How many times in your lifetime have you heard the proverb ‘Health is Wealth’? More than a few times, right? But do you actually follow the advice ‘To a T’? In case you don’t, and if you are one of those people for whom ‘health’ is not a priority, it’s always the right time to get rid of that attitude and start focusing on your health. To begin with you can start with an easy to practice breathing exercise that neither requires you to step out of your home, nor are they too time consuming. Having said that, in this post we list some of the most important benefits of incorporating breathing exercise in your daily routine.
Helps Relax the Muscles
A stressful day at work, or a hectic workout often leads to muscle tension. Emotional stress is also one of the biggest causes of muscle tension. Practicing deep breathing exercise can help you increase the oxygen supply to the body’s cells and tissues, which in turn will help reduce muscle strain.
Improves Mental Concentration
Staying focused is one of the biggest challenges that many of us face. One of the reasons is that restricted and shallow breathing prevents adequate oxygen from reaching our brain cells, thereby hampering our ability to concentrate. Practicing deep breathing exercises helps reduce anxiety and improves concentration.
Helps Detoxify the Body
Our body releases 70 percent of its toxins through breathing. Each time we exhale, we release a part of our body’s waste in the form of carbon dioxide. Just the way deep inhaling helps cleanse the body by taking in more oxygen, deep exhaling helps in the elimination of toxins.
Improves Posture
You may not have realized this but our hectic work schedules and fast moving lives have conditioned us to take quick and shallow breaths. As a result our respiratory muscles weaken and our posture too, gets altered. Breathing exercises can help reverse the effect and though it wouldn’t happen overnight, but you will soon notice a change in your posture, for good.
Strengthens the Heart
As deep breathing increases oxygen supply in the body, it reduces the efforts that the heart would have otherwise put in delivering that extra amount of oxygen. Secondly, it helps increase blood circulation by creating a greater pressure differential in the lungs. This helps the heart rest a little.
Last Few Words
Practice deep breathing regularly to improve your health and well-being. The good thing is that you don’t have to spend a lot of time practicing it. Five to ten minutes a day is all you need. So, if you have been ignoring your health till now, it’s time that you start your deep breathing regimen.