The secret value of breathing

Breathing isn’t something many of us even think about, but the way we breathe can affect our overall health. Most of us, at times we take shallow breaths, therefore to discover our natural breathing often is the case of removing the obstacle that we added to our breaths.

Correlation between breathing and the state of our body and mind have been made from thousands of years in Yogic scriptures and the medical practice of Ayurveda, more recently countless scientific studies have supported this ancient wisdom, linking effortless breathing with the mitigation of the most insidious health problems.

For me it was a step-by-step process, learning gradually over a long period of time to become aware of my breathing pattern. This, - to begin with - has thought me to be more curious in my breath, not only when mindfully practicing yoga, but also being observant during everyday mundane tasks, by learning to recognise the movement in the body that are present during breathing to perceive its natural flow.

As I came to notice that I was unconsciously restricting my natural flow of breath, (becoming aware the multiple consequences were acerbating too common symptoms) the second step to reclaim the breath, was to notice how I was preventing the breath from entering and leaving the body freely (for instance a frozen diaphragm or as a feeling of restriction in breathing where the breath feels shallow or tight) by cultivating self-awareness .

Many of us feel ourselves disconnected with our body (often as our habit and culture have led us to mostly focus outwardly) realizing we have never gotten to know our breath before, so it is only natural that at the beginning the perception might be vague with only a general sense of breathing.

With a sense of interest in our well-being and perseverance our perception will become more localized and refined with a natural progression of awareness. In time our breath will become like a companion we come to know well, we enjoy listening to and spend time in close connection, just naturally. 

With some practice, breathing technique helps us focus the attention, teaching us to deepen our breaths which can benefit the entire body and help us shift from a state of stress to one of relaxed alertness.

This expand our awareness to a part of us that we didn’t know was there before, that bring us in closer connection with ourselves, a new facet of our being to which our senses had not yet open to explore.

The secret value of breathing opens our senses, our curiosity and our inner awareness to the very energy that gives us life and shape our being; our breath.