How do you breathe normally? Do you breathe with your lungs or with your abdomen? Few people pay attention to their breathing patterns. When we are still in the womb, we use abdominal breathing, also known as deep breathing. However, after we are born, we start to use lung breathing, also known as shallow breathing. Long-term shallow breathing can cause significant damage to the intestines and stomach. Some well-known exercises, such as yoga, qigong, tai chi, and swimming, all involve deep breathing. Engaging in these types of exercises or practicing deep breathing can lower the acidity levels in the body, maintain a balance of chemical composition, and prevent suboptimal health. Therefore, it is beneficial to consciously engage in deep breathing exercises for our overall health.
Beauty-conscious women should know that deep breathing is also an effective method for slimming the abdomen. In addition, deep breathing improves the respiratory system, exercises the heart, and enhances its physiological function. When the body engages in deep breathing, it is equivalent to doing chest expansion exercises. This can strengthen the function of the cardiopulmonary system and improve cerebral hypoxia. Deep breathing also has a massaging effect on the stomach and intestines, aiding digestion. Therefore, deep breathing is the preferred breathing technique for those who pursue beauty.
Compared to deep breathing, shallow breathing is much slower. When people engage in shallow breathing, they often don't feel like they are breathing, just like how they can't hear their own heartbeat when they are calm. Shallow breathing increases the acidity levels in the body. Combined with daily lifestyle and diet, it can lead to an accumulation of excessive acidic substances in the body. These accumulated acidic substances can cause excessive gastric acid in the stomach, leading to stomach problems.
In contrast to shallow breathing, during slow deep breathing, the alkalinity levels in the body increase. This helps balance the acidity and alkalinity levels in the body. Additionally, deep breathing can accelerate blood circulation and the heartbeat, providing more oxygen to the body and delivering it to all cells through the bloodstream, thereby maintaining good health. Deep breathing involves inhaling fresh air into the body and exhaling stale air out, which helps eliminate waste and toxins from the body, creating a healthy internal environment.
Therefore, it is advisable to consciously adopt deep breathing as our breathing technique. This not only benefits our physical health but also brings relaxation to our whole body. In the morning and evening, when we exercise in the square or take a leisurely walk by the lake, or when we are surrounded by lush flowers and trees, we can do a few deep breaths to refresh ourselves. It instantly brings a sense of tranquility and contentment.
Editor's Note:
The breath should be long during inspiration and short during expiration. Breathing exercises in qigong emphasize the regulation of breath. We can observe that people on the verge of death have long exhalation and short inhalation, or even only exhaling without inhaling. It shows that short inhalation and long exhalation are signs of being in a dangerous state. Practicing qigong and yoga require us to use the "long inhalation and short exhalation" abdominal deep breathing method. This method not only helps prevent illness and improve fitness, but also enhances mental development and intelligence. It also contributes to having a beautiful physique and is a secret to longevity.
