There are a number of different things that we need as individuals in order to live. We can go for several months without eating, although very few of us have ever tried this before in order to test the theory. Water is something that is a bit more urgent and in many cases, the human body will die without water after several days. Even more urgent than this is oxygen and if we are not breathing, the human body typically loses consciousness within a minute or so and permanent brain damage occurs after several minutes without oxygen. This goes to show you exactly how important it is that we breathe. As a matter of fact, it is one of the healing processes that many of us tend to overlook whenever we are dealing with chronic pain.
Very few of us breathe properly and this can really affect our overall health for the long term. In order to figure out if you breathe properly or not, you need to watch your stomach during the time that you are breathing without really thinking about it. You may even need to get the help of somebody else who can watch you in order to see if the following is true or not. When you breathe properly, your breathing deep into your lungs and as a result, your diaphragm will move in order to make way for the additional volume in your chest. You will recognize this because your stomach will go in and out as you are breathing. If you are not breathing properly, on the other hand, your stomach will not move in and out and you’re not getting adequate oxygen.
It is important for you to consciously breathe on a regular basis in order to retrain your body to breathe properly, should you happen to be a shallow breather. It also helps if you do deep breathing exercises throughout the day, deeply breathing in through your nose and allowing your lungs to fill, all the way to the bottom. Exhale slowly through your mouth and repeat the process. As you do this, you will begin to feel a new life entering into your body and pay attention to the way that your body is feeling, you will start to recognize that the pain you are feeling is more manageable.
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