If you’re reading this, release your shoulders from your ears, unclench your jaw and remove your tongue from the roof of your mouth… take a deep breath into your belly expanding your ribs outwards… hold for 10 seconds… and breathe out.

Feels pretty good right? Fairly easy to do as well? So why don’t we do it often?

Deep breathing, also known as pranayama, is a practice within Hatha Yoga. Prana in Sanskrit means “life force” and ayama means “extending” or “stretching”. So, the word pranayama literally translates to “control of the life force”. 

We all know that breathing is just a tad bit vital for our lives… yet we do such a crappy job of it! It runs on autopilot in the background and we never really have to think about it. But just taking a few extra minutes out of your day to do deep breaths has so many profound benefits by having an impact on your physiology and your health.

Deep breathing is not only relaxing but it also has been scientifically proven to affect regulating blood pressure (yes please!), stimulating the brain and nervous system (hells yeah!), aiding in digestion (I mean, why not), boosting the immune system (sign me up already!), and dampening production of stress hormones, which is harmful to us in the long run (ok, you’ve sold me!).

Basically, slow, deep breathing stimulates the rest-and-repair response in our body (activation of our parasympathetic nervous system), which means our body has the ability to conserve energy and use it towards all the wonderful things I just mentioned. Rapid or shallow breathing causes a fight or flight response in our body (activation of the sympathetic nervous system), which translates to your body being in stress mode and eating up all the energy it needs to be able to do the normal functions it should be doing in the first place.

This is why, when we have high stress levels in our lives, our body wears out quickly and you start seeing signs of things falling apart in your body. Don’t get me wrong - it’s great to be in this mode when you’re being chased by a dog, a zombie apocalypse is happening, or you have a work deadline to meet - but it doesn’t sound like the best of ideas to be in this mode the majority of the time.

All it takes is a few minutes and a few easy steps…

Step 1 – breathe deeply through your nostrils. Feel the breath pushing the diaphragm down allowing the lungs to expand and gently forcing the abdomen outward. Then feel your chest to expand allowing your collar bones to rise at the end of the breath. Hold for 10 seconds or more if you can (don’t uncomfortably force yourself).

Step 2 – breathe out through your mouth. Feel the collar bones drop and chest deflate slowly. Allow the abdomen to shrink followed by the lungs as you empty out completely. Repeat.

Deep breathing is such a powerful tool in influencing our health and wellbeing and it’s free and so easy to do… so breeeeeeeeeaaaaaathe people, breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaathe!