs, instead of shallow breathing where only the top part of lungs are utilized.

What does one need to do?

That is simple. Let us try it out.

Sit in a comfortable position. Put your right hand on your heart and left on your stomach.

Take a deep breathe in and out. How does the stomach move? Watch the movement of the left hand. When breathing in, the stomach moves out and while breathing out, the stomach moves in. If this is not so, then slowly change your style of rhythmic breathing to match the above movement.

Logically, a larger space is created for the lungs to expand and take in more air when the stomach moves out and the diaphragm moves downwards. Opposite is the case during breathing out.

Breathing exercise may be done at least once a day so that the pattern corrects.

We will close the first 7 days with “Day 7: Mind Power”!

Recap: Day 1 , Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5