Love is in the Air,….Soooooo Just Breathe It In…..
Hello Peeps! Yep….another Gommy’s Goodies…and so soon after the last one. There seems to be a slowdown in my Facebook community lately…..so Goms had time to focus on a topic I was reading about in a magazine article this morning. It was on a yogic technique called Alternate-Nostril Breathing. While reading the piece, it hit me that we do many of the same things over and over again, without even realizing we may be doing them wrong. This particular article was about the ‘simple’ task of breathing. Yeah, I know, whoda thunk it! What’s the big deal about breathing right? Well, it turns out it is a VERY big deal. By doing it ‘right’ it may add to the quality of how we are living….oh, and about the actual ‘living’ part…there’s that too.
The article went on to say that we breathe over 20,000 times a day. You’d think that doing something 20,000 times a day would help you to get preeeeeety good at something wouldn’t you? But NOPE. To breathe correctly, (not just to stay alive), you must concentrate and think about how you breathe. Amazing, right?
Breathing can do many things besides the all-important one of keeping us on the right side of the sod. It can reduce stress, help us heal and even help us to lose weight. I’m not sure ‘how’ it helps us in losing weight….but that is what the article said….so there must be some science to it. And I know for a fact that the reducing stress one works. Been there….done that a bunch!
When we are all inside our heads and worried and stressed about any number of things…we tend to breathe shallowly. I guess that is because we are so busy concentrating on what is bothering us….we don’t take the time to ‘think’ about how we are breathing. I know…I know….breathing is an automatic reflex. But ‘determined/concentrative breathing’ takes some thinking. The article said if you are having a stressful day….try the breathing exercise. I did and I could see an immediate feeling of calmness. Breathing this way is how it may help to heal us, for example, by lowering our blood pressure and/or pulse rate. And it also helps tremendously in the de-stressing department.
Have you ever felt all tied up in knots and just taken in a long breath and immediately felt a little better? Bingo…. See, you have already done a deep breath cleansing and didn’t even know it. It’s probably the body ‘knowing’ how to relieve stress and jumping in to let the ‘steam’ off for us. Sort of an automatic built-in safety pressure gauge. Guess that’s where the term ‘venting’ originated.
The exercise goes like this: Close your mouth and put your thumb next to the right side of your nose and press it in, then breathe in (deeply and thoughtfully about the inhaling of your breath) through the left nostril. Then exhale through the left nostril….slowly. When you have fully exhaled, put your pinkie finger on the left nostril, while lifting your thumb off of the right nostril….. and breathe deeply in through the right nostril, then repeat. Do this for a series of five times. You will be amazed at how peaceful you feel. It also helps when we are tired…because an extra- big dose of oxygen helps revive our brain to stay awake (literally).
So, that's Gommys' tip for the day. Try it if you want an easy, free way to feel better instantly....and who amongst us in this 21st Century demand for instant gratification wouldn't? Chillax Peeps! You can do it! Goms is pulling for ya'. Hugs & Mush- Gommy
