9 – Daily deep breathing

Deep diaphragmatic breaths have vital functions in maintaining health and lymph movement throughout the body. It helps us relax and turn off the fight or flight response that many people spend their lives in.

The pace of life is increasing at an incredible rate. From the moment we wake up to when in bed at night, our thoughts are a million miles an hour, from one task to the next. It's rush, rush, rush. Always busy. Too busy to relax. The result of this lifestyle is that we tend to spend most of our time in a state of stress and anxiety, which leads to an increase in cortisol (stress hormone) production, which will lead to fatigue, and chronic health issues.

The fight or flight response is only meant to last for around ninety minutes and dissipate as the threat is averted, after which the system returns to normal, and calm is resumed. But we don't live our lives like that. The majority of people live in this stressed state, leading to a whole host of problems.

The opposite of the fight and flight response is the rest and relax (or rest and digest as it's also known). We are supposed to spend most of the time in this state. This is where the body and mind are relaxed, and everything functions optimally. As our current lifestyle doesn't allow much of this, we must make time to switch over to the rest and relax system as much as we can. The easiest way is to breathe - deep!

A quick way is to make your exhales longer and slower than the inhales. Breathe in, and breathe out slooowwlyyy. This can be done many times during the day, allowing your system to slow down and settle for a short while. After doing this for a couple of minutes, notice how you feel, then return to normal breathing and carry on with your day.

Another way is to do deep diaphragmatic breathing while lying down. Place your hands on your belly, take a deep breath in and at the same time, push your hands up with your stomach. Hold this for a second or two, then breath out slowly and allow your belly to fall as you fully exhale. Do this a few times and notice how you feel? My guess is that you will feel more relaxed and calmer than before you started. Do this at least twice a day and notice how different you begin to feel.