There are so many different ways to breathe and bring about various health benefits through your breath. In talking with, and having the opportunity to guide my clients over the past 27 years, I have acquired some wonderful techniques in breathing.
Meditations, conscious breathing, inhalations and exhalations of various lengths; these all can make a difference with the amounts of oxygen and C02 in your body. What does this all mean in your life?
Here are some reasons to breathe through your nose
It:
1. Warms incoming air to 95 degrees F. This ensures your lungs receive warm air. If you have ever exercised in extreme cold weather you will understand how beneficial this is for your lungs – think frozen particles of water entering your lungs, not good.
2. Moisturizes and circulates the incoming air so that your sinuses, airways and lungs aren’t irritated by dry air. Ever lived in a desert? I do!
3. Pulls moisture from the surrounding air. A person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute. This means we breathe about 960 breaths an hour, 23,040 breaths a day, and 8,409,600 a year. So per minute, we breath in, or exchange .5 liters.
4. Filters incoming air of particles and debris during inhalation.
5. Keeps the area around your inner ear free of stagnation and debris.
6. Increases your immune system defenses in the nose by producing antibacterial molecules that clean the incoming air.
7. Stimulates the release of odiferous molecules, which attach to incoming molecules so that we can smell the quality of the air. It sensitizes us to surrounding air quality.
8. Brings air into the sphenoid sinuses to cool the pituitary gland and help regulate body temperature.
9. Keeps the nasal passages open from constant use.
10. Activates movement at several head and neck joints.
11. Helps to release tension in your jaw. The joints that are activated in your body are: the atlanto-occiptal joint, the atlanto-axial joint, the spehnobasilar joint and the sutures of the facial and head bones.
12. Lightens the head by filling the sinuses with air, relieving head tension and headaches.
13. Allows the air to pass by the structures that mark the center of the head, keeping your energetics balanced and centered.
14. Regulates the volume of CO2 released on the exhale. Since C02 is a bronchodilator and vasodilator, this allows an opening of your lungs.
15. Reduces anxiety.
16. Reduces snoring.
There you have it, 16 benefits of nose-breathing.
Looking for new techniques and other people that train in breath work? Wim Hof has some great tools to guide you further in your health and wellness.
TTFN
Colleen
