Do You Have Healthy Breathing Habits?

Healthy breathing impacts your daily life. Breathing incorrectly can make it difficult to manage stress, to fight off common viruses, and maintain energy throughout the day. If you think about it, we never really learned how to breathe; it’s something that we do naturally. There is no training for breathing like there is for walking and talking. After forming our breathing habits as children, it is hard to modify them as adults. Hopefully, you already have healthy breathing habits! If not, you are not alone. Many people are unaware that they are suffering from unhealthy breathing habits. How can you check?

Here are a few suggestions on what a healthy breathing experience should feel like:

• People should take approximately 14-16 breaths per minute in a normal state. To check this, set a timer for one minute. While going about your day, breathing regularly, count how many breaths you take within that minute. If you’re within 14-16 breaths per minute, you’re doing well!
• The next way to check healthy breathing is to feel how you breathe and where you breathe from. Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. Breathe in through your nose, slowly. Notice how your hands move. If you hand on stomach moved up while the hand your chest stayed mostly in the same place, that is a healthy breathing habit!
• For the next test, leave you hands where there are. This time, take note of where your hands move when you breath out slowly through pursed lips. If the hand on your stomach lowered, this is good.
• The most important healthy breathing habit is breathing through your nose. Our noses are amazing. They have a filtration system that helps protect us from viruses and bacterium. Our nose is our first defense against illness.

The best way to concentrate on healthy breathing habits is to take some time each day to relax and focus on your breathing. Spend a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening to do some deep breathing exercises, focusing on the motion of your hands on your stomach and chest. You will find with consistent breathing exercises that you feel calmer, yet more energized.

Contact me for more information about living a full, healthy life that focuses on all aspects of a person’s well-being. I’d love to help motivate and inspire you on your journey to health, happiness, and success.