If you ever took a science class, you know that breathing is an exchange of gas.
Cells use oxygen as fuel, expelling carbon dioxide as waste.
But there’s a trick to doing it right, claims Alan Dolan, the breath guru.
“The key is to breathe deeply into the abdomen using the diaphragm to expand breath,” he says.
Among the physical benefits is upping our breathing rates to 70 to 80 per cent and it delivers more oxygen to the lungs, improves energy levels, boosts the immune system and reduces stress.
“Most of us breathe in a disconnected fashion. We inhale, pause; exhale, pause. There should be no pauses, breath should flow,” explains Dolan.
Once we get our breath flowing, we experience a change in the body’s energy.
Our breath can become synchronized via entrainment, a basic physics theory.
When there are two or more frequencies (breath) in the same area, the lower frequency matches the higher increasing the body’s vibrational energy.
What type of breather are you?
Breathing through your upper chest agitates the autonomic nervous system and abdominal breathing relaxes it.
“Eighty per cent of people breathe through their upper chest, 20 per cent through their bellies,” says Dolan.
“Upper chest breathers take in shallow breaths using their shoulders rather than diaphragm and are more likely to be anxious or stressed. Belly breathers don’t go far up enough into the ribcage and upper chest.”
The key to avoiding energetic imbalance is to be somewhere in between.
