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| We take in 23,000 breaths a day, but few of us know how to breathe well (posed by a model). Photo: Getty/GNM design/Getty |
Aimee Hartley, like most people, thought she knew how to breathe – she had, after all, been doing it all her life. She had also given it plenty of thought, having trained as a yoga teacher. But then she took a lesson with a breathing coach, who told her where she was going wrong. He pointed out she wasn’t taking the air into her lower lungs but was, she says, an “upper chest breather. He then taught me this conscious breathing and I felt my lower belly open, and I felt myself breathing a lot better after just one session. So I then became fascinated by how we breathe.”
Watching her students in her yoga class, and observing people in everyday life, she started noticing that almost nobody breathes that well, by which she means in a way that makes your belly expand and your upper chest and back lift slightly, in a fluid motion. The exception, she says, is “babies, until they’re about three”. Then we forget how to breathe.
There has been a huge rise in interest in “breathwork” in the last few years, in the western wellness world at least (spiritual practices such as Buddhism and Hinduism have long known about the benefits of breathing well)...
Spending time online, too, has affected our breath. “When we’re engaged in technology we’re doing these subconscious breath-holds a lot,” she says. It can happen when concentrating on writing an email, but also when mindlessly scrolling through social media. “And the things we see online can make us feel inadequate or anxious, so there’s an emotional factor that can affect breathing. I don’t know if anyone comes off social media feeling better.” There are also postural issues that can hamper our respiratory system, whether you are hunched over a laptop or, head down and neck bent, looking at your phone.
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Source: The Guardian
