Shallow breathing is the most common type of breathing in our busy lives. We are so rushed that we forget that we should actually be focusing on our breaths throughout the day. Deep breathing, also referred to as
diaphragmatic breathing, is what we should be doing at least for part of every day. There are many benefits of deep breathing that will change your life. We know you will be amazed by how much better you feel once you incorporate into your days. There are even deep breathing exercises for anxiety that can help make your days less stressful.
Deep Breathing Benefits Everyone Must Know
Improved Physical Performance
Imagine being able to walk, run, or workout without feeling like you must catch your breath. This is completely possible when you begin to take advantage of the benefits of deep breathing. When you can breathe easier, you will be able to be active for longer periods of time. That means your physical performance will improve over time.
Increased Mental Performance
Staying focused throughout the day can be very difficult. There are so many things to keep track of and remember. When you do not focus on your breathing and allow it to become shallow, you are not getting the oxygen you need. Deep breathing will increase your oxygen levels and that will improve your focus and mental performance. Take advantage of this increased performance level to check off everything on your to-do list!
Less Stress and Anxiety
Everybody has stress in their life, but you do not need to let it control your days. Changing the way you breathe can reduce your stress levels almost immediately. Since anxiety levels can also increase when you are stressed, you can feel even worse if you do not practice deep breathing. Thankfully, there are numerous
deep breathing exercises for anxiety that you can do to keep you from being too anxious.
Increased Oxygen Levels
Your lungs stretch with every breath you take. However, when you are constantly doing shallow breathing, you are not keeping your lungs at their full capacity. One of the many benefits of deep breathing is that your lungs can hold more oxygen. And that will allow you to constantly increase your oxygen levels. Plus, since you are increasing your oxygen levels, you will instantly be decreasing the carbon dioxide levels in your body.
Core Muscle Stability
You already know that one of the benefits of deep breathing is improved physical performance. Well, your core muscles are part of that, and they will become more stable when you take advantage of deep breathing. This is considered the easiest way to get your core muscles stronger. Although, you could spend hours at the gym to get slightly less results if you want!
Less Pain
Feeling pain is part of life, but it shouldn’t be something that you accept. Benefits of deep breathing include less pain, whether it is from a headache or simply muscle aches. If you have been searching for pain management options, deep breathing should be at the top of your list. When you begin to breathe deeply, your blood will circulate throughout your body better.
Improved Immune System
Continuous stress, anxiety, low oxygen levels, and sleep deprivation are a few of the things that can cause your immune system to stop working properly. When this happens, you will notice that you are sick more often than you are not. There are so many things you can do to improve your immune system. The best of them all though is simply starting deep breathing exercises. As you now know, deep breathing can reduce stress and anxiety, increase oxygen levels, and even help you sleep better than ever before.
Improved Sleep
Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? How about staying asleep? Many people have difficulties with both those things. Now we want you to think about the quality of your sleep. Do you wake up after supposedly sleeping all night long and feel like you didn’t sleep a wink? That usually happens when you spend most of the night snoring, as well as tossing and turning. Doing deep breathing throughout the day can help stop your snoring and turn your nights into dream wonderlands.
Better Posture
Slumped over in a chair, hunched over a countertop preparing a meal, slouching while standing in line… These are all things we all do when we are stressed, tired, and even overwhelmed. You don’t even know you are doing these things, because your body has adjusted to these positions over time. Spending your days in positions where your posture is wrong is setting you up for a whole host of other issues in the future. To change that, you must start deep breathing exercises. When you are deep breathing all the time, you will have no choice but to have better posture. You can’t slouch over if you are taking a deep breath and filling your lungs to capacity.
To achieve the benefits of deep breathing, you do not need to practice deep breathing exercises all day long. You should start doing them a couple times a day though and work your way up to three or four times a day. That will allow you to really start seeing the benefits you desire.
It is important to understand that you won’t instantly see these benefits of deep breathing immediately. And some benefits may be seen sooner than others. It may take a little extra time to feel like your core muscles are stronger. The deep breathing exercises for anxiety will alleviate some of your anxiousness almost immediately though. If you give yourself enough time, and really keep up with your deep breathing, these benefits will be part of your everyday life. We guarantee you will feel much better and before you know it, shallow breathing will be a part of your past.