Breathe to Better Health

If you have visited Epoch Lincoln and been through your initial appointments, it is likely at some point during this time or throughout care we would have mentioned taking time out to focus on your breath.

You may have similar thoughts to me. I used to think breath work was a bit ‘out there’ and I didn’t really understand why I would take time to focus on my breathing, when it is something I did automatically. With so much on my ‘to do list’, taking time to sit still and think about my breathing just didn’t seem a priority. But often the things we find the hardest and feel the most resistance in doing, are the things that we should be doing, and that is something I remind myself when I take time to work on this area.

So why focus on our breath?

Our breathing has a direct link on a part of our nervous system, called the autonomic nervous system. This is the subconscious part of our brain and nerves that keep us alive, it balances our stress response with our rest and digest response. Known as our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

When we are stressed our body feels like it is threatened. This is when the sympathetic nervous system kicks in, it will prime the body for action by increasing the heart rate and shallowing and shortening the breath. Therefore, we are able to run or fight.

The problem is, staying here can cause damage to the body long term as it is always working harder. Imagine I put you on a treadmill and turned up the pace, you wouldn’t last as long…

With the modern world ‘on the go’ all the time we often stay, unbeknown to us, in the stress response. And here is where we have the power to change that with our breath, not only to relax but to improve our long-term health.

Taking time to slow the breath and focus on how we are breathing can initiate and wake up the parasympathetic nervous system, this is our rest and digest response. When this is working we heal quicker, digest better, and make wiser decisions. It is essential to be able to stay in a parasympathetic response to achieve full health.

It is so important that it is one of the main tests we do at Epoch, the Heart Rate Variability (stress test) measures the variation in your heart, which like the breathing, is a measure of these sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Just like slow and deep breathing is better for you than shallow fast breathing. A varied and rhythmical heartbeat is better than a fast and erratic one.

So, if you want to maximise your health alongside your chiropractic care, why not try some deep breathing and focused breath work? If you are not sure where to start, which is how I felt, then I would highly recommend checking out our dear friend and breath work coach Charlie Moult.

It is definitely a work in progress for me, but I have started to feel the benefits after doing breath work consistently over the last couple of months and hopefully you will feel them too.

Here is to better breathing!

With Love,
Sarah