Relaxation breathing technique is a skill everyone should learn. Why? Because there is not a disease or illness that is not somehow affected, intensified or triggered by stress and relaxation is the number one weapon we have for attacking stress.
Stress Impacts Illness
Furthermore, every illness or disease begins with a breach in the immune system and stress directly attacks the immune system. In fact, 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are stress related. There is even some evidence that heightened stress can increase a person’s susceptibility to cancer or worsen the prognosis of a person with cancer. One of the reasons this may be true is because research has shown that cortisol, the stress hormone, appears to have an impact on tumor growth.
The Effects of Stress
Stress can effect all aspects of our physical, spiritual, emotional, cognitive and behavioral functioning. Some of the symptoms of stress may be an irregular heart beat, gastrointestinal problems, headaches, sleep disturbances, difficulty breathing, chest pain, difficulty concentrating, procrastination, memory problems, anxiety, depression, nervousness, fear, worry, apathy, irritability, impulsiveness, nightmares, withdrawal, aggression, anger, racing thoughts, loss of sexual interest, feeling distant from God, abusing caffeine and alcohol, foot/finger tapping, nail biting, hair pulling, compulsive eating, and teeth grinding just to name a few.
Stress Interferes with Proper Breathing
Stress, because it results in muscle tension, will often interfere with proper breathing. Imagine that if all the muscles around your rib cage tensed up how difficult it would be to take a nice deep breath. Yet, this is what frequently happens when people are under stress. Then, because their breathing becomes shallow, they begin to feel anxious, not realizing it all began because of stress, leading to muscle tension, leading to shallow breathing. But, using proper relaxation breathing technique can immediately begin to reduce muscle tension.
Some scientists say that 96% of our nutritional needs come from the air we breathe. If our breathing is restricted in some way we will not be getting all the oxygen we need to meet our nutritional needs. Deep breathing ensures that our brain and other parts of our body are receiving the oxygen they require. Additionally the process of breathing helps remove toxins from your body as well…as you exhale you are releasing toxins that build up as a result of stress and many other reasons. Learning proper relaxation breathing technique will help to ensure you are getting all your nutritional needs met.
It’s Time to Take Charge of Your Health
If you have been suffering from the effects of stress it’s time to take control over your health and restore peace and harmony to your inner man. One of the most powerful ways to do this is through adequate rest and relaxation.
Conquer Stress by Learning Relaxation Breathing Technique
To conquer stress it is imperative to learn how to effectively relax. Relaxation breathing technique actually acts as a switch to turn on your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). Your PNS produces a calming effect throughout your body – it constricts your pupils, slows your heart beat, stimulates digestion and glandular activity.
When you are feeling the effects of stress, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is dominant. The SNS prepares your body for fight or flight. In other words when you are under prolonged stress you have a psychological and physical response that equips you to deal with the impending danger your brain perceives is coming. Here’s what happens when stress attacks:
- Heart rate and blood pressure increases
- More blood is directed to large muscle groups to prepare you to flee or fight
- Breathing rate increases – you need more oxygen to fuel your muscles
- Pupils dilate to let in more light
- Adrenal glands release epinephrine and nor-epinephrine for even more energy
- Digestion slows to conserve energy and redirect it to where it is needed
These are the reasons that people who are experiencing anxiety begin to feel nervous and jittery and may engage in foot tapping, finger nail biting, angry outbursts etc. All that energy surging through their bodies needs to be vented or else the person needs to learn to turn off the arousal switch for the SNS – that’s exactly what relaxation does for you.
Teach Yourself Relaxation
Because stress is such a potent factor effecting our emotional and really all aspects of our health. By practicing relaxation breathing technique over a period of time you may come to…
- Feel more relaxed all the time
- Decrease your overly analytical thinking
- Prevent stress from building up
- Increase your productivity and energy
- Improve your concentration and memory
- Enjoy higher quality sleep
Learning to value and practice rest and relaxation is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health.