Tag: diaphragmatic breathing

Nature Gives You the Tools

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Excess stress and tension can have a “hidden” impact on your overall health.

Chronic stress has been shown to negatively impact the immune system. Because
this is happening “behind the scenes”, so to speak, you may not even be aware
of it.

When you experience stress, or if you have been chronically stressed for some
time, you have a decreased immune system reaction.

You may notice you are more susceptible to illness, such as colds and flu.
And you may experience more serious symptoms than you normally do. Even
minor things like a cough or cold hit you harder.

The good news is, nature provides us with some built-in tools to deal with stress,
regardless of its causes. You just have to take the time to recognize these tools
and put them to good use.

I’ve been in San Francisco this week, attending a major conference. Major as in,
about 40,000 attendees! Supposedly it’s the largest computer or IT conference
in the world! I can tell you, we have certainly taken over this part of the city!

My participation has included a presentation, some video recordings, some media
briefings….plus other assorted meetings and briefings. It’s been hectic,
sometimes crazy hectic – but fun.

And it has given me the opportunity to take my own medicine, to follow my
own advice.

Any time I have felt myself beginning to feel stressed, to get tight, I have
reminded myself of the following:

Part of your response to stress is physical in nature. In fact, you can observe
yourself at random times to determine how well you are handling life’s stresses.

For example, stop what you are doing and take a look at your posture. How are
you standing or sitting? Are your shoulders, neck and back tight or uncomfortable?
Are you hunched over?

Also attend to your breathing. Is your breathing rapid and shallow? Do you feel
tightness in your throat or chest? Do you breathe through your mouth? Do you
sometimes hold your breath when you are in the middle of something?

As you observe yourself, do so without making any judgements or engaging in
negative self-talk. Just become aware of what your posture and breathing are
telling you.

Also be aware that stress contributes to a huge number of health problems, and
can literally take years off your life. And the physical manifestations — poor
breathing, poor posture, back and neck pain, headaches — cause you to live at
a lower level of vitality.

They prevent you from achieving your full potential in life.

To reverse the effects of stress, begin with your breathing and posture.

This seems simple, but it’s a direct and powerful way of addressing two important
foundations for your health. Proper, complete breathing, and a strong limber
structure that supports good posture, are tools that nature has provided you.

Stress, chronic or acute health issues, immune system malfunctions: these are all
systemic problems. So you need to take a system wide approach if you plan on making
significant progress.

By progress, I don’t just mean relief of symptoms, although that’s very important.
I also mean counteracting or even eliminating the root causes. When you take an
inside-out approach, you begin to heal your body from within.

You Can Do It!

Karen
www.BestBreathingExercises.com

P.S. You own the tools that nature has provided. Learn how to put them to good
use in combating stress, poor breathing, or chronic fatigue with the Secret Power
of Dynamic Energy Exercise Course. The exercises in the course are easy to learn
and easy to do. But they pack a real wallop. For more information, head on over to
www.BestBreathingExercises.com.

Tea It Up

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What’s one of the easiest, yet most effective, things you can do to
increase your metabolism and energy levels?

Your first answer, given the nature of this blog, might be breathing.

And you are correct! Breathing, especially deep breathing, is an
energy and metabolism booster. But today I want to tell you about
another way to easily enhance your energy levels and metabolism.

Simply drink more water and tea each day.

Green tea contains a compound called epigallocatechin (EGCG) that has been
shown to help burn fat. Consumption of green tea can increase your metabolism for
as long as 24 hours.

Tea also contains a number of very beneficial compounds, called flavonoids. When
you drink tea, your body absorbs these flavonoids, raising the levels of anti-oxidants
in your body.

Anti-oxidants are very important to help prevent the propagation of free radicals.
These are destructive molecules that have been implicated in everything from
aging, to heart disease, to Alzheimer’s disease, to cancer.
If you have asthma or any other type of breathing problems, you should
make sure that drinks such as tea and foods that are naturally rich in
anti-oxidants, such as fruits and vegetables, are an important part of
your diet.

Not only do they contribute to your overall health, they can also help decrease
the inflammation that is part of the allergic response and a contributor to asthma.

Tea may also help support your immune system. One of the amino acids found
in tea helps activate the immune system’s first line of defense, which helps
reduce risk of infection.

I guess the Brits and the Southerners have been on to something big all these
years. Of course, England is renowned for its love of tea and the afternoon tea
break. (Although with all of the Starbucks and Cosi’s on the streets of London, it
appears that coffee has made significant inroads.)

And in my Southern heritage (mom’s side of the family), iced tea is a daily pleasure,
no matter what the time of year.

Many people (myself included) have been under the impression that only green
or herbal teas provide any benefit. The fact is, black tea varieties contain just about
the same level of flavonoids as green tea.

If you enjoy green or herbal teas, by all means continue drinking them. They are
good for you. But if black (or “regular”) tea is more your thing, you can enjoy it even
more knowing that it is good for you.

You Can Do It!

Karen
www.BestBreathingExercises.com

Not Even a Tropical Storm Can Stop Me

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Whew! We’ve had some wild Texas weather this week.

Tropical Storm Hermine (not sure exactly how to pronounce it) rolled through here a couple of days ago. What started as a surprise storm in the Gulf of Mexico ended up slamming Mexico, then slamming Central Texas. We got some winds, but  mostly a lot of hard, driving rain for two days and two nights.

I live outside of Austin in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. I can see Lake Travis from our back yard, and I walk to and near the lake nearly every day. We got a lot of rain and the lake level has risen measurably since the storm. Because our town is up on a series of hills, we avoided any major problems with flooding. However, they experienced a lot of flooding in certain areas of Austin.

Anyhoo, I was sitting here in my home office, working away as the storm rolled through. Not realizing that family and friends from the East Coast were seeing all these stories on the news about “floods and mayhem” in Central Texas. And also not realizing that they were trying to reach me, weren’t able to get through on the phones, and were growing increasingly agitated and concerned.

Here I was, happily working away, oblivious to the storm, totally focused on the projects I wanted to complete that day. Although I must admit, I did step out on the back porch from time to time to check out the storm. And I watched the Weather Channel at the top of the hour, every hour,  to see the latest radar and updates.

(As an aside: I’m a huge weather junkie! Maybe because we had some close calls when we were kids with tornados and even a hurricane?  I’m fascinated with weather, storms, hurricanes and volcanoes. I guess I’m living in the right place, because we tend to get some crazy thunderboomers rolling through here from time to time. In fact, the Texas state museum in Austin shows an interactive film entitled, “Wild Texas Weather”.  ‘Nuff said.)

Later in the day, my parents finally got through, and then my brother, and then a few friends. They were relieved to hear everything was cool in these parts. I was somewhat amused to hear of their concerns. But at least I have family and friends who love me, right?

I realized later that this was a good example of compartmentalization.

The ability to compartmentalize can be a boon to your efforts to reduce and even transform stress. We all go through days, weeks or months when we are experiencing extra stress or negative emotions based on events that have occurred, or additional projects or workloads, or some personal or family situation that demands more of us. It can be easy to fall into feelings of being overwhelmed, or not being up to the challenge, or even self-pity.

Rather than give in to these feelings and allow them to overwhelm you, why not try a different tack? Here’s what I do:

Take a few deep breaths and relax. Visualize that your present responsibilities, projects, and challenges are a series of boxes, sitting up on a shelf in your mind’s eye. Decide which “box”, or project, you should work on next. Take the box off the shelf, open it, and get to work.

When you have pushed that project as far as you can for now, close the box, put it back on the shelf, and take a short break. Do some deep, gentle breathing and clear your mind. This helps you change gears. Then reach for the next box, open it, and get busy.

In cases of truly challenging personal or family issues, such as a serious illness or a relationship ending, allow yourself some time each day (or multiple times per day) to recognize, affirm and actually feel the fear, grief, anger, or whatever emotion is associated with this challenge. In other words, allow yourself time each day to open up that particular box and wallow in the emotions, immerse yourself in the problem, and think through what you can do about it. Don’t deny the fact that you are going through a very tough time. Give yourself permission to whine and moan and hurt.

And then…. close the box, put it back up n the shelf, and get going with another, hopefully more positive box or project.

You will find that this approach can help you better direct your focus and energies. You’ll get more done and feel more in control, even as the storm rages around you.

You Can Do It!

Karen

www.BestBreathingExercises.com

Can You Breathe With Your Feet?

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When I first begin to work with a client, I spend a lot of time with them on their breathing.

Most people (it’s estimated to be 90%) don’t know how to breathe properly. When you breathe fully and completely, you exercise the lungs completely. You begin to use the remote sections of the lungs, the lower lobes, that remain unused by most people.

Activating a greater portion of your lungs increases your energy levels and boosts your vitality. This is a huge help if you are out of shape and starting a fitness or exercise program. It also provides a significant boost to performance if you are training or competing. Elite athletes work on their breathing patterns to help them train harder and longer and get an edge in competition.

When I teach martial arts, I pay attention to how the student is breathing. Many times, as they work on their forms or sparring, they will actually stop breathing!

I think this is partly a reaction to performing something new and challenging. When we are unsure of ourselves or our capacity to handle the thing in front of us, we often pull within ourselves and tighten up. We try harder, we clench up.

Before you know it, we are breathing so shallow as to hardly be breathing at all.

Most breathing instruction centers around abdominal breathing, with the primary focus being whether your abdomen moves in and out when you breathe. This is an incomplete approach. When you breathe properly, you are using the muscles and structures of your chest, abdomen, sides and back. You should see and feel these areas moving, expanding, then relaxing with every full, complete breath.

Ancient martial arts instructors and philosophers even taught that you should breathe all the way into your feet!

Of course, your lungs don’t reach to your feet. Their point was to imagine you were breathing all the way down to your feet. This helps ground you and puts you in a position of strength and stability.

It may take you some practice before you are able to breathe this completely. In the Secret Power of Dynamic Energy Exercise Course, you learn how to breathe completely. You also learn an incredible series of exercises that will have you breathing more completely and fully than ever before — while simultaneously relaxing and rejuvenating your body.

Some of the exercises you learn are adapted from traditional breathing methods, methods that involve and engage practically the entire body. They help open up your airways, strengthen the muscles that support breathing, and leave you feeling clear and energized. When you feel this good, breathing from your feet seems like a piece of cake.

You Can Do It!

Karen

Many of Us Take This For Granted

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Sometimes people laugh when I tell them that part of the work I do with my clients
is to teach them how to breathe.

They say, “Everyone knows how to breath. Why would you need to spend any
time on that?”

I understand where they’re coming from. Breathing is the number one thing our
body needs to do to stay alive. It’s largely an involuntary activity, so it’s easy to
take it for granted.

Most people rarely if ever pay attention to their breathing. That’s a shame, because
attending to your breathing and learning how to improve it can have a radical impact
on your health.

When you breathe fully and completely, you bring into action all of the muscles and
structures involved in respiration. You exercise the lungs completely, including the
lower and remote sections of each lung that remain unused by most people. You
expand the chest cavity in all directions, which helps to develop a full, broad chest
and good posture. 

Regular practice of breathing exercises helps you avoid colds and bronchial
infections. It also increases your overall vitality because you are, for perhaps the
first time since you were a baby, activating all parts of your lungs. This rejuvenates
you and provides more energy and vitality.  It also provides a boost to fat-burning
and weight loss.

The medical and scientific communities are recognizing more and more the importance
of getting enough oxygen. Studies have shown that proper breathing contributes to
healthy metabolism, circulation, digestion, and elimination.  It helps calm and relax
you and minimizes stress and anxiety. 

One of the most important means of strengthening and improving is performing a
combination of deep breathing and dynamic exercises.  This helps simultaneously
increase lung capacity and power and strengthen the entire torso.  It also promotes
the unobstructed flow of internal energy that may have been blocked because of your
condition.

This approach is at the heart of the Dynamic Energy Routine, which I teach in the
Secret Power of Dynamic Energy Exercise Course, Volume 2 (please visit

the Best Breathing Exercises website for more information).

Through the routine, you learn how to breathe fully and deeply, you develop lung
power, and you build up all of the muscles and structures associated with proper
breathing and good posture.

This approach strengthens the body from the inside out, and thus has a more
profound and lasting effect.  

It’s easy to fit into your day and the exercises are organized in progression
so they are accessible to anyone, no matter what your present condition may be.

It’s amazing the impact that proper, complete breathing can have on you, physically,
mentally and emotionally.

Have you taken the time to learn how to breathe properly?

You Can Do It!

Karen

Welcome to the Best Breathing Exercises Blog

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Dear Friend,

Welcome to the Best Breathing Exercises Energy, Fitness and Personal Power blog. 

Within each post, you’ll find valuable, life-transforming information to help you reduce stress, achieve optimal health and fitness, lose weight and increase your overall energy and personal power. If you’re like me, you juggle work and career, family and personal activities. You value information and perspectives that can help you achieve the energy and wellbeing you desire, so you can enjoy time with your family, achieve your goals, and possess control and balance in your life. 

I’ve learned a few things along my journey in this life. I would love to share them with you, in the hopes you’ll find what I have to offer useful.  And I guarantee what I share will be honest, informative AND entertaining.

If you’re looking beyond conventional exercise programs and wish to tap into the vibrant health and energy generated by deep breathing and Dynamic Energy Exercise™ — this is the place for you.

So just what is Dynamic Energy Exercise™? In short, it’s an approach to exercise and wellbeing that integrates your body, mind and spirit through the focal point of your breath, giving you better results in less time than with conventional exercise programs. My approach leverages time-tested principles and techniques from the martial arts, breathing methods, and energy disciplines. It’s extremely effective yet easy to learn and is accessible to just about anyone.

I want you to enjoy the optimal health, vitality and confidence you deserve. That’s why I developed the Dynamic Energy Exercise courses, as well as other products, programs and resources that are available through my website, www.BestBreathingExercises.com. In addition to checking out this blog on a regular basis, you can go to the website and sign up for my Best Breathing Exercises email tips – sent directly to your inbox.  

So come along with me and I’ll help you achieve the fitness, energy and renewed zest for life you desire, so you can enjoy time with your family, achieve your goals, and possess control and balance in your life.

I’m confident the information available here will help you immensely. So enjoy!

You Can Do It!
Karen