I am astonished at how important breathing is. Yes, I am serious. Breathing. I have a few examples for you in which I have come to this realization and proved it out. The 365 commitment led me down this path, as I am pushing myself hard enough to start to be seriously concerned about having enough energy to get everything done.
The first example is sitting at a desk all day. If you get stressed or too busy you tend to hunch over and not sit with your back straight. This restricts air flow and then slowly during the day you start to breath shallow and then your oxygen levels deplete and then you start to feel really tired.
The second example is during exercise, like running. When I run and I am not paying attention I might have bad posture, which leads to poor breathing, or perhaps I forget to focus on making sure I am getting my lungs full of air. I start to feel sluggish, my legs do not have energy and I am just slow.
The third example is going to sleep. When I force myself to meditate, the routine typically involves careful breathing – which causes me to feel better and sleep better. When I do not do this, I am going to bed tense, and may not remember how important breathing is and consequently, not as relaxed trying to go to sleep.
Breathing is such a simple thing, yet when you stop to think about it you realize how vital it is. Your spend every moment of your life breathing in or out. Getting oxygen into your blood stream and the by products out is a constant process of your circulatory system and a large portion of your body is dedicated to this. Your lungs, your circulation system are all based on the concept of getting oxygen to the body.
My meditation routine is helping me to focus on breathing and consequently I am finding energy, endurance, better sleep. I contribute that to many thing that I am doing, but I think just simply getting oxygen more efficiently into the blood stream may have a larger influence then I realize.
Guy Reams (338)
365 Member
